The Hive Fund, also known as the Hive Fund for Climate and Gender Justice, is a left-of-center grantmaking organization that provides funds to left-of-center nonprofits run by women, racial minorities, and “gender nonconforming people” devoted to transitioning away from conventional fuels in favor of weather-dependent energy. ^{1  3  4}

History and Activities

The Hive Fund was founded in 2019 as a climate change-focused philanthropy organization that provided funding to racial minorities, women, and “gender-nonconforming people.” The organization claims such people are disproportionately impacted by pollution, face “systemic disparities,” and are the groups “driving an equitable transition” to a weather-dependent energy system. ¹

The Hive Fund focuses its projects in the southern United States, which it claims is the home of “powerful, globally connected environmental and climate justice movements,” and is also the center of the American oil and gas industry that has expanded “polluting facilities” in racial minority communities. The organization argues that transitioning to weather-dependent energies demands redistributing political power. ¹

The Hive Fund is devoted to the left-of-center principle of equity and contends that racial minorities, women, and non-cisgender people face white supremacy and misogyny in the modern United States. ⁵

The Hive Fund provides grants to organizations devoted to three goals: transitioning to weather-dependent energy, ending the use of conventional fuels, and strengthening “people power to advance climate solutions.” ⁶

Activism and Controversies

In 2020, the Hive Fund was reportedly linked to an advocacy campaign to pressure the Biden administration against the use of liquefied natural gas. ⁷

In September 2021, Arizona State University (ASU) student and Hive Fund activist Sarra Tekola and another ASU student, Mastaani Quresh, filmed themselves confronting and verbally harassing two white students in a room on campus that Tekola had campaigned to be designated as a “multicultural center,” saying that the white students’ presence “made the space uncomfortable.” According to a report by AZ Free News, the room had not yet been designated as a multicultural center at the time of the altercation. In November, both Tekola and Quresh were found guilty of violating the school’s code of conduct and interfering in university activities, according to the Arizona Board of Regents.  ^{8  9}

People

The co-directors of the Hive Fund are Melanie Allen and Erin Rogers. ¹⁰

Allen has been a co-director of the Hive Fund since it was founded in 2019. Previously, she was a network officer with the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation, a conservation and diversity director at Conservation Trust, a conservation and diversity director for Conservation Trust for North Carolina, a program manager for Bridging the Gap-Keep Kansas City Beautiful, and a community organizer for Obama for America in 2008. ¹¹

Rogers has likewise been a co-director of the Hive Fund since it was founded in 2019. Previously, she was a program officer of the environment program at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation; an outreach manager of climate, energy and vehicle programs, as well as the director of the western region climate and energy program at the Union of Concerned Scientists; and a state outreach coordinator and lobbyist for the Texas chapter of the Sierra Club. ¹²

In its 2025 Impact Report, the Hive Fund said that Rogers would be stepping down as co-director at the end of 2025 and Allen would become the Hive Fund’s CEO. ⁶

Financials

The Hive Fund states that it has received funding from a large number of left-of-center nonprofits, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Climate Imperative Foundation, the David Rockefeller Fund, the Foundation for a Just Society, Gay for Giving, the Kresge Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. ⁴

The Hive Fund is also reportedly funded by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. ¹³

The Hive Fund is a fiscally sponsored project of the Windward Fund, an environmentalist fiscal sponsor organization in the network of “dark money” organizations controlled by the philanthropic consultancy Arabella Advisors. However, according to Candid, as of November 2025, the Hive Fund had independently received a single grant of $10 million in the most recent five years of tax data. ⁶

¹⁴

In its 2025 Impact Report, the Hive Fund stated it had intended to award $20 million in grants that year to 140 grantees, with 71 percent of grants going to “groups led by women and gender-nonconforming people of color.” ⁶

As of November 2025, the Hive Fund claims to have given $100 million in grants since its first grant in 2020. ⁶

