The mission of the Wallace Global Fund is 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. We believe in transformative change that challenges governments to put people over profit, and we support social movements that advance climate justice, democracy, and human rights for all.
WGF is recognized globally for its creative philanthropic strategies and mission-related investing, with our values embedded in both our grants and our investments. Our model deploys finance as a tool for social change, alongside traditional grant making, to achieve higher impact. We support the movement calling on investors to divest from fossil fuels and invest in climate solutions. WGF also helped launch the Shine campaign, to ensure that no one is left behind in the clean energy transition. We call on investors to join us in helping to scale solutions in distributed, renewable, and affordable energy for over a billion people who lack access today.
Shine Campaign Commitment
WGF is committing 1% of our investments to enterprises providing affordable, reliable, and renewable energy to those currently without access; in addition, we will direct at least $1 million in grants annually to the energy access field, with a focus on community-led initiatives and women’s empowerment in Sub-Saharan Africa.
As the world embarks on a global energy transition, it is unconscionable to imagine millions of people still living without access to clean energy by 2030. Philanthropy must make a concerted effort to steer finance towards the people and communities most at risk of being left behind. Using our grants and investments, foundations share an enormous opportunity to help make universal energy access a reality.
Energy access lies at the center of the Fund’s existing priorities, including climate justice, economic empowerment, and women’s rights. Increasing our commitment to energy access will lead to greater social and economic dividends, particularly in the lives of women and girls, who stand to benefit the most from access to renewable energy.
Energy poverty is a solvable problem, but we need ambitious collaboration on a global scale to get us there. Forming partnerships and sharing knowledge, strategies, and resources will help Shine partners achieve the greatest, most well informed impact.