“There are no technological or economic barriers to converting the entire world to clean, renewable energy sources. It is a question of whether we have the societal and political will.” 1 FORWARD FUND: THE TIME IS NOW It’s true. Existing solar, wind, efficiency, electric vehicle, and storage technologies are completely sufficient to power the United States with clean energy—and in many parts of the country, these technologies are already cheaper than conventional dirty fuels. Clean energy will continue to drop in price, improve, and advance, while fossil fuels become costlier, dirtier, and harder to access. Yet still—oil, coal, and gas companies make billions of dollars, dump carbon dioxide into the air, and push to pollute more communities and our remaining wild places. The climate crisis creates a new moral imperative and an incredible opportunity: end our dependence on dirty fossil fuels and replace them with clean energy solutions, as quickly as possible. PHOTO: The Forward Fund was a critical seed funder of the September 21st People’s Climate March, helping leverage 10 times the initial investment in additional funding for what became the biggest and most successful climate event in history. Funding for community organizing and a historically diverse collaboration drew unprecedented numbers (more than 400,000) to the streets of New York City, and put the power of the people behind clean energy solutions like never before.
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FORWARD FUND: THE TIME IS NOW · 2015. 6. 19. · launched a seemingly impossible campaign: to take on every proposed coal plant. Now, with close to 200 proposed plants abandoned
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“There are no technological or economic barriers to converting the entire world to clean, renewable
energy sources. It is a question of whether we have the societal and political will.”1
FORWARD FUND: THE TIME IS NOW
It’s true. Existing solar, wind, efficiency, electric vehicle, and storage technologies are
completely sufficient to power the United States with clean energy—and in many parts of
the country, these technologies are already cheaper than conventional dirty fuels. Clean
energy will continue to drop in price, improve, and advance, while fossil fuels become
costlier, dirtier, and harder to access.
Yet still—oil, coal, and gas companies make billions of dollars, dump carbon dioxide into the
air, and push to pollute more communities and our remaining wild places.
The climate crisis creates a new moral imperative and an incredible opportunity: end our
dependence on dirty fossil fuels and replace them with clean energy solutions, as quickly as
possible.
PHOTO: The Forward Fund was a critical seed funder of the September 21st People’s Climate March, helping leverage 10 times the initial
investment in additional funding for what became the biggest and most successful climate event in history. Funding for community
organizing and a historically diverse collaboration drew unprecedented numbers (more than 400,000) to the streets of New York City,
and put the power of the people behind clean energy solutions like never before.
“For many of the toughest problems we now face, simply investing in incremental improvements and proven approaches will not be enough. We need to
experiment and find new solutions that have the potential to create transformative change.”2
A NEW APPROACH TO PHILANTHROPY
As the heirs of the Rockefeller family fortune move to divest from fossil fuels and embrace clean energy, we are
witnessing the birth of a new philanthropic model, one where traditional non-governmental organizations (NGOs),
tech-driven businesses, and investors are coming together to figure out ways to get money into the right hands for
the right reasons in the timeframe required to solve the climate crisis—and the Forward Fund is fueling this push with
strategic investments across the sector:
▪ Mindshare: media, digital strategies, and online/offline organizing to build public will for clean energy ▪ Marketshare: policy, litigation, and organizing to get more megawatts of wind and solar online faster; get
more electric vehicles on the road; and bring energy efficiency programs to scale ▪ International funding directly to NGOs in the developing world to help leapfrog fossil fuels altogether ▪ Program-related investments (PRIs) to finance new technology, infrastructure, and collaborations
THIS IS JUST A START
As efforts to end our addiction to fossil fuels are working, the coal, oil, and gas industries are fighting back and
threatening to stall or erase progress on clean energy fronts. The Forward Fund is in a unique position—organized by
The Sierra Club Foundation and advised by industry, NGO, and philanthropic leaders—to find the strategic policy,
public opinion, technology, and collaboration levers that are ripe for investment. The people, programs, and
organizations we fund are driven by innovation, collaboration, and a solutions-based approach. We are interested in
funding work that is unlikely to get the needed seed funding from other sources, but is able to grow quickly to a
larger effort with additional financial support once a track record of success is established.
