Policy shifts in the United States and Canada
For climate philanthropists, policy context is crucial. Since taking office, the Trump administration has reversed course on America’s climate commitments. Canada remains formally committed to the Paris Agreement and to achieving net-zero by 2050, though it is reviewing and recalibrating its approach. The changing policy environment underscores both the necessity for climate philanthropy, and the complicated landscape that all major organizations are facing, especially in the US.
US Federal policy retreat
Climate and clean energy funding initiated under the Biden administration’s IRA has been slowed or cancelled. Programs supporting renewable energy deployment, building electrification, grid modernization, and emissions reduction have been withdrawn. Nonprofits and research institutions had made plans based on federal support and now face funding gaps, staff losses, and postponed projects.
Canada’s progress
Canada’s Net Zero Emissions Accountability Act included a legal commitment to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, ambitious emissions reductions targets, a national carbon pricing plan, and $93 billion in tax credits, designed to compete with the IRA in the US, for clean tech, hydrogen, and carbon capture through 2035. Canadian emissions are falling, but not fast enough to meet 2030 targets.
Adapting philanthropic strategies
In the US, “philanthropy cannot match the scale of lost federal funding, but it can stabilize the sector, helping organizations navigate uncertainty, retain expertise, and sustain institutional capacity.” Reductions in funding for agencies such as NOAA undermine climate monitoring and modeling with global consequences, increasing the importance of philanthropic support for research, data continuity, and science communication.
Case study: Nature Data Lab, One Earth Philanthropy
Karl Burkart’s leadership exemplifies the importance of sustained research, data continuity, and science communication in the climate area. As CEO of NDL and formerly Director of Media, Science & Technology at the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, Burkart builds and connects scientific teams across disciplines to apply big data, remote sensing, and AI for climate, biodiversity, and nature solutions. His work includes advancing the Global Safety Net, a tool that informs policy and philanthropy with rigorous data. NDL’s work has become more vital as the Federal government has withdrawn from climate commitments.
For Jewish climate philanthropists in the United States, policy context is crucial . US federal climate policy is in flux under the Trump administration that has cancelled, slowed or reversed initiatives in climate and clean energy. These changes make philanthropy even more important.
Global perspective and implications
Alongside domestic policy blocks, some philanthropic leaders are reassessing where private capital can have the greatest leverage. In a recent letter, Bill Gates argued that philanthropy should do more to support climate adaptation and disease prevention in poorer countries.
Gates also cautioned against “climate doomism,” suggesting that overly catastrophic narratives can undermine public confidence and political will. Instead, he emphasized innovation, problem-solving, and measurable improvements in human well-being. Though Gates himself remains a major climate philanthropist and investor, his letter was met with concern by many in the field who saw it as a retreat from the urgency of climate mitigation.
Implications for Jewish climate philanthropy
In this shifting environment, Jewish climate philanthropists can play a critical role in sustaining institutional capacity, supporting research and data systems, and preserving momentum—ensuring progress toward a low-carbon future continues despite political change.
major climate programs & policies cut by trump administration
International & Key Regulations
- Paris Agreement withdrawal
- Clean power plan repealed
- vehicle emissions standards rolled back
- Methane emissions rules weakened
Science & agency impacts
- EPA & MOAA budget/staff cut
- Climate science suppression
- Social cost of carbon lowered
Environmental protections & reviews
- Clean water rule (wotus) rolled back
- NEPA Reviews streamliend
- Energy efficiency standars slowed/reversed
Recent funding & grant actions
- Billions in IIJA/IRA climate funding targeted/ cancelled
- LIHAP Funding cuts proposed
- Environmental Justice grants terminated
Mitigation, adaptation and advocacy in North America
Key philanthropic interventions that are needed include: advocating for climate-friendly policies at the state and local level; funding research and communications; investing in renewable energy transitions that reduce emissions and lower long-term costs; and providing proof-of-concept funding to pilot innovative climate solutions.
Philanthropists within and beyond the Jewish community are making increasing commitments to climate, In Canada, nine foundations, including Roadburg, have pledged to deploy more than $400 million in a joint Clean Economy Fund Climate Champions campaign.
Among different religious groups, Jews are among those most likely to identify the climate crisis as a significant concern. A growing ecosystem of Jewish environmental organizations is mobilizing effective climate action.
