Here’s my advice for funding land, air, and water initiatives. Here are 16 specific funding areas (clean water, trees, native plants, wildfire reforestation, wetlands, coral reefs, endangered species, seed banks, soil health, conservation easements, urban tree canopy, air quality monitoring, small-scale fisheries, clean energy access, community solar microgrids, and aging water infrastructure) paired with practical tips on how to fund each one well; including the maintenance, training, monitoring, and enforcement work that's sometimes forgotten, or underfunded, compared to the initial project itself.
Fund clean water and protect water. Why? Basic need. Life or death for many communities. Cascading effects into all other areas of life on Earth. Bonus: water supports all living beings. Fund the maintenance too. Fund the plumbers, and fund the training that turns a local person into a plumber. A well with no one who knows how to fix it is temporary.
Fund trees. Protect existing trees. (Trees, I love them!) Clean air is vital to most living beings, and we can’t live on Earth without it. Trees have a regenerative effect on major and minor systems, on macro and nano levels. Tip: Avoid monoculture plantations. A fast single-species stand behaves more like a lumber yard than a forest. Push for biodiversity even though it’s harder; it’s worth it. Set the outcome goal as trees alive at 5, 10, and 25+ years, not trees planted on day one.
Fund plants. Why? Food. Clean air. Regenerative for the soil. Cascading effects into medicine, fabrics, and so much more. Bonus: plants support all living beings. Tip: Keep initiatives community-led, native-species-only, and organic. Imported or hybrid seed stock can quietly undercut the local varieties it’s supposed to support.
Fund reforestation after wildfire. Why? Land needs help remembering what it was. Good to Know: Timing and species-matching to the burned ecosystem matter. It’s ideal to plan and fund before you need it. Know what belongs there, and be ready to move fast when the fire happens, not scramble afterward.
Fund wetland restoration. Why? Wetlands filter water and absorb floods for free. We keep destroying the infrastructure nature already built. Tip: Fund the long-term monitoring. A restored wetland can quietly fail to establish and just become mud, not marsh, if no one’s watching it for years after the ribbon-cutting.
Fund coral reef restoration. Why? Reefs support a quarter of all marine life and buffer coastlines against storms. Tip: Fund the long-term monitoring here too. The same principle applies to wetlands and reefs; restoration only counts if someone’s tracking whether it took.
Fund conservation of endangered species. Why? Extinction is permanent. Ecosystems lose stability with every species they lose. Tip: Push past the charismatic megafauna (pandas, elephants, whales, although they are amazing) toward the less photogenic but ecologically critical species like insects, fungi, amphibians. They’re doing the heavy lifting and are consistently underfunded.
Fund seeds and seed banks. Why? Biodiversity is insurance against an unpredictable future. Tip: Fund both the big centralized vaults and the small, community-led seed-saving networks. One big facility is a single point of failure; a network of small ones is resilient. Together they create a more resilient system.
Fund soil health research. Why? Healthy soil is the foundation under the whole food system. It’s also a climate solution hiding in plain sight. Tip: Commit to the long term because results are years out, and that’s exactly why it stays underfunded. Fund it anyway. It’s boring on the surface (see what I did there?), but once you dive in, you’ll be amazed by what’s under your feet.
Fund land conservation easements. Why? Permanent protection outlives any single act of generosity. Tip: Easements are only as good as their enforcement. Seek out a well-run local land conservancy and make sure it’s genuinely well funded, not just well-intentioned. Community-based monitoring helps, even informally, though the formal power structure doesn’t always make room for it. Education matters immensely in this area. Judges and township supervisors need to understand why easements are worth protecting.
Fund urban tree canopy in low-income neighborhoods. Why? Shade isn’t distributed equally, and heat kills. Tip: Go in with eyes open: greening a neighborhood measurably raises property values and can accelerate displacement if it isn’t paired with housing protections. Warn the people you’re funding about this risk up front. Better yet, work with the people who live in the neighborhood. They’ll be cool:)
Fund clean air monitoring in industrial neighborhoods. Why? You can’t fix what you can’t measure. Tip: Make the data open source, and fund the education that helps a community know where to look and what the numbers mean. Pair it with legal aid funding, so there’s a real path to holding corporate polluters accountable and allowing the community to speak up for clean air. There are real possibilities for public/private partnership here.
