Climate Smart Commitment: 2023 Portfolio

We're happy to present our 2023 portfolio of Climate Smart Commitment grant recipients. By supporting these nonprofit organizations with a "self-imposed carbon tax" totaling $1 million, our goal is to help make our business climate smart by creatively investing in groups that fight climate change through on-the-ground work in the developing world and government advocacy in the US.

While there are many fine organizations doing effective work to fight climate change, we chose these 13 organizations based on their proven effectiveness in: 1) helping farming communities in the developing world employ climate-smart agriculture and forestry techniques to mitigate their contribution to climate change and 2) advocating in Congress for US government policies to fight climate change.

The short summaries below provide more information about each organization and how they plan to use their Climate Smart Commitment grant. We've included links to their websites so that independent travelers inspired by our initiative can contribute individually. Experts say that a donation of $30 mitigates the carbon produced by one round-trip US–Europe flight.

Each year, we review and reassess our recipient list. We welcome suggestions of organizations that fit our parameters.

Our 2023 Grant Recipients

Agros International

Current donation: $250,000
Donations to date: $619,000

Agros works to break the cycle of poverty for farming families in rural Latin America. Our donations allow Agros to expand their agribusiness center in Nicaragua and help hundreds of farmers reduce their water and chemical use, improve soil conditions, help with the reforestation effort, protect water recharge zones, and stabilize their incomes. Read more

Food 4 Farmers

Current donation: $75,000
Donations to date: $215,000

Food 4 Farmers (F4F) partners with coffee-farming families in Latin America to increase food security. Our donation will allow F4F to teach climate-smart practices to these families, strengthen local food systems, improve incomes, reduce deforestation, restore local ecosystems, and create a healthier planet. Read more

ZEITZ Foundation

Current donation: $100,000
Donations to date: $400,000

The ZEITZ foundation (ZF) develops and implements socially and ecologically responsible projects in the Laikipia region of Kenya. Our donation will enable ZF to continue with their Tree of Life Initiative and continue planting over one million trees, secure sustainable water access for the region, and provide an alternative income stream to livestock and related overgrazing and deforestation through their vocational training academy for forestry and permaculture. Read more

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Global Communities (formerly Project Concern International)

Current donation: $100,000
Donations to date: $400,000

Global Communities (GC) provides communities in the developing world with the tools to lift themselves out of poverty and contribute less to climate change. Our donations allow GC to supply carbon emission reducing, fuel-efficient cookstoves in Guatemala, begin reforestation efforts, improve the region's food security, and give local women the tools to ensure the project's long-term success. Read more

Climate Smart grant recipient Rainforest Alliance

Rainforest Alliance

Current donation: $50,000
Donations to date: $160,000

The Rainforest Alliance (RA) works with farmers and forest communities in over 70 countries to protect forests and biodiversity, take action on climate, and promote the rights and livelihoods of rural people. Our donations help the Rainforest Alliance expand their climate-smart agriculture work in Ghana, which allows farmers to adapt and prepare for the impacts of climate change. Read more

Rainforest Action Network

Current donation: $100,000
Donations to date: $230,000

Rainforest Action Network (RAN) works to preserve forests, protect the climate, and uphold human and Indigenous rights by challenging the multinational corporations that use unethically sourced resources. Our donation will help protect the Leuser Ecosystem of Sumatra, Indonesia from deforestation caused by the illegal expansion of pulpwood and palm oil plantations. Read more

Citizens' Climate Education

Current donation: $50,000
Donations to date: $180,000

Citizens' Climate Education (CCE) is an advocacy organization that educates policymakers and the public about smart solutions to climate change. Our donation will strengthen their nationwide coalition of climate advocates and help them create a powerful counterweight to paid lobbyists advocating for the fossil fuel industry. Read more

Bread for the World

Current donation: $112,000
Donations to date: $352,000

Bread for the World (Bread) is an advocacy organization that urges decision makers to end hunger at home and abroad. Our donation will allow Bread to scale up their advocacy efforts and raise awareness in our government of how climate change makes more people hungry which, in turn, makes our world less stable. Read more

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Beads for Education

Current donation: $51,000
Donations to date: $61,000

BEADS for Education (BEADS) plays an important role in the education of girls in the Maasai community of Kenya. Our donation will allow BEADS to teach 125 students about climate-smart farming practices, expand their school farm and provide climate education workshops for more than 7,000 people in Kajiado, the Amboseli National Park region and the Masai Mara. Read more

AfricAid

Current donation: $17,000

AfricAid (AA) empowers young Tanzanian girls to take control of their future by preparing them for university and leading positive social change in their communities. Our donation will help over 1,000 young girls gain leadership and mentoring skills by solving environmental and health problems in the Kilimanjaro and Arusha regions of Tanzania through a series of 2-Day Challenge Projects. Read more

Andando

Current donation: $30,000

Andando helps rural Senegalese farmers dramatically increase their food security by teaching climate-smart agriculture practices. Our support will allow Andando to construct a new tree nursery and agroforestry center in Podor, add an additional 400 families to their program, and start the process to reforest 100,000 trees. Read more

Women’s Global Education Project

Current donation: $30,000

Women’s Global Education Project (WGEP) empowers women and girls in rural regions of sub-Saharan Africa to build better lives and foster more equitable communities. Our donation will allow WGEP to give 210 women training on how to build climate-smart cookstoves and prepare 450 students to lead plastic reduction clean-ups and reforestation efforts along the Sine-Saloum Delta. Read more

Esonge

Current donation: $50,000

Esonge works with the women of Dioula Village to implement long-term, sustainable climate solutions in the Lobéké Forest region in southeastern Cameroon (aka: the Congo River Basin). Our donation will allow Esonge to embark on a three-year plan to improve the livelihoods of 137 households (1,500 villagers) by helping them regain stewardship of the rainforest, reforest the clear-cut areas, transition to climate-smart cocoa, and strengthen their access to health care. Read more