Third Act is a left-of-center advocacy group founded by environmentalist Bill McKibben in 2021 in order to organize elderly volunteers into protesting and campaigning for environmentalist and electoral policies. It advocates for a total transition towards weather-based energy sources and has organized campaigns that allege voter identification laws only exist to prevent an increase in Democratic Party voters. ^{1 2}

Third Act is a fiscally sponsored project of the environmentalist group Sustainable Markets Foundation. ³

Third Act organized a demonstration in March 2023 in Washington, D.C. at which elderly volunteers emphatically cut up credit cards to call for a boycott of banks that work with conventional energy companies and advocated total elimination of conventional energy use. ⁴

Background

Third Act is a fiscally sponsored project of environmentalist nonprofit group Sustainable Markets Foundation. Third Act’s donation webpage also accepts donations to Third Act that are not tax deductible because it participates in election-related advocacy. ⁵

Third Act recruits elderly volunteers to engage in protests advocating for environmentalism and in support of left-of-center policies. It states that donations are used to pay organizers to plan protests as well as provide food and “materials” for elderly volunteers. In 2022, Third Act reported having over 40,000 active volunteers. ⁵

Advocacy

Third Act advocates for policies such as the Paris Climate Agreement to end the use of conventional energy sources and for a total transition to weather-dependent energy. In addition to supporting environmentalist policies, Third Act advocates for individuals to boycott banks that provide loans to conventional energy companies as a way for environmentalist activists to support the elimination of conventional energy use. ¹

Third Act has a webpage dedicated to a calculator that allegedly calculates the amount of carbon emissions individuals are responsible for based on how much money they have in an account, depending on what bank they have and how much each bank supposedly funds conventional energy projects. It uses the calculator to condemn banks and individuals who use banks that work with conventional energy companies. ⁶

In March 2023, Third Act organized a protest where senior citizen activists held a protest on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., protesting banks that do business with conventional energy companies. Participants went so far as to cut up credit cards to dramatize their push for individuals to boycott such banks. ⁴ Third Act reports that it held over 100 protests across 30 states, calling for a boycott of Bank of America, Chase, Citibank, and Wells Fargo if they do not end their accounts with conventional energy companies. It also reported that activists spammed the fax machines of the banks as part of the protest. ⁷

Third Act’s website states that it campaigns against election integrity laws. It criticizes voter identification laws and restrictions on mail-in voting as so-called attacks on an alleged increases in Democratic voters. ²

On March 30, 2025, former Wall Street Journal journalist Asra Nomani posted a thread on her X (formerly Twitter) profile which listed Third Act among several nonprofit organizations and activist groups that were allegedly involved with planning and taking part in #TeslaTakedown, a series of nationwide protests targeting car company Tesla over its CEO Elon Musk‘s ties to the Second Trump Administration. ⁸

In June 2025, Third Act participated in organizing or supporting protests branded under the “#NoKings” banner, a national day of demonstrations positioned as a defense of democratic norms against President Donald Trump. These events were part of a larger mobilization involving over 70 Democratic Party affiliates and allied organizations across at least 19 U.S. states and multiple international locations, according to publicly available event listings on Mobilize.us, a Democratic Party-aligned organizing platform. ^{9 10}

Leadership

Heather Booth is the chair of Third Act as of 2022. ¹¹ Booth founded pro-abortion group JANE in 1965, served as the director of the NAACP National Voter Fund in 2000, and helped found the Campaign for Comprehensive Immigration Reform in 2005. ¹²

Third Act is run by an Advisory Council, whose lead advisor is Akaya Windwood. Windwood is also the founder of New Universal, an African American women’s empowerment organization. She is a faculty member for the Just Economy Institute and serves as a director for the Thriving Roots Fund, a women’s empowerment organization. ¹³