So far, in our first year of funding, the results have been promising (Appendix 1). We built a national celebration of
the potential for clean energy as the early investor in the People’s Climate March. We're helping clean energy
advocates get more wind energy sited in New York State and across New England. We’re discovering how the power
of electric vehicle sales can protect historic fuel economy standards in key states. And we’re investing in online
organizing tools that are shaping the way we mobilize public will for clean energy.
WE NEED RISK CAPITAL
In 2005, the coal industry was planning to build a massive fleet of new coal-fired power plants that would kill
mounting efforts by wind and solar companies to compete in the marketplace, effectively wiping out any hope of
lowering carbon emissions. In response, a handful of lawyers at the Sierra Club, along with a few visionary funders,
launched a seemingly impossible campaign: to take on every proposed coal plant. Now, with close to 200 proposed
plants abandoned and more than 180 existing plants closed or announced for retirement, coal is on the ropes in the
United States. Just as those early funders in the coal campaign believed in taking risks and dreaming big, we envision
a cadre of Forward Fund investors who have a similar risk-reward profile.
The Forward Fund was born out of this epic struggle, and we are in a unique position to see
what needs to happen next.
We've helped train hundreds of staff and thousands of activists on how to stop coal, and now that coal plants are
shutting down, we need to help them and their communities fill the void with solutions that create good green jobs
and jumpstart local economies. To avoid having these victories reversed or having decision-makers move us to natural
gas instead of renewables, we need to increase pro-solutions advocacy in places where the economics are right and
there is opportunity to create examples of clean energy leadership.
Over the next five years, a new generation of investors and philanthropists can join the Forward Fund in seeding new
small ideas with big potential in cities and states across the country and overseas, like ensuring:
▪ California is on track to have 18,000 megawatts (MW) of behind-the-meter rooftop solar installed (compared to 2,000 MW today) and doubling California’s renewable energy mandate to 66 percent by 2030;
▪ New York implements a strong Renewable Portfolio Standard leading to 50% of the state's electricity coming from clean sources by 2025, setting a precedent for increased offshore wind power throughout the Northeast;
▪ The City and County of San Diego adopts an enforceable plan to get to 100 percent clean energy by 2035 and becomes a pilot plan for other cities;
▪ Indian NGOs and businesses help leapfrog the grid and reach 150 million people with solar energy;
▪ Wind power tax credits effectively keep wind-generated megawatts growing;
▪ Start-ups solve a host of electric vehicle charging and smart-meter infrastructure needs;
▪ Institutions like the University of North Carolina and University of Illinois divest in fossil fuels and re-invest in solutions; and
▪ municipalities and states curb energy use by implementing strong energy efficient building codes
A SOLID OPPORTUNITY
The Forward Fund is managed by The Sierra Club Foundation (TSCF). With our partner the Sierra Club, we work with
thousands of local groups, businesses, civic leaders, policy experts, entrepreneurs, and funders in more than 400
communities in the United States and in seven other countries. Through this network of eyes and ears on the ground,
we know where the highest-leverage opportunities are. What’s more, TSCF has a solid reputation for stewarding
charitable contributions and assets responsibly, having earned repeated four-star ratings from the nonprofit
watchdog Charity Navigator, as well as an A+ from the American Institute of Philanthropy. TSCF is also an accredited
charity in good standing with the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance, meeting all 20 Standards for Charity
Accountability.
In the final analysis, TSCF spends 90 cents of every dollar directly on environmental and conservation programs.
Strategic philanthropy (focused, sustained, and results-oriented) is the hallmark of TSCF’s approach to social and
environmental change. TSCF is also committed to investment in solutions, divesting in fossil fuels, and finding the
right opportunities for re-investment in clean energy. TSCF is in a unique position to accomplish two imperatives: 1)
seed important, transitional, and experimental efforts across the environmental and clean energy movements to
promote, site, and increase public demand for clean energy; and 2) provide funding to catalyze new strategies and
transformational ideas for bringing clean energy to scale across the country.
