Your organisation doesn’t need to take any special steps before signing the International Philanthropy Commitment on Climate Change. All you need is the willingness to take some action on the climate crisis. If you are a philanthropic organisation that can make decisions about its funds and actions, you are eligible to sign.

The first step is to think about the connection between climate and your primary philanthropic mission. How does climate change impact the areas you fund? How does it intersect with the things you care about? What are other foundations like yours doing to tackle the climate crisis?

If you want to have a conversation with us before signing the Commitment, please contact our Head of Climate – Erika Miller (emiller@wingsweb.org). She will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Signing the International Philanthropy Commitment on Climate Change is a public commitment which needs to be taken at the most senior level, usually by the organisation’s Board.

Remember that signing the commitment does not make any claim about your existing level of climate action, but it does commit you to take action after signing and sharing information about what you do.

We do not want to create an excessive burden on signatories but we want to track progress and promote transparency about what we are doing collectively.

Once you have signed, it is useful to read the Implementation Guide and decide where you want to start. You can take action on many pillars simultaneously (programmes, operations and investments) or can choose to start with only one. This decision is fully yours according to your priorities and available capacity.

It can be helpful to assign the responsibility to guide implementation to one person on your staff. In a larger organisation, you might find it helpful to form a working group, bringing together responsible people from each department. A Board champion or lead trustee can help to provide support and oversight.

This website will be constantly updated with new resources to help you on this journey and we will host a series of webinars about each pillar. Seeking external support may also help. We are here to help, so please reach out whenever you like!

There are many different routes to implementation. The speed of action depends on you. One approach might involve first measuring the climate footprint of your whole organisation and its activities, and setting targets for emission reduction. This could even represent reduction of operational costs, if you adopt energy efficiency measures, for instance. Another approach could be to look at your programmatic area, see how it intersects with climate change and consider some adaptations to your programme to incorporate climate lens.

Whether you undertake a full carbon footprint or focus on a thematic strategic approach, it is worth thinking carefully about where you can make the most difference in the field and where you can also benefit the most. This journey is an opportunity to unlock efficiency and innovation in your work and make it more climate resilient.

One thing is important: Don’t lose track of monitoring and evaluating your progress. Learning in the process is very important to sustain the impact of your commitment in your field over time.

Make sure that you have a system for reporting progress to your Board, or other forms of internal accountability. This will also mean that you are well prepared for external sharing with other Signatories of your action and learning from them.