Fund small-scale fisheries. Why? They feed coastal communities without the damage of industrial fishing. Note: I’m not sure what the fix is for the larger competitive pressure from industrial fleets in the same waters. Maybe the search for this answer needs funding too. The point is, the data points to larger scales causing damage when local knowledge seems to have figured out the balance.
Fund clean energy for the people who need it most. Why? The people least responsible for climate change often pay the highest price for it. Tip: Don’t forget to fund local technical training and maintenance, and fund people’s time to learn it. Panels that break with no one nearby to fix them stop being clean energy fast.
Fund shared neighborhood solar microgrids. Why? A community-scale answer to energy dependence means households sharing a system rather than each one going it alone. Sounds like a good plan to me.
Fund clean water infrastructure repair in aging cities. Why? The pipes under most cities are older than most people realize. Prevention is cheaper than the disaster it prevents. The upside: when this is funded well, individual homeowners don’t have to shoulder the repair cost themselves, and cities don’t have to cut programs to meet required balanced-budget protocols, which means home value stays intact instead of taking the hit.
FAQs
What are the best environmental causes to fund as a philanthropist? Clean water access and protection, tree planting paired with long-term biodiversity monitoring, native and organic plant/food systems, wildfire reforestation, wetland and coral reef restoration, endangered species conservation (especially insects, fungi, and amphibians), seed banks, soil health research, land conservation easements, and clean energy access are among the highest-impact land, air, and water funding areas.
Why do environmental funding projects fail even when well-funded? Most environmental philanthropy focuses on building something visible — a well, a planted tree, a solar panel — while underfunding the boring, invisible work that keeps it functioning: maintenance, local technical training, long-term monitoring, and enforcement. A well with no trained plumber, or a restored wetland no one checks on for years, quietly fails even after the money is spent.
What's the difference between a good tree-planting program and a bad one? A good program avoids monoculture plantations (fast, single-species stands that behave more like lumber yards than forests), prioritizes biodiversity, and measures success by how many trees are still alive at 5, 10, and 25+ years.
How can funders avoid unintended harm, like gentrification, when greening a neighborhood? Urban tree canopy and green space investment can raise property values enough to accelerate displacement if it isn't paired with housing protections. Funders should disclose this risk upfront and work directly with the people already living in the neighborhood rather than designing projects around them.
Why fund seed banks, and should funding go to large or small ones? Seed banks protect biodiversity as insurance against an unpredictable future. Funders should support both large centralized vaults and small community-led seed-saving networks. A single large facility is a point of failure, while a network of smaller ones is more resilient.
What's an underappreciated area of conservation funding? Less charismatic species — insects, fungi, and amphibians — do significant ecological work but are consistently underfunded compared to "charismatic megafauna" like pandas, elephants, and whales.
How does funding clean air monitoring reduce pollution? Air quality data alone doesn't change outcomes unless it's paired with public education (so communities know how to read and use the data) and legal aid funding, which gives communities a real path to hold major polluters accountable.
Why fund water infrastructure repair in aging cities? Underground pipe systems are often decades older than realized, and prevention is far cheaper than the disaster of failure. When cities fund this proactively, individual homeowners avoid unexpected repair costs and home values stay intact, and cities avoid the budget cuts that come from emergency repairs.
Shanon Solava is a community psychologist, lay Buddhist practitioner, and Certified Impact Philanthropy Advisor. Her practice focuses on the human dimensions of wealth stewardship, philanthropic strategy, and values-centered governance for families, foundations, and philanthropic institutions. She writes Giving Without Grasping from her home in Pennsylvania, where she tends five acres of native meadow and forest. Reach her at [email protected].