Adamah mobilizes Jews to confront climate, creates immersive environmental learning experiences, and grounds environmental responsibility in Jewish wisdom. Its initiatives include the Jewish Climate Leadership Coalition, which unites hundreds of organizations in reducing environmental footprints; the Climate Action Fund, which provides loans and grants to institutions for energy conversions that cut emissions and operating costs; and the Jewish Green Business Network, connecting professionals across climate-related sectors to accelerate solutions and strengthen Jewish life. Adamah recently published a Roadmap to Decarbonize American Jewish Life, a landmark in the development of the American Jewish community.
Dayenu: A Jewish Call to Climate Action seeks to strengthen the movement for climate justice and the Jewish community’s capacity to engage in systemic climate action. Dayenu advocates for comprehensive climate policies, organizes Jews to campaign to keep fossil fuels in the ground, and presses politicians to take bold action. Through spiritual adaptation work, Dayenu draws on Jewish wisdom and community to sustain people in the face of climate anxiety.
Some useful climate resources in the US:
Rocky Mountain Institute works with businesses, policy makers and communities to scale renewable energy, rescue energy waste and boost access to affordable clean energy. Rewiring America is focused on electrifying homes, communities and businesses. Grove Climate Group helps startups, companies, governments, nonprofits, universities, and trade groups achieve their climate goals.
Case study: The Jewish Climate Leadership Coalition
When the U.S. government cancelled parts of the IRA, Adamah moved quickly, accelerating its Climate Action Fund and launching or expanding five funding mechanisms: a zero-interest loan fund; local funds in New York, Orange County and LA, and a solar fund. In 2025, these funds supported 28 projects totaling over $500,000. As Liore Milgrom-Gartner, Adamah’s Climate Action Director, reflected:
“The goal of the Jewish Climate Leadership Coalition is to support Jewish organizations in taking climate action, so after this legislation passed, we pivoted. With renewed energy, education and outreach, we broke all records for our climate action fund in 2025. It has been a crucial year and we’re not going to stop.”
Case Study: Ida Posner: Tackling food waste
Ida Posner has emerged as a leading philanthropic voice on food waste. She sees it as one of the most tangible and solvable climate challenges. Trained as an environmental engineer at Princeton and shaped by work in Africa and at the Pisces Foundation, Posner now focuses her family foundation’s climate strategy on food waste, partnering closely with ReFED as an anchor grantee.
“We waste 30–40% of the food we produce globally,” she notes, making it simultaneously a climate, hunger, and justice issue. For Posner, food waste resonates deeply with Jewish values such as bal tashchit (do not waste) and tzedakah, offering an actionable, nonpartisan entry point into climate action that delivers real-world impact through methane reductions.
Things You Can Do for $10,000 or Less
You don’t need to give a large gift to make a meaningful climate impact. Smaller gifts can seed leadership, build community, and inspire lasting change. With $10,000 or less, Jewish donors can support local, visible, and catalytic efforts, including:
- Mitigation: Energy audits, LED lighting, supporting energy efficiency for synagogues, schools, or JCCs
- Adaptation: Urban greening, cooling/heating projects, or disaster-preparedness planning
- Advocacy: Youth/adult trainings, lobby days, or support for Jewish climate coalitions
- Education: Earth Day or Sukkot programming, speaker series, or Jewish climate curricula
- Community Action: Resource fairs on energy and resilience, youth conferences, or hands-on projects like stream or neighborhood cleanups
The power of Jewish outdoor, food, farming and environmental education
American and Canadian Jews have been going to summer camps for more than a century, and have been volunteering on kibbutzim since the 1950s. The last 25 years have seen new experiments in connecting Jewish life with land-based education. This work is crucial to the deep reverence for earth which underpins taking climate issues seriously. This is where learning, ecological practice and climate awareness meet.
Five centers – Adamah’s Isabella Freedman retreat center, the Boulder Jewish Commons, the Leichtag Commons, Shoresh, Urban Adamah, and the Boulder JCC offer different case studies for how Jewish philanthropy can support models that integrate Jewish outdoor, food, farming and environmental education.
Shoresh’s Bela Farm and Har Sheleg Forest (Ontario, Canada)
Sponsor & history
Originally established in 2002 in Toronto, Shoresh empowers the community to be Shomrei Adamah, protectors of the earth, through Jewish nature connection and education. What began as Kavanah Garden evolved to include two rural sites: the 100-acre Bela Farm and the 80-acre Har Sheleg Forest, plus six signature programs and nation-wide thought leadership.
Vision & activities
Across its locations, Shoresh programs include outdoor school, camp, B’nei Mitzvah, teen leadership and adult immersive educational programs. It hosts holiday events, festivals and trainings. Bela Farm is the largest of Shoresh’s locations, hosting immersive experiences for land-based Jewish learning and living, with a reforestation project, an apiary, bee sanctuary, and a poliinator food forest.
