Climate change is reshaping the landscape of community need and philanthropic response. As the impacts of climate change intensify — more frequent severe weather events, rising sea levels, changing agricultural conditions — communities need support to adapt, build resilience, and respond to acute climate-related disruption. Funders are increasingly grappling with how to integrate climate considerations into grantmaking strategy and how to support the communities most affected.
Climate-related grants span a broad spectrum:
Emergency response grants
When severe weather events strike — cyclones, floods, droughts, wildfires — communities need immediate support. Emergency response grants provide rapid funding to affected communities and the organisations supporting them. Cyclone Gabrielle (2023) and the Auckland floods exposed how quickly community need can emerge and how important responsive grantmaking is.
Recovery and rebuild grants
Beyond immediate response, longer-term recovery funding supports communities rebuilding after climate events. This may include infrastructure repair, economic recovery, mental health and wellbeing support for affected communities, and rebuilding of community institutions.
Climate adaptation grants
Adaptation is about adjusting to the climate that is coming — not just responding to events that have already happened. Adaptation grants might support:
- Coastal communities assessing and responding to sea-level rise
- Agricultural communities transitioning to more climate-resilient practices
- Infrastructure adaptation (flood protection, water security, heat management)
- Community planning processes that integrate climate risk
Environmental restoration
Restoring degraded ecosystems — native forests, wetlands, waterways — builds long-term resilience and sequesters carbon. Environmental restoration grants support the organisations and communities doing this work.
Climate action and advocacy
Systemic change on climate requires policy reform, public awareness, and organised advocacy. Funders who believe in addressing the root causes of climate change may fund advocacy organisations, community organising, and public education.
Just transition
Climate action affects different communities differently — workers in fossil fuel industries, communities dependent on emissions-intensive agriculture, low-income households with less capacity to adapt. Just transition funding supports communities managing the transition to a low-carbon economy in ways that don't concentrate harm on those who are already vulnerable.
The communities most affected by climate change are often those with the least resources to adapt — low-income communities, Māori and Pacific communities with strong connections to land and sea, rural communities, and communities already experiencing deprivation.
This intersection between climate risk and social disadvantage is increasingly central to how philanthropic funders approach climate grantmaking. It's not enough to fund environmental restoration in isolation — funders need to consider the social dimensions of climate impact and centre the communities most at risk.
In Aotearoa New Zealand:
- Māori communities have profound relationships with the land and sea that are directly affected by climate change
- Coastal communities face significant long-term challenges from sea-level rise
- Agricultural communities are adapting to changing rainfall and temperature patterns
- Low-income communities in flood-prone areas have less capacity to protect themselves
Fund community-led responses
Communities understand their own climate risks better than distant funders. Grant processes that start with community knowledge — what communities are experiencing, what they need, what adaptation looks like in their context — are more likely to produce effective programmes than funder-designed interventions imposed on communities.
Multi-year, flexible funding
Climate adaptation is long-term work. One-year project grants are mismatched to the timeframe of community resilience building. Multi-year core funding allows organisations to build relationships, test approaches, and adapt as conditions change.
Cross-sector collaboration
Climate resilience requires connection across sectors — community organisations, local government, infrastructure providers, iwi, health, economic development. Grants that support cross-sector collaboration and planning processes build the social infrastructure for resilience.
Fund learning and knowledge
What approaches to climate resilience work, in which communities, under what conditions? The evidence base is still developing. Funding evaluation, knowledge sharing, and communities of practice builds the field's collective capacity.
Integrate climate into existing grant programmes
Funders don't need separate "climate" programmes to engage with climate resilience. Community development grants can prioritise projects that build climate resilience. Health grants can address the health impacts of climate change. Arts grants can support climate storytelling. Integrating climate into existing programmes is often more effective than creating siloed climate funding.
When assessing climate-related grant proposals, consider:
Community grounding: Is the proposal rooted in the actual experience and knowledge of the community it's meant to serve?
Long-term thinking: Does the approach address root causes of vulnerability, or does it only address symptoms?
Learning orientation: Is the organisation oriented towards learning and adaptation, not just delivering a pre-defined programme?
Partnership approach: Does the proposal leverage relationships with other organisations and systems (local government, iwi, other funders)?
Equity lens: Does the proposal attend to the communities most at risk, rather than communities that are well-resourced and already adaptive?
Emergency response is particularly challenging for philanthropic funders. When a major climate event strikes, there is pressure to respond quickly — which can conflict with the deliberate assessment processes most funders use.
Better practice for climate emergency response:
New Zealand has experienced increasingly significant climate events in recent years. Cyclone Gabrielle caused billions in damage across Hawke's Bay, Tairāwhiti, and Northland in 2023. Auckland flooding in January 2023 affected thousands of homes. Drought conditions have intensified across many regions.
Major funders like Lotteries NZ, community foundations, and the Foundation North have all engaged with emergency and recovery grantmaking as a result of these events. The philanthropic response to Cyclone Gabrielle was substantial, with coordinated efforts across many funders — but also revealed gaps in emergency coordination and the challenge of reaching the most affected rural and Māori communities quickly.
Tahua's grants management platform supports rapid emergency response and longer-term recovery grant programmes — with flexible workflows, fast-track assessment capabilities, and the reporting tools that keep funders accountable to the communities they're supporting.