What We Fund

Since its establishment in 1991, the V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation has made over 800 grants totalling approximately 155 million dollars. We believe our joint efforts have resulted in positive contributions to the environment—and will continue to impact the planet in salutary ways.

The urgency of dealing with unsustainable consumption, the climate crisis, and their consequential impacts to our natural systems are the overall themes for the V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation. The complexity surrounding the impacts of climate change and scaling of our collective mitigation efforts are primary concerns.

We work primarily on international-level issues. When they support international learning tools and resources for meaningful action, we engage with a few national and place-based local projects.

We favor projects that:

• consider all life equally important

• use a systems approach to address root causes and achieve change

• take stock of and tell the truth about the scale, complexity, and urgency of dealing with environmental problems

• are based on original thinking, creative ideas, and experimentation

• alter power dynamics related to decision-making and influence

• have international significance and perspective, even if they are locally based

Our typical grantees are small or midsize organizations with demonstrated leadership in developing specialized strategies, communicating their vision, and effective project performance. 

Applications are by invitation only.

In the last few years, we have engaged with projects that fall within one of the following four themes:

Cultural Resilience and Global Leadership under the Conditions of Environmental Breakdown

• Development of systems-level responses to ecological, economic, and social stresses/destabilization/collapse

• Furtherance of research related to our psychological and social capacities for dealing with serious climate change, tipping points, and the collapse of natural systems

• Exploration of sociocultural transformations and strategic planning frameworks that can enhance mitigation under the conditions of environmental breakdown

• Development of leadership tools and practices that can be widely and rapidly adopted under the conditions of environmental breakdown

Infrastructure and Communications Support to the Climate Movement 

• Support of young advocates to become future movement leaders

• Network-building, coordination, and knowledge sharing across disciplines and movements

• Tools to ensure the widest public communication and understanding of climate science

Petrochemicals and Climate 

• Analysis of data and auditing of life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions originating from the production of petrochemicals and the manufacturing of products from them

The Need for Governance of Climate Geoengineering 

In addition, the foundation has a number of ongoing multiyear grants that relate to the urgent need for governance and legal frameworks related to research and deployment of climate geoengineering.

What We Do Not Fund

The V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation does not fund:

• For-profit organizations

• Organizations without U.S. IRS 501(c)(3) charitable certification or equivalency if international (fiscal sponsors with certification can be used)

• General operations of well-established NGO programs

• Large membership organizations or networks

• Large non-government organizations

• Candidates for political office

• US projects with a specific local, state, or regional focus

• Non-US projects focused on single countries, regions, or specific continents

• Conservation projects focused on a single species

• Government organizations

• Individual scholarships or other individual support

• Medical research

• Health care

• Organizations whose job it is to re-grant funding received

• Capital construction or endowment campaigns

• Benefits or annual fund-raising campaigns