“As an entrepreneur, my inclination is to focus what resources I can on the opportunity side of the
equation (while very much valuing the efforts that must occur to stop counterproductive initiatives).”3
THE POWER OF COLLABORATION
The Forward Fund benefits from The Sierra Club Foundation’s decades of leadership in movement building and
diversifying the constituent base of clean energy supporters. The Fund’s core advisors (Appendix 2) and larger group
of stakeholders are part of a vibrant group of clean-tech businesses and their customers. They are members of the
global solutions network, called RE 100%, that is sharing strategy, stories, and lessons learned about solutions
campaigning from across the globe. They helped found the BlueGreen Alliance, and continue to work with organized
labor across the country on shared priorities. In places that are transitioning from dirty power to clean energy—like
California, the Northeast, and Appalachia—they’ve helped build partnerships with hundreds of low-income
community organizations, churches, community centers, and public officials to work on energy efficiency and
solar/wind projects that provide local job opportunities and training.
The Forward Fund principals and advisors are a unique cross-section of industry and environmental NGO leadership.
They benefit from an insider’s knowledge of unique investment opportunities that are also the kind of seed programs
needed to drive the new clean energy economy. We have a visionary anchor funder who has led efforts to date. We
are looking for the next set of funders who can expand these efforts three-fold over the next five years, creating a
truly collaborative funding community that will maximize the leverage of the Forward Fund and the projects we fund.
FUNDING AND ALLOCATION
Our immediate goal is to raise $7.5 million dollars over five years (Appendix 3). To date, most of the large climate
funders are focusing their resources on confrontational campaigns that directly target the fossil fuel industry. While
this work is imperative to take dirty megawatts offline, the Forward Fund appeals to a different, more solutions-
oriented type of investor.
Our funding strategy is based on raising and spending relatively small investments with big impacts that enable the
funds’ recipient to hire staff, conduct critical research, or perform specific programmatic work to advance clean
energy goals. Grants generally range from $100,000–200,000, with the understanding that these funds are part of an
overall fundraising plan that will leverage our investment into significant additional dollars as the funded program
establishes a track record of success.
We also provide smaller grants in the $25,000 range to community- and state-based organizations and international
NGOs in the developing world where modest investments can have a large social ROI. Funding so far has been
allocated roughly one-third to mindshare-based projects and two-thirds to marketshare-based projects, all of which
have been domestic. We anticipate growing our international and PRI funding strategy over the next few years,
tapping into TSCF’s proven track record of direct grantmaking to NGOs in the developing world. Further, we intend to
launch several PRIs, likely focused on the developing world. That said, the lion’s share of investments will continue to
be allocated domestically, since U.S. climate leadership is imperative to meaningful global action.
JOIN US: BECOME A FORWARD FUND INVESTOR
There is great potential throughout the country, as well as overseas, to create the future we all want for our families
and our communities.
While some of the larger climate funders remain focused (with good reason) on aggressively confronting fossil fuels,
we see room for a fresh, complementary approach. Over the next five years, a new generation of investors and
philanthropists can join the Forward Fund in seeding new clean energy solutions campaigns. With relatively small
investments, you can help harness the power of entrepreneurial businesses and charitable advocacy to make
significant change happen in this generation, an investment future generations are counting on us to make.
To learn more about supporting the Forward Fund, contact Peter Martin at [email protected]. Investors
will receive semi-annual reports on funds expended and results achieved.
ENDNOTES
1 - Mark Z. Jacobson and Cristina L. Archer; Saturation wind power potential and its implications for wind energy, Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences September 25, 2012 Vol. 109 No. 39: 15679–15684 (http://www.stanford.edu/group/efmh/jacobson/Articles/I/SatWindPot2012.pdf)
2 - Monitor Institute, Despite All the Buzz About Innovation, Foundations Are Playing It Too Safe, by Gabriel Kasper and Justin Marcoux