
Ask HN: What's a climate change organization you would recommend donating to? - kaptain
I&#x27;m looking to contribute to an organization focused on protecting the environment and fighting climate change. I&#x27;m looking at 350.org and other organizations online. The problem is that I don&#x27;t get a real sense of how effective these organizations are. What&#x27;s a good organization to donate to?
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wmoser
I don't know if it's what you're looking for but there was a recent comment on
another thread that mentioned ProjectWren [1] which is a PBC backed by
YCombinator. While researching that came across Terrapass [2] for carbon-
offset credits. While checking out the ProjectWren site discovered that
apparently there are audit/verification companies that certify some of these
projects [3,4] so they might act as a charity-watch type organization for
climate change projects. Might have to cross reference, and there seems to
always be at least some degree of trust that the money is being used as
intended. I have no affiliation with any of these besides surfing the internet
but I'm thinking about using ProjectWren specifically because of their
affiliation with YCombinator, who again I have no personal relationship with
as a company but I trust that at least the organization exists and does what
they are saying and not fraudulent.

[1] [https://projectwren.com/](https://projectwren.com/) [2]
[https://www.terrapass.com/](https://www.terrapass.com/) [3]
[https://verra.org/](https://verra.org/) [4]
[https://www.goldstandard.org/](https://www.goldstandard.org/)

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GreeniFi
Organisations run on a charitable basis in this space on balance tend to be
less transparent on impact than organisations run as businesses, which are
better focused on effectively managing and reporting impact[1].

Oikocredit is probably my favourite and investing in climate-smart agriculture
at the moment. They should also give you your money back.

One thing to bear in mind is that adaptation at this point is as important as
mitigation.

[1]The reason being that on balance they have more resources available for
management.

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kaptain
This is helpful. I agree about transparency in impact. I also understand that
it is often difficult to measure that impact quantitatively when you are a
charity. Business is easier because $ is easily quantifiable. I'm not so
interested in getting my money back. I just want some reasonable assurance
that it's going to something "effective".

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scorecard
Citizen's Climate Lobby (CCL) does non-partisan lobbying for carbon fee and
dividend in the USA, Canada and the EU. They lobby on the local and federal
level, getting endorsements, tabling, getting bills introduced and writing
articles and letters to newspapers. A list of CCL accomplishments is here:
[https://citizensclimatelobby.org/about-
ccl/accomplishments/](https://citizensclimatelobby.org/about-
ccl/accomplishments/)

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hackermailman
If you want to donate to something with concrete results then try these guys,
everyday they free Seals in Namibia from ocean garbage and film it
[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCg8VTeeN4BglqmI1_CBlABg](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCg8VTeeN4BglqmI1_CBlABg)
you can even go there and help them
[https://gogetfunding.com/Seal/](https://gogetfunding.com/Seal/) but money is
what all these small orgs need to be sustainable

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thagerty
Sunrise Movement

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kaptain
Can you describe how Sunrise Movement is effective in helping to mitigate
climate change? (I looked at their website but I'm interested in quantitative
data.)

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mrfusion
Why not invest that money in a Prius instead? Or offer to replace someone’s
diesel truck with a Prius?

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fsflover
Check [https://charitynavigator.org](https://charitynavigator.org)

~~~
kaptain
I saw this as well as
[https://www.charitywatch.org/](https://www.charitywatch.org/). Their analysis
is somewhat opaque. It doesn't tell me how effective they are, just how
efficient they are.

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ryanchants
Natural Resources Defense Council(NRDC)

~~~
kaptain
Can you talk about why NRDC is a good choice?

