Funding Principles

At ICA we are grateful for the support of many individuals, organizations, and foundations who support us with both social capital and monetary funds towards our vision for a world with sovereign and thriving Indigenous Peoples and cultures leading climate justice for all. 

We use the following funding principles to guide our donor relations. This is critical for the practice of reparations, building collective power, and addressing systemic barriers from the legacy of colonization across the territories of so-called Canada.  

If you have any questions about our funding principles, or opportunities to support our work please send an email to development@indigenousclimateaction.com

Our approach

Indigenous Climate Action (ICA) takes a principled approach to development and partnerships and we strive to uphold our organizational values of accountability, reciprocity and respect in all of our work. We stay true to ICA’s spirit and mandate, and we are making a strong effort to build and model a decolonial framework.

Eligibility 

Our organization is committed to working with partners and people who share our duty to Indigenous sovereignty and climate justice. We seek partnerships with organizations that: 

  • have a demonstrated history upholding Indigenous Rights 

  • are proven climate leaders 

  • trust in ICA’s vision and our ability to carry out our work freely

  • support the leadership of people who are structurally oppressed including women, youth, LGBTQS2 people, people with disabilities, and other racialized people. 

  • are independent from any political parties or interests  

  • support real efforts to shift to sustainable and equitable economic models 

Guidelines

ICA does not partner with organizations with an invested interest in extractive industries or climate-destroying initiatives, such as fossil fuel projects. We will consider government and corporate funding on a case-by-case basis, and when required, we look to our National Steering Committee to guide our decision-making and partnerships.

Note: Indigenous Climate Action is a registered non-profit organization in so-called Canada. We work with a variety of charitable sponsors in Canada and we have a 501(c)(3) fiscal sponsorship in the USA with Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous Peoples. As such, we can establish both charitable and non-charitable funding relationships within both Canada and the United States. Please contact Development@IndigenousClimateAction.com for more information.

Sustainers

Sustainers are people who have donated to our work and decided to make a multi-year commitment as part of showing their loyalty to the vision of ICA.

Sustainers can be individuals, organizations, donor-networks, foundations, or businesses that align with ICA and want to work with us for an extended period of time.

Voices from our Sustainers

Ruth Breech, Rainforest Action Network

Indigenous Climate Action is a critical organization in the work for climate justice. ICA is grounded in relation with Indigenous leaders, land and values. It is these values that are interwoven into climate policy, analysis, campaigns, gatherings, trainings and actions. ICA meets an important need of bringing together Indigenous communities on the frontlines of fossil fuels and climate change to affect change locally and influence internationally. ICA leadership and network hold experience, tradition and innovation together in a graceful and powerful balance to meet the dire needs of climate impacts.

ICA's vision is immense and necessary, one that we should all support.

 

Bill McKibben, 350.org

Indigenous communities are now squarely at the forefront of the climate justice movement, in North America and indeed around the world. ICA is one of the megaphones that amplifies the voices we most need to hear!

Suzanne Benally, Swift Foundation

ICA serves an active and important role in uplifting the voices of indigenous people in the climate justice movement, nationally and internationally, and especially in involving Indigenous youth. Their work centers around experiential learning and self-determination and is an example of how to make indigenous voices heard and included in climate solutions at all levels. We appreciate ICA's authenticity, commitment, depth of thought and accuracy in naming core issues directly. They stand up and speak truth to power while maintaining clear practices and protocols of accountability to their communities. ICA leads by lived experience where other major environmental NGO’s have failed us. We are grateful to be in partnership with ICA, an organization guided by the strength, passion and wisdom of people who know that climate change is the product of colonialism and that ingenuity and knowledge comes from the resilience of communities who continue to endure and carve new tomorrows.

 

Zeph Flynn, individual donor

I am a descendant of an Eastern Canadian Anglo family who has been growing wealth over several generations on stolen land. My paternal grandfather was an executive in Shawinigan Water and Power, which took over First Nations territories and later got taken over by Hydro Quebec; my mom ran a small lumber mill in Montreal. I've lived most of my adult life in the United States, benefiting from white supremacy and participating in liberation movements that taught me about the need for reparations and repair. As a result, now that I have inherited from my family, I am moving funds to BIPOC-led organizations in the US and I also wanted to pay reparations to Indigenous-led organizing in Eastern Canada. I am supporting Indigenous Climate Action because you are well-respected as the only Indigenous-led national climate organization in Canada, and because you were a key player in stopping the $20 billion Teck Frontier tar sands mine in Alberta. Your work is crucial, and I am honored to be able to support it.

Current Sustainers

Climate Justice Resilience Fund

NDN Collective

McConnell Foundation

Catherine Donnelly Foundation

Canadian Environmental Grantmakers Network - Climate Narratives

Transition Catalyst Fund

Groundswell Community Justice Trust Fund

11th Hour Fund

Peace & Development Fund

GreaterGood.org

 

NOVO Foundation

Solidaire

Sustainable Markets Fund

Underdog Fund (Common Counsel)

Global Wildlife Conservation

Dragonfly Foundation

Swift Foundation

Urgent Action Fund

Heather Henson

Dr. Bronners

International Funders for Indigenous Peoples

Edge Funders Network