BEA Receives $15 Million Grant from Bezos Earth Fund
LOS ANGELES (Dec. 6, 2021) -- Building Equity and Alignment for Environmental Justice (BEA) today announced that it will receive a two-year, $15 million grant from the Bezos Earth Fund. Launched in 2020, the Bezos Earth Fund (Earth Fund) is a $10 billion commitment to fund scientists, activists, NGOs, and private-sector entities that are taking critical action to combat the climate crisis, preserve and protect the natural world, and support climate justice.
“The $15 million investment in BEA will infuse grassroots environmental justice organizations that have been chronically undervalued, under-resourced, and often excluded from traditional philanthropy with the key resources needed to advance a just transition,” said Dwaign Tyndal, Executive Director, Alternatives for Community and Environment, BEA Steering Committee Co-Chair. “BEA moves funding to frontline organizations in the most efficient manner so they can continue building movement spaces and capacity to deal with climate and environmental justice issues while continuing the conversation with Greens, EJ Organizations, and Funders.”
The Earth Fund is investing in the success of the Justice40 Initiative, which aims to deliver 40 percent of the overall benefits of relevant federal investments to communities under-resourced and harmed by climate crises. Historically, BEA's network has been heavily engaged in Justice40 priority areas, including black, brown, Indigenous, people of color, and low-income frontline communities who are disproportionately impacted by the crisis and have already been working to advance equitable solutions for the wellbeing of their communities and the planet for decades. This funding will support grantees to continue their work and to expand their influence and capacity to engage across multiple issue areas.
"Since the formation of the American Experiment, the primary feature of the experiment's economic mechanism demanded the domination, suffering, and destruction of the planet and Black, Indigenous, and Native communities who have always been stewards of our planet. Part of meeting the demands to end the war on Black people and all marginalized people requires moving material support back to those communities so that we can realize life-giving solutions in alignment with our ancestral knowledge and needs; rooted in our self-determination,” says Jasmine Banks (she/her) Executive Director, UnKoch My Campus and BEA Grassroots Caucus Co-Chair. “This grant is a small outcome of using our collective organizing power to redirect the flow of material support to the grassroots. While we celebrate this win, the wisdom of our ancestors and elders teach us that people's movements for accountability and transformation emerge outside of Congress and the Non-Profit Industrial Complex. We will continue to organize to build power toward Black liberation and Indigenous sovereignty as we defend our communities against the climate crisis created by racial capitalism."
BEA Fund grantee partners will be provided with general operating support so that they may act in strategic and complementary ways and advance community-based solutions. These funds will enable BEA to provide bespoke communications and media capacity building to our grantee partners and members. This project will also strengthen the evidence base for investing in grassroots environmental justice groups and play a role in creating the material conditions necessary to advance equitable climate policy and influence the flow of public dollars. We acknowledge and offer our deepest gratitude to Climate Justice Alliance and other movement partners for their continued leadership, support and relentless advocacy in service of grassroots communities.
Building Equity and Alignment for Environmental Justice (BEA) envisions a future in which grassroots groups lead and inform environmental movements. BEA’s mission is to foster authentic cross-sector relationships to advance the progress of the environmental movement towards a just transition to equitable funding. We shift power and resources from institutions to grassroots leadership as we transform the environmental movement.
Contact:
Dwaign Tyndal (he/him) Executive Director, Alternatives for Community and Environment, BEA Steering Committee Co-Chair,
(617) 201-8366, @email
Jasmine Banks (she/her) Executive Director, UnKoch My Campus, Co-Chair BEA Grassroots Caucus,
(210) 343-1797, @email
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