Women’s Environmental Leadership Fund

The Women’s Environmental Leadership Fund (WE LEAD) is a Tides Foundation environmental grantmaking initiative that elevates and invests in women and nonbinary leaders who are addressing the root causes of the climate crisis in communities of color, which are disproportionately impacted.

Youth organizer Miracle Boyd with Good Kids Mad City co-MCed the event and lifted up the voices of Chicago’s future. Photo credit: Aaron Cynic; Grassroots Collaborative, Women’s Environmental Leadership Fund grantee. Suzanne Singer, Founder/Executive Director of Native Renewables, holds up a solar panel. Photo credit: Native Renewables, photographer: Tommy Greyeyes A group of youth backpacking with a young Latine woman smiling in the foreground. Photo credit: The Semilla Project, a Womens’ Environmental Leadership Fund grantee
Youth organizer Miracle Boyd with Good Kids Mad City co-MCed the event and lifted up the voices of Chicago’s future. Photo credit: Aaron Cynic; Grassroots Collaborative, Women’s Environmental Leadership Fund grantee. Suzanne Singer, Founder/Executive Director of Native Renewables, holds up a solar panel. Photo credit: Native Renewables, photographer: Tommy Greyeyes A group of youth backpacking with a young Latine woman smiling in the foreground. Photo credit: The Semilla Project, a Womens’ Environmental Leadership Fund grantee

Power a Healthier Environment and Future

Living in a healthy community, safe from the harms of the climate crisis, is a basic human right. But unjust systems disproportionately place communities of color and other impacted communities in the path of environmental hazards, putting their safety and their families at risk.

Fight for Climate Justice
A Latine woman on a hike smiling and holding another persons hand who is outside the frame. Photo credit: Getty Images

Tides’ WE LEAD amplifies the impact of women environmental leaders committed to serving Black and Indigenous communities as they take on big polluters through local, community-based solutions.

Our Impact

We’re advancing climate justice through innovative environmental grantmaking to on-the-ground leaders.  

68 grantee organizations
An outdoor community meeting with a group of people sitting in a large circle. Photo credit: Go Austin Vamos Austin, a Tides Women's Environment Leadership Fund grantee
22 states represented by grantees
Native people cooking together at the Native Movement Art in Action Camp at Howard Luke camp outside Fairbanks, AK. Photo credit: Native Movement, a Tides Women’s Environmental Leadership Fund grantee
$5M awarded to organizations across the US and in Puerto Rico
A Latine woman standing in her front yard holding a bag full of fresh produce. Photo credit: Go Austin Vamos Austin, a Tides Women's Environment Leadership Fund grantee
Read our Annual Report Read our Landscape Analysis

Funding Priorities

Tides’ WE LEAD promotes a shift in power and resources to those making a tangible impact on the ground: Women and other underrepresented genders taking on big polluters through local, community-based action.

  • A panel of BIPOC leaders at the 6th annual Environmental Justice Summit hosted by Hip-Hop for Change in the in San Francisco. Photo credit: People over Plastic, a Women’s Environmental Leadership Fund grantee, photographer: Amaya Edwards

    Leadership

    WE LEAD elevates environmental leadership by those who are familiar with the communities most impacted — including Black women, Indigenous women, and other women of color — and directs funding to organizations that intentionally sustain, grow, and heal women’s leadership.

  • Three Indigenous people standing under a large solar panel in the desert. Photo credit: Native Renewables, a Tides Women's Environmental Leadership Fund grantee

    Environmental Justice

    Tides is intentional about building a broader and more inclusive movement, prioritizing funding for organizations leading work at the intersection of racial, gender, and environmental justice.

  • Sharon Lavigne (RISE St. James) and Robert Taylor (Concerned Citizens of St. John) at march in Washington, DC asking President Biden to declare a climate emergency. Photo credit: Lani Furbank, Center for International Environmental Law

    Community

    Our environmental grantmaking amplifies organizations that center the voices of community members historically and systematically burdened by climate change, where the organization is building community power and advancing advocacy efforts for long-term impact.

Grantee Stories

A multi-racial group of people standing together next to a community garden, several of them holding rakes. Photo credit: Achieving Community Tasks Successfully, a Tides Women's Environmental Leadership Fund grantee A multi-racial group of people kneeling together next to a community garden, three of them holding shovels. Photo credit: Achieving Community Tasks Successfully, a Tides Women's Environmental Leadership Fund grantee
A multi-racial group of people standing together next to a community garden, several of them holding rakes. Photo credit: Achieving Community Tasks Successfully, a Tides Women's Environmental Leadership Fund grantee A multi-racial group of people kneeling together next to a community garden, three of them holding shovels. Photo credit: Achieving Community Tasks Successfully, a Tides Women's Environmental Leadership Fund grantee

Achieving Community Tasks Successfully (ACTS) uses citizen science and community-university partnerships to combat environmental hazards in Houston’s Pleasantville neighborhood, where manufacturing plants, freight trains, and other big polluters have compromised residents’ health. Founded by retired nurse and community activist Bridgette Murray, the nonprofit focuses on community-led air monitoring, food insecurity, and emergency response during storms or other urgent crises. 

Learn more about ACTS

Help Tides Achieve Environmental Justice

For Funders

To support and learn more about the Tides Foundation’s WE LEAD environmental grantmaking initiative, email [email protected].

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For Grant Seekers

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