Climate Smart Commitment: 2024 Portfolio

We're happy to present our 2024 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 donated to 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 2024 Grant Recipients

Agros International

Current donation: $260,000
Donations to date: $879,000

Agros works to break the cycle of poverty for farming families in rural Latin America. In the upcoming year, our donation will help Agros build an agribusiness incubator in La Bendición, Nicaragua, that will teach farmers across seven villages the skills they need to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty by moving from subsistence farming to commercial agriculture. Read more

Zeitz Foundation

Current donation: $100,000
Donations to date: $500,000

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 secure sustainable water access for the region, provide the villagers an alternative income stream to livestock, build sustainable communities through their 4C Learning Center (a vocational training academy for forestry and permaculture), and reforest 3 million trees. Read more

Beads for Education

Current donation: $115,000
Donations to date: $176,000

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 at their Tembea Academy 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 Maasai Mara. Read more

Food 4 Farmers

Current donation: $80,000
Donations to date: $295,000

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

Andando

Current donation: $50,000
Donations to date: $80,000

Andando helps rural Senegalese farmers dramatically increase their food security by teaching climate-smart agriculture practices. Our support will allow Andando to operate two native tree nurseries in the Kaolack and Podor regions of Senegal, add an additional 400 families to their program, and start the process to reforest 100,000 trees. Read more

Rainforest Alliance

Current donation: $50,000
Donations to date: $210,000

The Rainforest Alliance (RA) works with farmers and forest communities in over 70 countries to protect forests and biodiversity, take action on climate change, 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.

Daring Girls (formerly AfricAid)

Current donation: $25,000
Donations to date: $45,000

Daring Girls (Daring) empowers young Tanzanian girls to take control of their future by preparing them for university and leading positive social change in their communities. Our donations help over 2,000 young girls gain leadership and mentoring skills by learning how to solve environmental and health problems at the local level in the Kilimanjaro and Arusha regions of Tanzania through a series of 2-Day Challenge projects. Read more

Women’s Global Education Project

Current donation: $20,000
Donations to date: $50,000

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 420 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

Health in Harmony

Current donation: $100,000

Health in Harmony (HIH) reverses tropical rainforest deforestation. By working directly with the Indigenous peoples and local communities who live in and beside rainforests, HIH works to protect 9.4 million hectares of rainforest across Indonesia, Madagascar, and Brazil. Our support will help HIH reduce community reliance on unsustainable practices while teaching climate-smart farming techniques in southeastern Madagascar. Read more

Congo Education Partners

Current donation: $25,000

Congo Education Partners (CEP) supports higher education in the Tshuapa Province, DRC, in the Congo Basin Rainforest. Our donation will help CEP create a new generation of rainforest stewards by providing them with the skills to protect the forest, its wildlife, and the livelihoods of the local communities. Read more

Global Communities

Current donation: NA
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 allowed GC to provide their Women Empowered groups in Tanzania with climate-smart agriculture training, starter kits with drought-resistant seeds, and on-farm technical support. Read more

Esonge

Current donation: NA
Donations to date: $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 donations allowed 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

Bread for the World

Current donation: $125,000
Donations to date: $475,000

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

Rainforest Action Network

Current donation: $100,000
Donations to date: $330,000

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: $230,000

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

Additional Information

Climate Smart Commitment Grants

Learn more about our grant application process and selection criteria.

What People Are Saying

Find out how Washington Governor Jay Inslee and others are reacting to our Climate Smart Commitment.

Media Kit

Find media resources and information about our Climate Smart Commitment.

Join Us!

Scientists figure it takes about $30 of investment in environmental initiatives in the developing world to mitigate the carbon emissions created by one round-trip flight between the US and Europe.

You can join us in creatively mitigating the carbon caused by your travels by supporting our climate-smart commitment with a tax-deductible donation to our fund at the National Philanthropic Trust.

Make a Donation