BY Lisa Jacobson, Barr Foundation and Elizabeth Love, Jacob and Terese Hershey Foundation
Pop quiz: What sector contributes roughly 33% of greenhouse gas emissions, but receives just 5% of climate funding?
Here’s a hint: It’s complex. It’s long term. It’s political. It’s rooted in racism. And it’s critical to address it head-on if we are committed to our climate goals.
It’s… transportation!
A recent (and quite illuminating) ClimateWorks report shows that of the $16 billion of philanthropic dollars invested in climate globally, $660 million (or about 4%) went to transportation electrification. If we also add in about a third of the ‘Cities’ investment (assuming that urban mobility work is about a third of $440 million), we estimate that transportation receives about 5% of climate funding.
If transportation is so critical to tackle to address climate, why aren’t we putting more dollars towards it? Where are the climate funders ready to meaningfully curb our transportation emissions?
Transportation touches everyone’s lives every day. The transportation options available to you affect your time, your safety, your ability to get a job and get to it, your health and your kids’ ability to get around. Changing the system is tricky work. With billions of public dollars at play, complex bureaucracies and often opaque decision-making — the acronyms alone are enough to befuddle.
Enter: The Mobility and Access Collaborative, a network of place-based and national funders focused on ensuring that people have access to reliable and affordable public transportation, safe and connected places to bike and walk, better air quality and land uses that enable people to get what they need without hopping in a car. Affectionately known as the MAC, we do not envision a future society filled with electric vehicles, but one that has options — clean vehicles AND more affordable and convenient travel choices.
We believe that if America is going to be a place of freedom for all, owning and driving a car should not be the only ticket to a well-paid job or affordable place to live. A Union of Concerned Scientists report demonstrated that a ‘more complete set of transportation options is a more effective climate solution than maintaining a car-dependent transportation system’.
So, what are we doing about it?
The MAC has several projects in the works:
- Advocacy Spotlight — Are you supporting incredible transportation organizing and advocacy that you want to bring visibility to? We invite funders to lift up the great work of advocates they are funding. Learn more and nominate a group here. Look to be inspired by these stories on LinkedIn.
- Broadening our funding levers — The MAC is launching a scan to help funders sharpen the tool of litigation in the systems change toolbox. We will explore the landscape from fighting freeway widenings through black and brown communities to state constitutional challenges, tort cases on dangerous designs and countering federal actions. Learning together and sharing what’s worked (and hasn’t) helps us be more effective and strategic funders.
- Planning for federal funds — Despite the changes at the federal level, the bread-and-butter money for transportation will need to be reauthorized by Congress in the coming years, and it’s complicated. Let’s learn together with Transportation for America to level-set on the history of transportation funding as background for the coming reauthorization. Watch for it later this spring on TFN’s LinkedIn page or sign up for the MAC email list.
- Transportation and its many intersections (pun intended) — So you don’t fund transportation, but you know it connects with your issue areas? Let’s talk. By way of example, the MAC and TFN’s Urban Water Funders are exploring synergies between these two major systems essential to every community. In these times, it is more critical than ever to work together.
Intrigued? Now what?
The MAC welcomes more involvement, even if transportation is only a small part of your portfolio:
- Plan to join us for a joint happy hour with Urban Water Funders in Baltimore on March 17 at the TFN 25th Anniversary Conference.
- Sign up for the MAC email list for updates and invitations.
- Reach out to MAC coordinator Martha Roskowski at martha@fundersnetwork.org for more info on any of the projects or to learn more about joining the MAC team.
About the Authors
Lisa Jacobson is a Senior Program Officer at the Barr Foundation. She leads the Mobility strategy on the Climate team and collaborates on projects and grantmaking that support people accessing what they need in low-carbon ways. Lisa currently serves on the board of The Funders Network and is a proud TFN PLACES Fellow alum. She co-chairs the Mobility and Access Collaborative with Elizabeth Love.
Elizabeth Love is CEO of the Jacob and Terese Hershey Foundation, which supports those working boldly toward a healthy environment, reproductive justice and the nurture of nature. Elizabeth currently serves on the board of The Funders Network, and co-chairs the Mobility and Access Collaborative with Lisa Jacobson.