Foundation News

By Steven Berkenfeld, Chair, Board of Directors, Sierra Club Foundation 

On November 16 and 17, the Sierra Club Foundation Board of Directors gathered in Oakland, California for our quarterly meeting. At our headquarters office, we reviewed top Foundation priorities for 2018 and discussed clean energy and climate affairs domestically and internationally.

At this meeting, we were excited to welcome Director Joel Sanders, our newest Board member. Director Sanders joins us after an extensive legal career at Gibson Dunn. He is currently a lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley. As an Oakland resident for over 34 years, Director Sanders felt right at home in our Uptown Oakland office. Welcome, Joel!

Over breakfast on day one, we held a session on Foundation-initiated grantmaking to support allies and partners in advancing an equitable clean energy future. We discussed the unique role that the Foundation can play in providing grant support to organizations and communities pursuing innovative community-based organizing, movement building, and communications strategies. In doing this, we hope to build a cross-sector movement for clean energy domestically and globally. With this understanding, we conferred regarding funding strategies, priorities, and challenges for undertaking this type of grantmaking.

After covering multiple governance and financial items, we received an update from Sierra Club National Program Director Jesse Simons and Associate National Program Director Eva Hernandez on Sierra Club’s Clean Energy For All (CEFA) initiative. CEFA aims to unify campaigns working for clean transportation and renewable energy and moving beyond dirty fuels. The goals of building an intersectional coalition of climate change and social, economic, and environmental justice were highlighted.

Directors were excited about these goals and stressed the importance of defining success and building performance tools to track progress. Additionally, directors recommended piloting the initiative in politically diverse geographic areas, emphasizing that the initiative needs to reach every part of the United States to truly realize a clean energy future for all.

The final agenda item for our first day was a session regarding the Foundation’s top 2018 priorities. Directors considered strategies for supporting a new Sierra Club Outdoors theory of change and helping community groups on various climate-related disaster recovery efforts.

On our second day, we met with the Sierra Club Board of Directors for a joint session. The discussions were based on capacity-building within the Sierra Club for greater effectiveness in achieving its mission. Using a small group discussion process, we brainstormed ideas on integrating new supporters, building an infrastructure to support rapid growth, and enhancing  financial stability. Directors had lively conversations regarding criteria for prioritizing work and what the primary area for long-term investment should be.

The role of the Sierra Club Foundation Board of Directors in this joint session was to give advice and counsel to the Sierra Club, given that the Foundation is the fiscal sponsor of Sierra Club’s charitable environmental programs. We concluded our joint meeting energized to advance our priorities in the year ahead.

In this meeting, we also welcomed the Foundation’s newest staff member, Eric Lombardo. As Administrative Coordinator, Eric will be responsible for general administration support and will also have a role supporting the grants and compliance team. We also wish to take this time to thank outgoing Director Mike Richter for his six years of service and his many contributions to the Foundation.

Our next Board of Directors meeting will be in February in Denver, CO. We will be sure to keep you updated on the Sierra Club Foundation’s work and goals after our winter gathering.