Better Future Project

Background

Better Future Project was founded in 2011 by college students to campaign in support of environmentalist initiatives on college campuses. In 2012, it founded 350 Mass, also known as 350 Mass for a Better Future, a state organization of 350.org. 350 Mass has since grown to have over 18 local chapters called “nodes.” ¹

In 2012, Better Future Project founded Divest Ed, a project that organizes campaigns on college campuses across New England that advocates for colleges to “divestment” of funds in conventional energy companies. Then, in 2018, Better Future Project founded its project Communities Responding to Extreme Weather (CREW) to organize environmentalist campaigns. ¹

350 Mass

Founded in 2012, 350 Mass is a fiscally sponsored project of Better Future Project and child organization of 350.org that campaigns for weather-dependent energy use. It is organized through “nodes,” local chapters throughout Massachusetts that convene and organize environmental activism in their communities. It also has a Statewide Steering Team that develops statewide strategy. ²

Make Polluters Pay

350 Mass is a supporter of the campaign Make Polluters Pay alongside Better Future Project, Communities Responding to Extreme Weather, and Mass Youth Climate Coalition (MYCC). ³ Make Polluters Pay is a coalition of environmental activist organizations that advocate for conventional energy companies to pay fines and taxes for their alleged role in causing climate change. ⁴ It has petitioned Massachusetts to establish a Climate Change Adaptation Superfund through an executive order or legislation that seeks to raise $75 billion from energy companies through taxes and fines to be used for environmental disaster relief. ⁵

Save Money with Clean Heat Campaign

Save Money with Clean Heat is a 350 Mass campaign that seeks to make all homes in Massachusetts produce no carbon emissions by 2050. ³ In support of this goal, Save Money with Clean Heat has supported legislation to stop natural gas pipeline projects, for home energy subsidies to be based on evaluations that require homes to produce zero carbon emissions, increased regulation on gas companies, and for the creation of a “climate bank” to provide financing for environmentalist projects. ^{6 7 8 9}

Communities Responding to Extreme Weather (CREW)

Communities Responding to Extreme Weather is a project of Better Future Project that hosts environmental activist training and panels where members discuss how the identity politics concept of intersectionality can be applied to environmental advocacy. Its Intersectionality Panels discuss how issues associated with race, class, gender, and minority issues should set a basis for which environmental and social issues take priority over others. The panels also use intersectionality to decide how social issues should be addressed within environmental advocacy. ^{10 11}

In September 2022, CREW published a study titled, “Extreme Weather and Social Connectedness: A report to the Tisch College Community Research Center.” The study investigated select Boston, Massachusetts neighborhoods to evaluate the extent to which and quality of environmental issues were discussed socially. The purpose of the study is to assist environmental advocacy groups understand how they can more effectively compel social conversations to occur more frequently in communities. ¹²

Other Activities

In 2017, natural gas producer Energy Transfer initiated a lawsuit against Greenpeace related to its actions organizing protests that resulted in thousands of protestors blocking access to its Dakota Access Pipeline. The lawsuit was initially dismissed, but Energy Transfer filed a similar one in 2019 that later began trial in February 2025, alleging that delays caused by the protestors resulted in $300 million in increased costs. The lawsuit accuses Greenpeace of promoting false information about the pipeline being on tribal land and “inadequately” consulting tribal leaders that led to the disruptions caused by the protestors. ¹³

In response to the lawsuit, Better Future Project co-signed a letter written by Greenpeace claiming that the lawsuit was “an abuse of the legal system and a blatant attempt to silence legitimate work” to support environmental causes. It added that the protestors in question were led by indigenous leaders instead of Greenpeace and claimed that the protestors were not affiliated with Greenpeace. Additionally, it claimed that if the protestors are held liable, then future environmentalist protests would be deterred. ¹⁴

Leadership

Alan Palm is the executive director of Better Future Project. Palm previously worked for Alliance for Climate Education, where he trained high schoolers to engage in environmentalist activism. ¹⁵

Financials

In 2023, Better Future Project reported $710,439 in revenue. It also reported $747,266 in total expenses, including $493,489 in salaries and compensation of employees. ¹⁶