Micro-grants for climate change makers 

08.08.25 06:30 AM - By Raisa

Small Actions, Big Impact Grants

The Small Actions, Big Impact grants will provide change-makers with targeted financial support for community-based and/or cross-country interventions that strengthen the adaptive capacity of the communities they represent. These micro-grants are intentionally small, incremental, and flexible, enabling rapid and context-specific responses to the unpredictable and shifting realities of climate change. By being decentralised and agile, they allow communities to test new ideas, adapt strategies in real-time, and address urgent challenges without waiting for lengthy funding cycles or rigid programme frameworks.

Alongside the grants, recipients will receive comprehensive training in intersectional feminist and decolonial methodologies for climate intervention design, ensuring that solutions are rooted in justice, inclusivity, and lived experience. Institutional training in grant and financial management will further equip changemakers to manage resources transparently, report effectively, and position themselves for sustained funding.

Theory of Change:
If grassroots leaders and community organisers are equipped with small-scale, rapid-deployment funding and the skills to design, implement, and adapt interventions using justice-oriented methodologies, then they will be able to respond more effectively to local climate risks, leverage community knowledge, and prototype innovative solutions.


Because the grants are decentralised, they empower diverse actors to lead context-specific responses that are more responsive and accountable to local priorities.


Because they are incremental, they create space for learning-by-doing, enabling adaptation and improvement over time.
Because they are embedded in training and peer learning, they will not only produce immediate adaptive actions but also strengthen long-term institutional capacity and leadership in climate governance.


Ultimately, this approach supports a distributed network of capable, connected, and resourced changemakers who can collectively advance Africa’s just adaptation agenda, while challenging centralised, top-down models that often overlook the realities of those most affected by climate change.

Target Partners

The programme will prioritise partnerships with:


  • Grassroots organisations and community-based groups that have a proven track record in climate resilience, local advocacy, or environmental stewardship.
  • Youth and women-led movements advancing intersectional approaches to climate justice.
  • Youth and women-led movements advancing intersectional approaches to climate justice.
  • Cross-country and cross-border networks that facilitate knowledge exchange and joint action between climate-vulnerable communities.
  • Traditional knowledge holders, indigenous leadership structures, and local cooperatives whose expertise is critical to sustainable adaptation strategies.


    • Our Participatory Grant-making Approach


    This programme is rooted in the belief that those closest to climate challenges are best placed to design the solutions. Grants will be awarded through a participatory process involving community representatives, past grantees, and peer organisations in decision-making panels. The process will:


    • Co-create funding priorities with communities at the start of each funding cycle.

    • Use transparent and accessible application processes, offering application support in multiple languages and formats.

    • Incorporate feedback loops so applicants understand selection decisions and can strengthen future proposals.

    • Prioritise learning and adaptation over compliance, encouraging grantees to adjust activities as conditions change.

    • Foster peer-to-peer accountability by creating spaces for grantees to review each other’s progress and share lessons.


    Raisa

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