Environmental Defenders Collaborative is a left-of-center project of the Global Greengrants Fund designed to provide financial support to environmental activists. ¹ The organization was founded in 2017 through pooled funding by the Cold Mountain Fund, the Overbrook Foundation, Wallace Global Fund, and the Mott Foundation. ²

Finances

As a project of the Global Greengrants Fund, Environmental Defenders Collaborative does not independently report its finances to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). However, the organization lists Global Greengrants Fund, Ben & Jerry’s Foundation, Sall Family Foundation, Growald Climate Fund, Waverly Street Foundation, Overbrook Foundation, 11^th Hour Project, Climate and Land Use Alliance, Ford Foundation, Full Circle Foundation, Dunn Family Charitable Foundation, CS fund, David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Mott Foundation, the Christensen Fund, and Oceankind as its primary financial supporters. ³

Financial Support to Individual Activists

Since 2017, the Environmental Defenders Collaborative has provided $575,000 in financial support to environmentalist activists across the world. ⁴ This financial support can include security, relocation, and legal assistance for activists and their families. ⁵

Financial Support to Environmentalist Organizations

In addition to supporting individual activists, the Environmental Defenders Collaborative provides financial support to foreign environmentalist organizations across the world. ⁶

Environmental Defenders Collaborative refers to this program as its “cultural survival” grantmaking program and states that it can receive grant application requests in nearly a dozen indigenous languages. ⁷

The organization has provided funding in numerous countries, including South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Peru. ⁸ In South Africa, the Environmental Defenders Collaborative has financially supported environmentalist activists who oppose mining, oil and gas development, and projects such as toll roads. ⁹ In Peru, the Environmental Defenders Collaborative has funded a legal clinic to assist activists ¹⁰ who oppose the development of land within rain forests. ¹¹

Current partner organizations supported by the Environmental Defenders Collaborative include Environmental Defender Law Center, Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide, Accountability Counsel, Asociación Interamericana para la Defensa del Ambiente, Bank Information Center, Coalition for Human Rights in Development, Earthworks, Mining Watch Canada, and Rhizome. ¹²

Leadership

Alison Wright is the director of the Environmental Defenders Collaborative. ¹³ Prior to joining the organization, she was a consultant for the Mexico Conservation Funders, Tamalpais Trust, and Fondo Acción Solidaria of Mexico. ¹⁴ Prior to that, she was a legal consultant for the Environmental Defender Law Center. ¹⁵

Wright holds a law degree from the Seattle University School of Law and Bachelor of Arts in political science and environmental studies from the University of Colorado at Boulder. ¹⁶

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