Wallace Global Fund
/OVERVIEW: The Wallace Global Fund awards like-minded groups concerned with key trends that threaten global security, such as the rise of corporatocracy, ecological collapse, women’s rights, government oppression, and the imbalance of power between government organizations and NGOs.
IP TAKE: The Wallace Global Fund is a progressive funder that takes a mission investing approach to the types of organizations it will support. It will not invest in or associate with companies such as fossil fuel concerns, gold mining operations, or private prisons. While it conducts grantmaking across the United States, its true grantmaking scope is international, with global efforts centering on South Africa and Zimbabwe.
WGF is not the most transparent or accessible funder. While it does publicize some of its initiatives, it does not offer a comprehensive grants database. It does not accept unsolicited applications and rarely, if ever, releases public calls for proposals. Even for those invited to submit an application, WGF is not the most responsive funder, as previous grantseekers have reported. For grantseekers who are not yet on the foundation’s radar, you might have limited success reaching out through its contacts page.
PROFILE: The Wallace Global Fund was established in 1996 when the Wallace Genetic Foundation splintered into three, separate foundations. Founded by progressive politician and businessman Henry A. Wallace, the Wallace Global Fund was further endowed by his son, Robert B. Wallace. The fund is a Philanthropy’s Promise signatory, which means that it has committed to allocating at least 25% of its grantmaking toward vulnerable and marginalized communities. WGF’s mission is to support “people-powered movements that advance democracy, protect human rights, and fight for a healthy planet.” To support its mission, the fund names four strategic priorities: Democracy and Media, Environment, Women’s Rights, and Corporate Accountability. It also names two “spotlight” areas of funding interest: human rights and democracy in Southern Africa and Global Energy Access and Justice.
Grants for Civic Engagement, Democracy, and Journalism
Wallace’s Democracy and Media Program was established in response to rapidly growing inequality and “the effects of unchecked corporate control of government and policy on critical issues like climate change and economic inequality.” It has also made media misinformation a focus of its grantmaking. Specific areas of focus of this program include election finance reform, tax reform, expansion of civic engagement and voting, as well as a careful examination of the media and other corporations that “enable misinformation and corrode democracy.” This program has recently made grants to the Hopewell Fund, the Windward Fund and the New Venture Fund’s Media Democracy Project.
The Wallace Global Fund’s grantmaking for democracy also includes its Corporate Accountability Program. This initiatives names two main goals: holding large corporations accountable to governments and people and shifting economic power toward progressive social and environmental change. The fund has prioritized organizations and projects in areas concerning the development of policy toward global standards of corporate accountability and movements for community- and investor-based models of corporate ownership, particularly in the energy field. Recent grants have supported the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre and the B Team, a New York City-based organization that works to create “new norms of corporate leadership that can build a better world.”
Grantmaking for democracy is also a component of Wallace’s grantmaking for Southern Africa, which supports efforts in South Africa and Zimbabwe that support democratic processes and civic engagement. The fund helped to establish the Zimbabwe Alliance, which provides grants and technical assistance to civil society organizations, and has also given to Africans Rising, a “Pan-African civil society movement.”
Grants for Environment, Climate Change, and Clean Energy
Wallace supports environmental and clean energy transition through its Climate and Energy focus area. Environmental giving supports divestment and limitation of the fossil fuel industry, grassroots organizing toward climate justice and the adoption of clean energy alternatives and initiatives that provide hands on support for clean energy projects in “front line and indigenous communities.” In addition to indigenous communities, this program has prioritized women- and youth-led movements. Grantees include the Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous People, the Center for International Environmental Law, and the European Climate Foundation. Climate change grantmaking also comes from Wallace’s spotlight giving area on Energy Justice. This program aims to ensure that the global transition to clean energy is “a fair, just, and inclusive one” and conducts grants, strategic investments, and advocacy for organizations working in these areas. The fund has recently partnered with the Standing Rock Sioux community to build, own, and operate their own wind farm. Grants have also supported the United Nation’s Sustainable Energy for All initiative, Green Faith, and Just Transition Centre of the International Trade Union Center, which works toward a “just transition for workers who may be displaced from fossil energy jobs.”
Grants for Global Security, Human Rights, and Women and Girls
The Wallace Fund’s grantmaking for Women’s Rights names female genital mutilation and women’s leadership in the areas of climate change, democracy, and human rights as its main areas of focus. Wallace supports organizations and activist groups that work to end the practice of genital mutilation advocates for policies at the local, national and international levels aimed at ending these practices.
Grantmaking for women’s leadership supports the involvement of women in organizations working within the fund’s areas of interest. Recent grantmaking has demonstrated particular interest in the areas of clean energy transition and sustainable agriculture. The fund supports efforts to influence large corporations to “increase financial commitments to women’s well-being and gender equity.” Recent grants have gone to South Africa’s Women’s Legal Centre Trust, End FGM European Network, and Safe Hands for Girls.
Wallace also awards grants for human rights through its Southern Africa and Energy Access and Justice spotlight areas, both of which aim to protect and expand human rights during times of political transition and rapid climate change. Grantees have included the Fund for Global Human Rights, Land is Life, Repairers of the Breach, and the Equality Fund, among others.
Important Grant Details:
The Wallace Global Fund’s grants generally range from $50,000 to $250,000, but may go as high as $1.25 million. Wallace seeks organizations that work toward "transformative and catalytic change in their respective fields. To learn more about the types of organizations Wallace supports, examine its news section or its recent tax filings.
The Wallace Global Fund primarily funds large international organizations based in the United States. Its global grantmaking mainly centers around Africa, India, and Brazil.
WGF does not accept unsolicited proposals or requests for funding. It conducts grant applications by invitation only.
WGF will not fund land purchases, capital construction, endowment campaigns, fundraising or lobbying, political organizations, schools or academic institutions, or grants to individuals.
The foundation may be contact by direct message in its social media accounts, which are linked to the bottom of its website, or via telephone at (202) 452-1530.
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