Collaborative Action Fund for Accountability, Resilience, and Adaptation (CAF) is a climate litigation group that sues businesses for their environmental impacts.

It is a fiscally sponsored project of Resources Legacy Fund (RLF), a left-of-center grantmaking organization that connects wealthy donors to climate change nonprofits and initiatives. RLF primarily funds land conservation efforts and advocacy groups.

Background

Collaborative Action Fund pursues “precedent-setting lawsuits” against major businesses to recoup purported social costs of those companies’ environmental impacts. Its activities are informed by the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) movement that endeavors to exert left-of-center social and political control over the private sector. ¹

Resources Legacy Fund, the fiscal sponsor of CAF, claims to have generated $30 billion in government funding for public lands and to have protected over five million acres of land. ²

Finances

As a project of Resources Legacy Fund, CAF does not have its own budget. Instead, donors allocate funds to it through RLF. In 2021, RLF had total revenue of $84,084,998, expenses of $63,195,737, and ended the year with net assets of $121,939,084. ³

Funding

RLF itself was founded with seed funding from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and receives grants from major left-of-center grant making organizations like the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and Walton Family Foundation. ⁴

The MacArthur Foundation specifically earmarked a $3,000,000 grant for CAF in 2017. ⁵

In 2021, New Venture Fund gave CAF a $150,000 grant for general support. New Venture Fund is a left-of-center pass-through group and nonprofit incubator that is managed by power Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm Arabella Advisors. ⁶

The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, as well as the Emmett Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and the JPB Foundation have given CAF funds since 2017. ⁷

1. “Resources Legacy Fund.” MacArthur Foundation. Accessed September 28, 2023. https://www.macfound.org/grantee/resources-legacy-fund-10114587/.
2. “Our Story.” Resources Legacy Fund. Accessed September 28, 2023. https://resourceslegacyfund.org/our-story/.
3. Return of Organizations Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990). Resources Legacy Fund. 2021. Part I, lines 12, 18, 22.
4.  “Our Story.” Resources Legacy Fund. Accessed September 28, 2023. https://resourceslegacyfund.org/our-story/.
5. “Resources Legacy Fund.” MacArthur Foundation. Accessed September 28, 2023. https://www.macfound.org/grantee/resources-legacy-fund-10114587/.
6. “For the Collective Action Fund.” New Venture Fund. Accessed September 29, 2023. https://hewlett.org/grants/new-venture-fund-for-the-collective-action-fund-for-accountability-resilience-and-adaptation/
7. Catenacci, Thomas. “Leonardo DiCaprio funneled grants through dark money group to fund climate nuisance lawsuits, emails show.” Fox News. August 15, 2022. Accessed September 29, 2023. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/leonardo-dicaprio-funneled-grants-dark-money-group-fund-climate-nuisance-lawsuits-emails-show.