Sea Change Foundation
OVERVIEW: The Sea Change Foundation and its international counterpart, Sea Change International, focus on policy development in the areas of climate change mitigation and clean energy production.
IP TAKE: Sea Change and Sea Change International support major players in policy development for global climate change mitigation and clean energy at the national and international levels respectively. Unfortunately, at this time Sea Change is not accessible and does not accept unsolicited proposals. It also tends to provide multi-year support grantees working in its specific focus areas, which makes this space particularly competitive, but very supportive if you can get a grant here. Networking with the foundations’ directors and/or staff will be key for getting on this funder’s radar.
PROFILE: Based in San Francisco and Bermuda, the Sea Change Foundation, and its international counterpart, Sea Change International, are the philanthropic vehicles of Nat Simons and his wife, Laura Baxter Simons. Nat Simons, a billionaire, is the son of Renaissance Technology co-founder Jim Simons. Prior to establishing his own investment company, the Meritage Group, Nat Simons was a vice-chair at Renaissance. Both Simons and his wife graduated with advanced degrees from the University of California at Berkeley. Laura Baxter Simons also holds a J.D. from Stanford Law School. Laura also currently serves as General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at Meritage Group LP, a U.S.-based investment management firm. Both Nat and Laura are members of the Breakthrough Energy Coalition and the Giving Pledge. They have also co-founded Prelude Ventures, which is a venture capital firm that partners with entrepreneurs to address climate change, but also manages capital exclusively for Simons family philanthropic entities and is a founding member of the Breakthrough Energy Coalition.
Sea Change and Sea Change International both strive to “address the serious threats posed by global climate change” by funding mitigation initiatives and policy development. The foundations aim to work with “flexibility and urgency,” proving large grants to the most promising nonprofits, NGOs, social enterprises and collaborations, with acknowledgement that climate change funding must account for rapidly changing “shifts in strategy” and risk. The foundations’ current areas of focus include supporting efforts to reduce the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) in cooling systems as per the Kigali Amendment of the Montreal Protocol; encouraging large, global corporations to adopt climate friendly practices; decarbonizing the production of electricity in the American West; and accelerating clean transportation in Europe.
Grants or Climate Change and Clean Energy
Climate Change mitigation is the main focus of Sea Change’s grantmaking, with all four of the foundations’ focus areas supporting major initiatives for the development and adoption of clean energy production in the U.S. and abroad.
The foundation works extensively to support global initiatives toward meeting the goals of the Kigali Amendment of the Montreal Protocol, which aims to advance a broad phasing out of the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) in cooling and refrigeration systems. Partnering with many other major climate change funders, including ClimateWorks and the Packard Foundation, Sea Change has made grants of $1 million and more to organizations including the United States Energy Foundation, the American Foundation for an Energy Efficient Economy and the U.K.-based Carbon Tracker Initiative, Ltd. A portion of funding from this grantmaking area is earmarked for support of the efforts of developing countries to reduce the use of HFCs. International grants have gone to the World Resources Institute, which works with “governments, businesses, multilateral institutions and civil society groups” toward important climate mitigation and other conservation goals.
A portion of Sea Change’s philanthropic work addresses “the small group of the very largest corporations” that emit most of the greenhouse gases that cause climate change. The foundation’s efforts in this area consist of collaboration with several other major climate funders to establish Climate Action 100+, “an investor-led initiative to ensure the world’s largest corporate greenhouse gas emitters take necessary action on climate change.” In recent years, the initiative has enlisted investment organizations including Ceres, Principals for Responsible Investment and global chapters of the Investor Group on Climate Change to “improve governance on climate change, curb emissions, and strengthen climate-related financial disclosures.”
The Sea Change Foundation’s recent grantmaking also focuses on utility transformation in the interior west of the U.S. Funding focuses on developing the region’s high potential sun and wind resources for power generation. Grantees include Western Resource Advocates and the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project.
Finally, the Sea Change Foundation has supported initiatives to accelerate clean transportation in Europe, with an emphasis on “policies that are helping to accelerate the transition to clean vehicles in Europe.” One grantee in this area, the European Climate Foundation, which was instrumental in the creation of the European Green Deal, “which sets a trajectory for transportation emissions to reach zero by 2050.” Sea Change has also funded the U.K.’s Carbon Tracker Initiative, “an independent financial think tank that carries out in-depth analysis on the impact of the energy transition on capital markets and the potential investment in high-cost, carbon-intensive fossil fuels.”
Grants for Civic and Democracy
In recent years, the Sea Change Foundation has provided ongoing support to a few organizations that work to engage voters to support climate change legislation and candidates in local, state and national races who will work toward climate change mitigation in the U.S. The foundation gave over $5 million to the League of Conservation Voters Education Fund, and has also supported Vote Solar, a national organization that builds coalitions and engages the public in the transition to solar energy.
Important Grant Details:
The Sea Change Foundation’s grants tend to be large, ranging from $100,000 to over $5 million. The foundation’s average grant size is about $500,000. It is difficult to estimate annual giving of the foundation’s international counterpart, Sea Change International, because it is based in Bermuda and does not file taxes in the U.S. Sea Change’s grantmaking tends to go to large NGOs, think tanks and policy development institutes, and many of its grantees receive generous multi-year support.
According to its website, Sea Change does not accept unsolicited proposals for funding. Profiles for foundation directors and staff are available on its website. General inquiries may be submitted via email or telephone at (415) 830-9330.
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