Laurene Powell Jobs’ Climate Funder Ramps Up Giving — and Adds Prominent Board Members

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Laurene Powell Jobs’ climate philanthropy grew both its grantmaking and number of grantees substantially in 2022, based on the latest tax records, and added new experts to its board, including Ford Foundation President Darren Walker.

Waverley Street Foundation increased its funding by a third in 2022, sending more than $164 million out the door, based on its most recent IRS filings. The number of grantees receiving checks more than doubled in the process, with 64 recipients that year, according to an Instrumentl analysis. 

But the operation will need to move even more money annually in the coming years ahead to stay on schedule with its founder’s $3.5 billion spending pledge. In 2022, the Palo Alto-based grantmaker was still well behind the pace that would exhaust its then-$2.8 billion endowment by 2035, as Powell Jobs has pledged, which would require granting about $220 million a year between 2023 and that deadline. That said, it’s possible the foundation ramped up further in 2023 and is now at or above the rate required, but it hasn’t made giving numbers public yet, and those 990s won’t be released likely until next year.

Waverley’s third official year of grantmaking saw half of its dollars go to just seven grantees. As in past years, three of the biggest recipients were the climate policy shop and regrantor Climate Imperative ($36 million), the new intermediary Clean Future Forum ($8 million), and Conservation International ($7.5 million). Other top awardees were the Communities First Fund ($10 million), Rural Climate Partnership ($8 million) and Potential Energy Coalition ($7 million).

The final grantee was the operation’s donor-advised fund at Tides Foundation, which received $10 million. The grant was “to support California’s world leadership on climate and ensure that the state can realize its bold plan to reach carbon neutrality by 2045,” said a Waverley spokesperson in a statement. “It has focused on maintaining the California Climate Commitment and reducing air pollution by taking on California's oil industry.”

Perhaps the largest group of grantees, by number of organizations if not dollars, were community-based groups. Examples ranged from the Oakland groups Outdoor Afro and Latino Outdoors ($1.25 million each) to Newark’s Ironbound Community Corporation ($250,000) and Imperial Valley-based Comite Civico del Valle ($2 million). A large share of such recipients were located in California, where a quarter of all grantees were based, according to Instrumentl. 

“The greatest impacts of climate change are being felt right now at the community level,” said foundation President Jared Blumenfeld, who formerly led the California Environmental Protection Agency, in a statement. “Waverley Street Foundation is built upon the belief that community-level, place-based change is paramount in addressing climate change — and we're meeting this crisis with the urgency it demands.”

The handful of mega grants and the smaller community group awards are reflective of a fairly wide-ranging grantmaking portfolio, spanning environmental justice groups, rural and agricultural advocacy organizations, national and international alliances, a few major green groups or intermediaries and several academic and research institutions (most part of the foundation’s Climate Hubs initiative), with many recipients inhabiting more than one of these spheres.

Walker joined the board in 2022 along with former MIT President Rafael Reif, according to the spokesperson. The other directors remain unchanged. The list includes several family members: Powell Jobs’ brother, J. Bradley “Brad” Powell; sister-in-law Mona Simpson; and son Reed Jobs. There are also several members with connections to Emerson Collective, including Anne Marie Burgoyne, who currently works there, along with Reed Jobs and Powell, and former employee Michael Klein. Former EPA administrator and current Apple executive Lisa Jackson is also a trustee, and Blumenfeld is an ex-oficio member. Powell Jobs, who joined the Ford Foundation board in 2021, is the final member.

The foundation also made its first-ever international grants in 2022, sending nearly $10 million in awards abroad. Recipients included the Bangalore-based Selco Foundation ($4 million), the Berlin-headquartered Transparency International ($4 million), the Environmental Defenders Office in Sydney ($1 million), and Cape Town-based Natural Justice ($500,000). As in past years, other significant awards went to intermediaries that grant outside the United States, such as Global Greengrants Fund ($1 million).

Overall, in its third year of grantmaking, Waverley sharpened focus on its priorities, and sent what seems like a growing share of its funding to the strategies it has launched, such as the Climate Hub initiative to bring together university research centers with grassroots community groups. Early grantmaking has led to Waverley “codifying what we have learned and refining our strategy,” as well as deciding where to focus its grantmaking and what partners to work with, said the spokesperson.

The foundation was still getting its footing as of early 2023, when a wave of turnover saw four employees, including two strategy directors, depart over a few-month period. The foundation had recently reported 13 employees, so the departures made up about 30% of its team. Now more than a year removed from that mass departure, Waverley is bigger than ever. The foundation now has 15 full-time employees, according to a spokesperson, and “is growing.”

Correction (February 23, 2024): Michael Klein formerly worked at Emerson Collective. An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated he was a current employee.