News Turning Grants into Change: Lessons Learned from our UK Colleagues News 8 mins read December 5, 2025 Blog News Turning Grants into Change: Lessons Learned from our UK Colleagues As Canadian funders, the environmental and social challenges we face are complex, and looking to insights from other contexts, like the UK, can help us learn how to respond more effectively. These findings from across the pond provide important parallels and learnings for Canadian funders today as we explore similar things – how to increase environmental giving, how to combat anti-environmental funding , and how to be more effective and strategic with grant making. A report from UK-based Environmental Funders Network (EFN), Where the Green Grants Went – 9th edition analyzes patterns across 235 foundations and 3 lottery sources, encompassing 6,555 grants and £687 million in environmental funding in 2021/2022, revealing trends and lessons that may resonate here in Canada as well. Program Manager, Laura Klein, connected with Jon Cracknell, one of the report’s authors, to dig deeper into the report and offer some additional commentary. While the findings are specific to the UK, the patterns and lessons it reveals offer valuable takeaways that can inform and inspire our EFC members as well. Trends in UK Giving Big Gains in UK Environmental Funding The report starts out with a summary of environmental giving in the year 2021/2022 by UK foundations. The most significant finding is that the level of philanthropic funding from UK foundations for environmental causes had risen significantly – foundation giving nearly tripled from £204 to £606.5 million annually, representing 8.5% of total UK foundation giving (up from 5.8%). Jon shared that this was in part due to patient cultivation of foundations that are increasing their focus on the environment, but also one large new funder coming in and supporting climate change. Despite the significant increase in foundation funding for environmental work, the report still highlighted many challenges and lessons to be learned for how environmental philanthropy can be more effective. The report highlights a striking concentration of funding: just ten foundations provide nearly 78% of all environmental giving in the UK. This level of consolidation means a small group of funders strongly influences which priorities receive support and which practices become dominant. In this case, many of the largest grants go to specialist regranting organizations. Most UK Funding Flows Abroad The report also highlights an interesting pattern of how the funding flows geographically in the UK. More than 80% of grants support work outside the UK, leaving only 17% within the UK. Jon noted that this pattern has deep roots: UK foundations have historically focused on global giving. Today, it is increasingly common for them to support climate initiatives in priority areas around the world, rather than keeping funds tethered in the UK. Shifting Priorities: Climate Efforts Scale Up, Biodiversity Stays Small The report also shows a shift in issue priorities. Climate and air quality now attract roughly a third of all environmental funding, but again, those are global climate efforts receiving most of the attention, as only 7.7% of environmental grants address climate and air quality in the UK. In contrast to climate funding, biodiversity and species funding has a very different distribution pattern. Nearly one quarter of all grants support biodiversity, but they represent less than 7% of total value. Many are very small, one-off grants to local projects like school programs or community greenspace projects. While these contributions support community engagement, their fragmented nature makes it hard to achieve broader, strategic impact. Funding is Rising – But Still Highly Diffuse Finally, despite the overall increase in environmental funding, the report highlights how scattered and small much of the funding is. Organisations and individuals received an average of just 1.5 grants per year, and only 2.7% secured funding from five or more foundations. More than half of all grantees received less than £10,000, and nearly 28% of all grants were worth less than £3,600. At this funding level the operational cost of applying for a grant may be greater than the value of the grant. For any microgrant program, minimizing application requirements is essential to avoid placing unnecessary burdens on grantees. Overall, the UK data reinforces the importance of looking at how much funding flows into environmental work, but also how it is distributed across issues, geographies, and grant types. As environmental challenges continue to increase globally, philanthropy practices in the UK, Canada, and elsewhere should continue to assess whether the current funding patterns align with the scale and urgency needed to have positive impact. Reflections for Canada Strategic Threats in Environmental Funding For the first time since “Where the Green Grants Went” reports began, this edition includes a reflection of the philanthropic actions working to prevent and reverse environmental action. Jon emphasized that comparisons with the “radical right” should be made carefully, but the lessons are nonetheless important. The environmental sector faces philanthropic opposition that can hinder progress, a challenge shared by many other adjacent fields working toward social change. There are examples of US foundations and major donors collaborating to prevent environmental progress by building highly effective infrastructure and providing long-term funding and deep public policy expertise. These strategies have often been more effective than traditional environmental funding, highlighting a real and pressing threat. This pattern extends beyond the UK. In Canada and elsewhere, well-funded climate deniers and environmental opponents are successfully blocking environmental policies, swaying public opinion against climate action, and spreading misleading information. Jon highlighted a key insight: while progressive environmental funders tend to focus more on service delivery and shorter-term policy and other outcomes, opposition funders invest consistently in public narratives, and long-term institution building. This connects directly to another theme in the report – the need for patient philanthropic capital. Social change efforts, whether focused on policy, behaviour, or community power, often take decades. Yet UK data shows that most foundations begin reducing support to a grantee after three years, and fewer than half provide funding beyond five years. The report suggests that environmental funders often prioritize innovation over long-term investment, making it difficult for organizations to mature and build lasting impact. By contrast, conservative funders tend to embrace long time horizons, accept that some investments will fail, and trust that long-term success will outweigh setbacks. These trends highlight the need for Canadian funders to consider not only where funding goes and how to grow the environmental philanthropy pie, but also at how opposing funders are organized and strategically shaping the conversation around environmental issues. Lessons of Effective Philanthropy The last section of the report examines critiques of environmental philanthropy and offers practical guidance on how funders can be more effective. Many of these recommendations align with trust-based philanthropy principles and are directly relevant for Canadian funders looking to strengthen impact and support long-term change. A key theme of note highlights the importance of funders working together instead of funding in isolation. Fragmentation can limit impact, and collaboration among funders can help reduce duplication, leverage resources, and amplify results. This can take many forms: pooling funds, aligning around shared objectives, or simply sharing grant data to inform giving and avoid overlap. Jon emphasized that how funders collaborate is just as important as whether they collaborate. Pooled funds and collaborative grant making can amplify impact, but some initiatives are more successful than others, and pooled funding can often increase the gate-keeping power and ‘top down’ influence of the funders. Funders need a clear “north star” to guide their strategy, but listening to the sector and trusting grantees to lead on priorities is critical for supporting real change. Another key element of the report underscores the importance of a “movement ecology” mindset: grant making that goes beyond individual projects to strategically support a broader ecosystem of organizations working on a shared challenge. Funders with a movement ecology mindset prioritize coordination and collaboration, seeing each grant as part of a larger collective effort. Conversely, when funding is thinly spread across hundreds of small projects, grantees often compete for survival rather than collaborating for broader impact. Collaboration can be challenging, and Jon noted that building connective tissue across movements is hard work and funders can’t underestimate the resources required to support collective work effectively. Successful collaboration depends on finding the right people with the networks and skills to broker relationships and encourage collective impact, which is as much about people and culture as it is about dollars. When done well, funders can play a critical role by strategically supporting organizations that work together to fill gaps and strengthen the overall movement. The UK experience offers a clear signal for Canadian funders: it’s not just about how much we give, but how we give. We need to think and act like a movement over the long term and recognize the strategic value of funding connective tissue across movements to shape public narratives and build consensus. By thinking strategically, supporting collective action, and trusting grantees to lead, funders can turn individual grants into systemic change. Share This Article Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email
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