In 2025, the Hive Fund received a grant from Yield Giving, MacKenzie Scott’s philanthropic initiative started in 2022. Scott is the former wife of Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos and gave over $7.16 billion to various organizations in 2025. ¹⁵

1. “About Us.” The Hive Fund. Accessed November 18, 2025. https://hivefund.org/about
3. “Hive Fund Impact Report 2025.” The Hive Fund. Accessed November 18, 2025. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5d6d29ecf8d59d00010ff612/t/68d48c74734e4c3e2616a6f3/1758760052760/Hive+Impact+Report+2025_FINAL.pdf. [/note

   The Hive Fund is a fiscally sponsored project of the Windward Fund, an environmentalist fiscal sponsor organization in the network of “dark money” organizations controlled by the philanthropic consultancy Arabella Advisors. Hive Fund has received funding from left-of-center nonprofits, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Climate Imperative Foundation, the David Rockefeller Fund, the Foundation for a Just Society, the MacArthur Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.   ² “Hive Fund Impact Report 2025.” The Hive Fund. Accessed November 18, 2025. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5d6d29ecf8d59d00010ff612/t/68d48c74734e4c3e2616a6f3/1758760052760/Hive+Impact+Report+2025_FINAL.pdf.

4. “Current Funders.” The Hive Fund. Accessed November 18, 2025. https://cello-hexaflexagon-sd2ei.squarespace.com/current-funders.
5. “Our Values.” The Hive Fund. Accessed November 18, 2025. https://hivefund.org/our-values.
6. “Hive Fund Impact Report 2025.” The Hive Fund. Accessed November 18, 2025. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5d6d29ecf8d59d00010ff612/t/68d48c74734e4c3e2616a6f3/1758760052760/Hive+Impact+Report+2025_FINAL.pdf.
7. Kaminsky, Gabe. “How a billionaire Democrat fueled the Biden anti-LNG pressure campaign while placing lucrative bets on China.” Washington Examiner. February 22, 2024. Accessed November 18, 2025. https://www.influencewatch.org/person/jeff-bezos/.
8. Colton, Emma. “ASU students found guilty after harassing White students slam college’s punishment: ‘Actually violent.” Fox News, January 4, 2022. Accessed November 18, 2025. https://www.foxnews.com/us/asu-students-reprimanded-white-students-multicultural-center-school-openly-discriminated
9. “ASU’s Viral Antiracist Activist Featured In Daily Wire’s “Am I Racist” Mockumentary.” AZ Free News. September 20, 2024. Accessed November 18, 2025. https://azfreenews.com/2024/09/asus-viral-antiracist-activist-featured-in-daily-wires-am-i-racist-mo.
10. “Our Team.” The Hive Fund. Accessed November 18, 2025. https://hivefund.org/staff.
11. “Mleanie Allen (She/Her).” LinkedIn. Accessed November 18, 2025. https://www.linkedin.com/in/melall-in-cj/details/experience/.
12. “Erin Rogers (She/Her).” LinkedIn. Accessed November 18, 2025. https://www.linkedin.com/in/erincrogers/.
13. Morenne, Benoit and Andrew Restuccia. “How the Rockefellers and Billionaire Donors Pressured Biden on LNG Exports.” Wall Street Journal. February 8, 2024. Accessed November 18, 2025. https://www.wsj.com/us-news/climate-environment/how-the-rockefellers-and-billionaire-donors-pressured-biden-on-lng-exports-c1bf0ff8.
14. “Hive Fund for Climate and Gender Justice.” Candid. Accessed November 18, 2025. https://app.candid.org/profile/15440042/hive-fund-for-climate-and-gender-justice.
15. Scott, MacKenzie. “‘we Are the Ones We’ve Been Waiting for’ – Essays.” Yield Giving, December 9, 2025. https://yieldgiving.com/essays/we-are-the-ones-we-ve-been-waiting-for/.