At Windward Fund, our mission has always been to transform big, bold ideas into real impact that propels the environmental movement forward.
As we close the books on 2024 and reflect on the successes of the projects we support, one theme is clear: the power of collaboration through fiscal sponsorship. By providing the infrastructure and a strong operational foundation, Windward empowers environmental leaders to focus on what they do best: driving solutions, building momentum, and tackling the climate crisis head-on.
Working together this past year, Windward and its partners extended our collective impact farther than ever before. Together, we awarded over $175 million to more than 500 grantees globally, reaching 28 countries and 45 states, plus D.C. and Guam, in 2024.
From agroforestry and community-first grantmaking to clean-energy housing, we’re proud to share how our model unlocks impact and to spotlight a few of the projects leading the way.
Collectrify
Across the country, communities most affected by pollution and rising energy costs are often left out of the clean-energy transition. Collectrify is working to change that trend.
Sitting at the nexus of housing, environmental issues, and economic justice, Collectrify helps communities build safe, affordable, and electric homes that improve health, cut emissions, and strengthen local economies.
For instance, in Detroit, Collectrify made the first investment in Hope Village Revitalization’s Sustainable Community Builders Project to catalyze a community-led vision and upgrade single-family and multifamily buildings across multiple neighborhoods to all-electric, energy-efficient, solar-powered, deeply affordable homes. As a result, these neighborhoods experience cleaner air, lower costs, and greater economic opportunity.
Collectrify’s Powering Change 2025-2027 Strategic Roadmap details their trust-based approach to amplifying community-based solutions to advance equitable building electrification and corresponding goal to raise $100M in philanthropic support over the next three years.
DayBreak Fund for Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan’s rich ecosystems are increasingly vulnerable to climate change. In response, the Wisconsin-based donor collaborative Daybreak Fund supports local organizations developing creative, nature-based climate solutions rooted in Indigenous knowledge and community resilience. In 2024, Daybreak awarded nearly $1.6 million to advance climate solutions and environmental and social equity at the shores of Western Lake Michigan.
Working with partners like the Savanna Institute, Daybreak helps Midwestern farmers integrate native trees into their fields and pastures—improving soil and water quality, creating wildlife habitat, boosting farm income, and capturing more carbon. With Daybreak’s support, the Savanna Institute is expanding agroforestry across the Western Lake Michigan Basin through a five-county hub for farmers and landowners and a statewide training network for conservationists.
The Windward Fund provides administrative support, allowing Daybreak to focus fully on empowering its grantees’ work.
Fund to Build Grassroots Power
Grantmaking continues to evolve. More and more we’re seeing a shift away from traditional, top-down grantmaking models toward frameworks that reflect the world we want to build – a world that’s free and fair for all. This shift is at the heart of the Fund to Build Grassroots Power (the Fund), an intermediary fund that uses trust-based philanthropy and participatory grantmaking to grow the capacity of grassroots environmental and climate justice groups in the U.S., Puerto Rico and Guam.
Community-first grantmaking isn’t just the right thing to do — it is more effective. To date, the Fund has granted $34million to 136 organizations. In 2024, the Fund approved an additional $10.1 million in grants to advance environmental and climate justice. Almost all of the Fund’s grantees (97%) reported that the Fund grants helped them build their capacity — from hiring staff, strengthening infrastructure and helping them build more power to ultimately advance environmental and climate justice.
Windward Fund is proud to be a fiscal sponsor of the Fund to Build Grassroots Power by providing administrative and backend support so it can get resources to organizations quickly to help ensure grassroots leaders can continue to bring positive change to their communities.
While the Fund to Build Grassroots Power, Collectrify and Daybreak may support different issues related to climate change and operate in different parts of the world, they share a common truth: strong partnership is essential to impact.
That’s what Windward Fund is all about. Providing the infrastructure, operational backbone, and collaboration that enables progress. We’re honored to help projects like these thrive, and we’re inspired by what’s possible when purpose-driven leaders have the support they need to move fast and think big.