Bill McKibben is the founder of Third Act. He is the author of The End of Nature, which has been called “the first popular book about climate change.” ¹⁴ To publish this book, McKibben consulted with a number of left-of-center organizations including the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Environmental Defense Fund. ¹⁵ McKibben has additionally founded environmentalist organization 350.org and has participated in the People’s Climate Marches movement. ^{16 17}

1. “Banking on Our Future.” Third Act, March 27, 2023. https://thirdact.org/our-work/banking-on-our-future/.
2. “Safeguarding Our Democracy.” Third Act, November 18, 2022. https://thirdact.org/our-work/safeguarding-our-democracy/.
3. “Contact.” Third Action. Accessed September 29, 2022. https://thirdact.org/contact/.
4. Reuters. Twitter, March 22, 2023. https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1638339709230366721?s=20.
5. “Donate.” Third Act, February 28, 2023. https://thirdact.org/donate/.
6. “Calculate Your Bank Account’s Carbon Emissions.” Third Act, March 15, 2023. https://thirdact.org/act/bank-emissions-calculator/.
7. “Stop Dirty Banks Day of Action.” Third Act, March 31, 2023. https://thirdact.org/national-day-of-action/.
8. Nomani, Asra (@AsraNomani). “Hello @ElonMusk and Friends, You asked who is funding and organizing the #TeslaTakedown protests. I’ve got answers for you, after going onto the streets of northern Virginia for the local protests here, seeing familiar faces from the Virginia Democratic political machine and then following the money — and the data.” X, March 30, 2025. https://x.com/AsraNomani/status/1906281197430329459
9. “Partners.” No Kings. Accessed June 25, 2025. https://www.nokings.org/partners.
10. Nomani, Asra. “Asra Nomani: The Familiar Hidden Hand behind Today’s #nokings Protests.” Fox News, June 14, 2025.https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/asra-nomani-familiar-hidden-hand-behind-todays-nokings-protests.
11. Booth, Heather and McKibben, Bill. “Op-Ed: We’re old, we’re progressive and we vote.” Los Angeles Times. September 26, 2022. Accessed September 29, 2022. https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2022-09-26/progressive-older-voters-mark-kelly-mandela-barnes. Reposted to Yahoo: https://news.yahoo.com/op-ed-were-old-were-100051647.html.
12. ^“Who We Are.” Third Act. Accessed September 29, 2022. https://thirdact.org/who-we-are/.
13. “Who We Are.” Third Act, January 26, 2023. https://thirdact.org/about/who-we-are/.
14. O’Brien, Kevin. “The Violence of Climate Change: Lessons of Resistance from Nonviolent Activists.” Georgetown University Press. 2017. Accessed March 15, 2018. https://books.google.com/books?id=OvcmDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA22&lpg=PA22&dq=%22the+first+popular+book+about+climate+change.%E2%80%9D+and+%22end+of+nature%22&source=bl&ots=2JK0k0ehig&sig=DuJ9FJSxyFbX4ocPTiUO1rLCjFw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjwlO7SxO7ZAhWHzVMKHcqrB0UQ6AEILDAB#v=onepage&q=%22the%20first%20popular%20book%20about%20climate%20change.%E2%80%9D%20and%20%22end%20of%20nature%22&f=false
15. Nisbet, Matthew. “Nature’s Prophet: Bill McKibben as Journalist, Public Intellectual and Activist.” Harvard University Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public, Discussion Paper Series. Accessed March 15, 2018. https://shorensteincenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/D-78-Nisbet1.pdf
16. Hestres, Luis. “Preaching to the choir: Internet-mediated advocacy, issue public mobilization, and climate change.” New Media & Society. 2014. Accessed March 15, 2018. http://www.luishestres.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Hestres-New-Media-Society-2014.pdf.
17. Ludden, Jennifer. “Marchers Unite To Take On Trump’s Climate Policies.” NPR. April 29, 2017. Accessed March 15, 2018. https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/04/29/526179637/thousands-of-marchers-expected-to-take-on-trumps-climate-policies.