Sunrise Project

Background

The Sunrise Project has its roots in Sunrise Project Australia, which was formed in 2012 by Australian John Hepburn. He previously worked for Greenpeace. The project eventually began to expand globally, and in 2022 a legally separate U.S. affiliate was formed under the name Project Sunrise. The group has rapidly grown to have an annual budget of over $30 million, and it disperses roughly two thirds of its funding as secondary grants to other organizations in the U.S. and around the world. ^{5 2 3}

Prior to the official formation of the Sunrise Project as the U.S. branch, the group became ensnared in the 2016 leak by Wikileaks of Democratic operative John Podesta’s emails. These leaks revealed that Hepburn had emailed the Sandler Foundation with concerns about attempts within Australia to force environmental groups to reveal their funders. The Sandler Foundation then forwarded the email to Podesta expressing concern and disclosing that it was a funder of the organization. In another email to Podesta, Hepburn expressed concern that the groups funders and grantees might be revealed to the public. ⁶

Financials

For 2023, the Sunrise Project reported $33,276,881 in revenue, of which $33,004,379 stemmed from contributions and grants. This revenue is over three times the amount received in 2022, which amounted to just under $10 million. It reported $36,014,694 in expenses, of which $17,199,517 was paid out in grants, $11,775,855 paid out in salary and compensation, $345,642 for advertising, $643,318 for travel, and $291,104 for conferences. It ended the year with a net loss of $2,737,813 and net assets of $2,448,173. ⁷

The project did not report any government funding for 2023. ⁸

Global Network

The Sunrise Project is one of three members of an international Sunrise network pursuing an integrated strategy to promote its climate agenda and eliminate fossil fuels. The groups are legally distinct, with the original Sunrise Project having been founded in Australia, with more recent affiliates in the United States and the Netherlands. ¹

While the groups are legally distinct, their actions are portrayed as coordinated and united in documents like annual reports. The Sunrise Project’s report for 2023, for example, displays the budget not for the U.S. affiliate, but rather for all three affiliates and in Australian dollars rather than U.S. dollars. ⁹

Organization Philosophy

The Sunrise Project considers climate change to be a “crisis” and works to force a global shift away from the use of oil and gas. ¹⁰

In addition to the project’s left-of-center views and activism when it comes to environmental issues, the Sunrise Project also fully embraces the left-of-center framing of race and sexuality. It states that it prioritizes “justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion” (JEDI). ¹¹ This commitment includes anti-racist and unconscious bias trainings for employees, an understanding of fossil fuel harvesting as being neocolonial, and an embrace of a framework of “structural injustice” to understand the world. ¹¹

Projects and Initiatives

The Sunrise Project positions itself as a central hub for climate activism. To this end, one of its main functions is to distribute grants around the world to organizations that it believes fit into its global change strategy. The project receives tens of millions of dollars in grants and then regrants roughly two-thirds of the funds out. ^{1 3}

In addition to its grant strategy, the project also runs a specific initiative aimed at cajoling various aspects of international finance into cutting out traditional energy providers from finance markets and to facilitate weather-dependent energy projects instead. These efforts include targeting and pressuring insurers, asset managers, private banks, central banks, private equity, bond markets, and automakers to shut out the oil and gas industry. ⁴

Leadership

Sam La Rocca is the executive director of the Sunrise Project, a position he has held since 2024. Between 2020 and 2024 he was the co-executive director, and has worked at the Sunrise Project since 2016. He previously worked at several environmental activist groups in Australia. ¹²

John Hepburn is the founder of Project Sunrise and the executive director of Project Sunrise Australia. He has a long history of involvement in left-of-center environmental activism and previously worked for Greenpeace. ⁵