Isabella Freedman Retreat jewish Center (Falls Village, CT – Adamah)
Sponsor & history
Isabella Freedman was a late-19th-century Jewish social welfare project that evolved into a significant rural retreat and learning campus. It merged with Hazon in 2013 and became part of the enlarged Adamah in 2022, alongside the Pearlstone Jewish Retreat Center in Reisterstown, MD.
Vision & activities
Isabella Freedman is the home of the Adamah Farm Fellowship, Teva nature education programs, and immersive holiday retreats that combine Jewish practice with land stewardship. The 400-acre site includes a demonstration farm, forest restoration projects, and curricula that integrate Jewish education with regenerative agriculture and climate literacy. The center links spiritual practice to ecological repair: holiday rituals, Torah study, and communal service meet hands-on work.
Urban Adamah (Berkeley, CA)
Sponsor & history
Founded in 2010 by Adam Berman, and now led by Adam Weisberg, Urban Adamah is the first urban Jewish community farm in the United States. Launched originally on a rented one-acre lot in West Berkeley, it has grown into a permanent two-acre teaching farm, community space, and incubator for urban Jewish leadership.
Vision & activities
Urban Adamah’s mission is to build more just, and sustainable communities by integrating Jewish tradition, sustainable agriculture, mindfulness, and social action. The farm supplies more than 50,000 servings of organic fruits and vegetables annually to local food banks; trains volunteers in climate-resilient urban gardening; and offers public programming that links Jewish values to sustainable agriculture, and local food security. Its young adult programming immerses participants in organic farming, Jewish learning, and community living. What is most significant about Urban Adamah is that it teaches:
“A way of living aligned with the core values of Jewish tradition.”
Leichtag Commons (Encinitas, CA – Leichtag Foundation)
Sponsor & history
Leichtag Commons is the flagship project of the Leichtag Foundation, originally funded by Lee and Toni Leichtag, and led by Jim Farley and Charlene Seidle. The Foundation acquired and developed a 67-acre coastal campus near San Diego to host community life, sustainable agriculture, and social enterprise.
Vision & activities
Leichtag links Jewish values – tikkun olam, bal tashchit, shmita – to practice. Its Coastal Roots farm and greenhouse incubator host workforce training, social-enterprise startups, and projects in water-efficient growing, composting, and renewable energy. The Commons integrates conference space, and partnerships with local food systems to show how Jewish philanthropy can catalyze place-based climate resilience, whilst strengthening Jewish life in new and unique ways
Philanthropy & Jewish leadership in Boulder, CO: putting all the pieces together.
The evolution of Jewish institutions in Boulder, Colorado offers an extraordinary example of what happens when philanthropists, activists, educators and rabbinical leaders combine Jewish values, organizational vision, environmental education, climate awareness, and collaborative philanthropy.
In 1999 the Weaver Family Foundation bought land with the vision of creating a new Jewish campus for Boulder. In the 2000s, Rabbi Marc Soloway, at Bonei Shalom, launched Beit Izim (the Boulder Jewish Goat Co-op) at his synagogue. Becky O’Brian launched a series of Jewish community-supported agriculture projects. The Oreg Foundation donated 10 acres of land for the new JCC. Becca Gan-Levy founded Milk & Honey Farm.
By the time the new JCC opened in 2016, it was the first new JCC in the United States to include a working two-acre educational farm as part of its core programming, including a greenhouse, beehives, and a “Farmside Shabbat” program. Now in 2026, Bonei Shalom, one of the first zero-waste synagogues in America, is completing a capital campaign to build its own new sustainable synagogue on the Boulder Jewish Commons.
The outcome of these different overlapping initiatives is a deep and powerful sense of integration. The work on food, the environment and climate issues is not separate from mainstream Jewish life; it’s a rich integrated part of it. Kids growing up in the Jewish community in Boulder take for granted (because they see it in action every day) that to be Jewish is necessarily to care about the natural world that sustains us. This is collaborative philanthropy at the front-edge of American Jewish life.
What these examples share – and why they should matter for funders
For Jewish philanthropists, these centers represent high-leverage opportunities: investments in land and infrastructure that yield large returns in leadership, community building, and ecological benefits.
Every major Jewish community in North America could or should have its own equivalent of the Boulder Commons, Isabella Freedman, the Leichtag Commons, Shoresh, or Urban Adamah.