Mission

To promote an informed and engaged citizenry, to fight injustice, and to protect the diversity of nature and the natural systems upon which all life depends.

Objectives

• Effective protection of the environment and natural resources and their capacity to provide for human needs

• Progressive public policies that serve the common good, protect civil liberties, and guard against corporate abuses

• Sustainable levels of human populations

• Equal justice

Strategies

The Fund seeks to further its mission generally through fundamental public policy and systemic change. Specific strategies for influencing policy include:

• Empowering affected communities and people to exert grassroots pressure and encourage civic participation

• Accountability and "watchdog" mechanisms directed at both public and private institutions;

• Litigation with systemic impact

• Policy analysis

• Strengthening leadership for advocacy and action

• Fostering open public discourse about the true effects of public policies on people, communities, and their environment, and exposing untruths and myths

• Influencing financial and trade mechanisms and corporate practices

• Leveraging other public and private resources

• Improving the example that the U.S. sets, in areas such as environmental protection, justice, democracy, and the use of economic and military power, and lessening the nation's disproportionate consumption of natural resources and associated effects on the rest of the world

• Promoting responsible U.S. leadership and collaboration in the development of solutions to glovbal problems

Program Areas

• Natural Resources
• Women’s Human Rights
• Justice
• Media and Leadership
• Civic Engagement

The Fund supports activities at the global and national level, and will consider significant local or regional initiatives offering the potential to leverage broader national or global impact . It will consider proposals for either core support or project-specific support. It does not fund purchase of land, capital construction, profit-making businesses, debt reduction, endowment campaigns, fundraising drives/events, or scholarships, tuition assistance or other forms of personal financial aid.