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Local funds are relatively recent entities in the philanthropic landscape. They are organizations that have emerged in the socio-environmental context and distinguish themselves from other funds located and managed by the Global North due to their legitimacy as local activist organizations that mobilize resources to support community-based organizations in their countries and regions, those at the forefront of socio-environmental protection.
Many local funds operate throughout the Global South with a mission to ensure philanthropic resources reach the most marginalized and vulnerable communities residing in the world’s biodiversity-rich ecosystems. In recent decades, these local funds have developed a unique and effective approach to funding and supporting community-based organizations while also promoting stronger philanthropic practices in their home countries.
This new model aims to significantly increase the chances for local groups, with their diverse cultures and territories, struggles, and solutions, to access the necessary resources often unavailable to them. The Socio-environmental Funds of the Global South (Alianza Socioambiental Fondos del Sur) is a pioneering collaboration among these actors.
Operating within the geopolitical boundaries of the Global South, the alliance emerges from the collective purpose of its members—organizations founded and led locally—to promote and share their vision. The socio-environmental funds within the alliance embrace the understanding that large biomes do not respect political borders and that traditional peoples and local communities are the primary guardians of the world’s remaining biodiversity-rich regions—whether in forests, rivers, deserts, mountains, cities, among others.
Each institution has independent funding structures at the national and/or regional level. Each of these structures is responsible for raising funds from various sources and developing appropriate mechanisms to ensure that donations are channelled directly to community groups. Collective and participatory decisions guide the teams in each country in granting strategic donations in the local currency to local groups that would otherwise have little access to philanthropic resources.
Together, the activities of these funds cover the world’s major areas vulnerable to socio-environmental crises. These are regions facing the greatest pressures from human activity, and their destruction has direct impacts on climate and biodiversity emergencies. It is no coincidence that these regions are also home to environmental defenders, the primary beneficiaries of direct support from local funds over all these years.
One of the most important functions of local funds is to strengthen the capacity of community-based organizations to implement their own solutions. Support takes the form of a combination of financial assistance through catalytic grants and capacity-building through various means, such as technical assistance, knowledge exchange among different groups, and the promotion of peer learning, among others. The strategy encompasses the diverse and comprehensive contexts of each major biome or natural region, understanding their main challenges, successful experiences, lessons learned, actors involved, and ultimately identifying areas where strategic resources can be directed to support locally significant initiatives.
The Socio-environmental Funds of the Global South brings together a diverse range of established socio-environmental funds, such as Casa Socio-Environmental Fund in Brazil, Fondo Acción Solidaria (FASOL) in Mexico, Fondo Tierra Viva in Central America, Samdhana Institute in Southeast Asia, Institute Society, Population and Nature (ISPN) and FunBEA (Brazilian Fund for Environmental Education) in Brazil. Additionally, it includes thriving funds making a significant impact in their respective regions, such as Semilla Socio-Environmental Fund in Bolivia, Fondo Socioambiental del Perú in Peru, Fondo Emerger in Colombia, Fondo Ñeque in Ecuador, Fundo Tindzila in Mozambique, Environmental Justice Fund (EJF) in South Africa, Red Comunidades Rurales and Socio-Environmental Fund Plurales in Argentina, Pastor Rice Small Grant Fund in Southeast Asia, and Youth Climate Justice Fund with a global reach.
Each organization is a nationally or regionally based fund that is part of networks not only at the national level but also internationally and locally where they operate. By knowing and supporting local groups, the funds have a deep and extensive connection to the territory, in areas of support such as at-risk environmental defenders, food security, legal aid and litigation, and more.
Together, local funds can strengthen their actions in different ways, such as having the support, protection, and endorsement of a broader network, exchanging knowledge and experiences with different organizations, and gaining access to resource opportunities that would not be available to individual members. They can also tap into broader knowledge networks in their own societies, expanding the possibilities of responding to real socio-environmental needs and collective agendas capable of supporting more just and equitable governance processes.
From an external perspective, an alliance can amplify the voices of the funds and better coordinate to advance individual and collective causes, drawing more attention to local issues with global impact, such as the importance of protecting the Amazon Rainforest and wetlands, global efforts in food sovereignty, water protection/restoration, or the role of women in mitigating climate change, for example.
The alliance can also have a greater impact on the global philanthropic community, either by adding the Global South’s perspective on social justice or by consolidating a new model of socio-environmental philanthropy. This can result in a better chance of increasing donations for specific socio-environmental issues across the region.
As a living system, the Socio-environmental Funds of the Global South can represent a fractal, reflecting in the global landscape the multiple actions and consistent values carried out at the regional and local levels in the Global South. Therefore, the alliance aims to be a strong and reliable presence in the field of Socio-environmental Justice, acting as a connection between its funds, being close to the guardians of life, and promoting decolonial narratives and narratives of respect and equity in philanthropy.
