With New Commitments of $431 Million, the Ballmers Are Now a Top Funder of Climate Action
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When Steve and Connie Ballmer announced last year that they had cut their first climate checks, one big question was whether more would come — and if so, how much. Now, we have an answer.
With $431 million in new multi-year commitments made public this week and shared exclusively with IP, the former Microsoft CEO and his wife are officially major climate heavyweights. Their annual climate spending — which for the moment comes to about $170 million — will likely put their philanthropic operation among the top 10 largest climate funders in the country for years to come.
More is on the way, say the Ballmers, and with an estimated $111 billion fortune to draw from, there’s no telling how large the climate portfolio at the Ballmer Group, the couple’s grantmaking LLC, will become. To date, its commitments top $650 million.
Like the Ballmers’ first round of awards, the biggest beneficiaries are some of the field’s most well-known and widely supported intermediaries and funds, reflecting a desire by the family to get massive, multi-year grants quickly into the hands of experienced and established operations.
“What we’ve learned since establishing a climate funding portfolio a little over a year ago is that while the solutions exist to address and halt our climate emergency, everything is underfunded,” said the couple’s son, Sam Ballmer, who leads the philanthropy portfolio, in a statement. “We will continue to expand our grantmaking and raise awareness about the urgency and opportunity to act.”
The family’s quick rise in climate philanthropy also reflects how environmental grantmaking continues to be dominated by billionaires, who have accounted for roughly two-thirds of the top grantmakers in the space since 2021. This wave of climate megadonors has driven a critical influx of private dollars to the cause (even if overall funding remains stalled at less 2% of global philanthropy), while also influencing which organizations and solutions are funded during this pivotal stretch in the global crisis.
Who’s getting Ballmer climate bucks?
Regrantors were, as in their first round, the biggest winners in this slate, which featured just 18 awards. Four of the five biggest commitments in this round went to intermediaries or funds, and the fifth to a campaign run by an intermediary. Many smaller awards also went to regrantors.
The philanthropy envisions these climate awards working across three focus areas, representing an expansion from its early funding for deforestation and nature, a Ballmer Group spokesperson said by email. Those areas are: “(1) renewable energy transition in the Global South, U.S., and Europe; (2) ensuring that U.S. climate goals are met through implementation of the IRA and solutions; … and (3) a focus on climate-smart agriculture and reducing methane emissions.”
The Energy Foundation, the largest U.S.-focused climate intermediary, got the biggest award, $85 million over three years. Through a partnership with the Climate Power campaign, a wide-ranging coalition of leaders from major environmental nonprofits, grassroots groups, and private sector, labor and political backgrounds, the funds will be regranted to dozens of organizations for state-level communications.
Next was Invest in Our Future, the effort by a handful of legacy foundations and Bill Gates’ climate advocacy platform to support implementation of federal climate legislation, which will receive $70 million over three years. The Ballmer grant is the single largest pledge to the fund to date, according to a spokesperson, more even than the $40 million commitment by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
A close third was Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors (RPA), which serves as an intermediary for organizations it fiscally sponsors. It will get $69 million over four years. Compare that to RPA’s 2,353 grants totalling $291 million in 2022. “It isn’t often we get one for this amount,” said Renee Karibi-Whyte, RPA senior vice president and corporate secretary, by email.
“From all of our interactions with Ballmer, they are a generous and thoughtful funder that engages in trust-based philanthropy rather than micromanaging their grants,” she said. “This is in line with what we at RPA view as best practices for productive and beneficial grantee relationships.”
One other major beneficiary was the European Climate Foundation (ECF). It will get $28 million over three years for a joint communications campaign, and is linked to two other awards. An initiative it hosts, ReNew2030, which aims to build out national campaigns around the world to accelerate the power sector’s shift to renewable energy, will receive $8 million over five years. The Pooled Fund on International Energy, also hosted by ECF, will get an additional $48 million over four years.
Several grantees on Ballmer’s new list received their checks from the family as part of previously announced awards through The Audacious Project, including $20 million over five years for Restore Local, $15 million over six years for Canopy, $5 million over five years for Global Fishing Watch, and the grant for ReNew2030. (Be sure to check out IP’s in-depth look at The Audacious Project, and our analysis of its climate giving to date.)
Several environmental justice regrantors also received three-year grants, though they accounted for 6% of the total dollars committed, by my tally. The largest such award was to Urban Movement Innovation Fund, which will receive $12 million. Three others landed $5 million awards: Communities First Fund, Climate and Clean Energy Equity Fund, and Hive Fund for Climate and Gender Justice.
Electrical system transformation was another focus of several of the grantees, such as Clean Grid Initiative ($6 million over three years) and Rewiring America ($10 million over three years).
Other grantees include the Sunrise Project ($20 million over three years), a fast-rising funder favorite; the Platform for Agriculture and Climate Transformation ($10 million over three years), a group funded by major players like Waverley Street Foundation that works on the Farm Bill and other such topics; and the U.S. Climate Alliance ($4 million over three years), a bipartisan group of 25 governors.
Trust and speed are praiseworthy, and more is possible
Ultra-wealthy donors tend to find climate philanthropy difficult and confusing. That’s what the Bridgespan Group, which has plenty of experience working with such clients, concluded in a report earlier this year. Millionaires and billionaires do have plenty of help at their fingertips, including blue-chip consultants like Bridgespan, or free advisors like the Climate Leadership Initiative. But it is complex, and to read between the lines of Bridgespan’s report, even with this help, many donors are slow to act.
So to see the Ballmers — who have been working with CLI — rapidly accelerate their giving is encouraging, particularly as it represents new terrain for them. Sam Ballmer, for example, has a respectable enough resume, but no substantial experience in climate or philanthropy prior to overseeing this portfolio. These opening grants offer an example of the way newcomers can quickly get over that hump, which is to empower others while still learning.
Across two rounds, Ballmer Group has cut a lot of large, multi-year checks to climate intermediaries and regrantors, operations that spread the wealth across the field. While the multiplying number of such outfits can be overwhelming, funding through them is an approach that has widespread support, from environmental justice advocates to the team at ClimateWorks Foundation. Bridgespan recently made supporting such groups one of its three core climate funding tips. It’s a simple way to move a lot of money quickly but smartly. Unsurprisingly, given her Bridgespan connection and pace of giving, it’s one of the ways MacKenzie Scott is giving.
There is, of course, also room for the Ballmer Group to do even more. For instance, it could issue more future funding to environmental-justice-focused intermediaries and organizations, in line with their support for Indigenous rights in the prior round of climate grants. It might also expand on its current backing for international work by sending more funds directly to groups and regrantors in the Global South. Both measures would correct for historical imbalances. Funders at this scale face a particular imperative to address such disparities; otherwise, they risk widening them still further.
The Ballmers could also go even bigger, considering their enormous wealth and the terrifying urgency of the need. The couple and their son are already on track to spend more annually on climate philanthropy than nearly all their fellow billionaires, which is laudatory. Yet with a reported $111 billion to work with, this is also a family that has the capacity to do more than nearly any other donor. After all, to borrow Sam’s words, “everything is underfunded.”
In short, the Ballmers could still do more, but they’re already doing a lot compared to their peers, and there’s a lot to like about their approach. It’s encouraging to see a new funder not dithering about what to support, but putting their trust in others (five- and six-year grants!) and writing some big checks. And sharing those awards publicly helps inform the field and challenges others to match their ambition. Let’s hope they stick to these practices while continuing to grow — and that others follow that lead.
Correction: This article has been updated to reflect that Energy Foundation will partner with Climate Power to regrant its award.