This member interview with Grassroots International is one of three in our series covering EGAers' COP30 perspectives.
EGA member, Grassroots International, is a global grantmaking and movement support organization. At this year’s COP30 negotiations, the organization supported movement partners to attend the conference and critical civil society spaces—the historic Peoples’ Summit Towards COP30, Global March for Climate Justice, and the IV International Encounter of Communities affected by Dams and the Climate Crisis.
We’re pleased to share a reportback on these pivotal global gatherings in Belém, Brazil, from members of Grassroots International’s team: Saulo Araujo, Director of Global Philanthropy, Boaventura Monjane, Solidarity Program Officer for West Africa and Haiti, Juan Reardon, Solidarity Program Officer for Latin America, and Lydia Simas, Solidarity Program Officer for Brazil.
Saulo, Boaventura, Juan, and Lydia offered collaborative reflections on the outcomes of COP30, on practicing solidarity philanthropy in support of social movements, and on how philanthropy can advance community-led climate solutions beyond the summit.
EGA: How did Grassroots International participate in COP30 this year?
Saulo, Boaventura, Juan, and Lydia (Grassroots International): As part of our long-term accompaniment of climate justice work, Grassroots International supported the participation of a variety of our movement partners, including those from Brazil, Mesoamerica, Puerto Rico, Haiti, West Africa, and the US/Turtle Island. Many took part in “inside-outside” strategies around COP30, through which movements participated both in the formal proceedings and in self-organized activities outside the official venue.
Inside activities ranged from a session exposing the links between militarism and the climate crisis to testimonials on the false promises of carbon credit schemes.
Outside activities included the historic Peoples’ Summit Toward COP30 and Global March for Climate Justice, attended by more than 70,000 people. This wide variety of tactics, together with others, such as a protest by Indigenous Peoples within the official meetings, brought the voices of those most impacted by the climate crisis to the fore and forced critical debates – around fossil fuels, false solutions, and more – in a setting otherwise dominated by corporate interests.
We had three staff members accompanying the Peoples’ Summit Towards COP30, which is an articulation of over 1,000 social movements and other organizations that took place in parallel to the UN meetings. The Peoples’ Summit has been a fixture in UN climate gatherings since the Rio Earth Summit of 1992, held in Rio de Janeiro. However, the repressive contexts of recent COPs (Egypt and Azerbaijan, for example) have made the summits difficult to organize and dangerous to host.
A few days before this year’s Peoples’ Summit, our team participated in the IV International Encounter of Communities affected by Dams and the Climate Crisis. We attended numerous preparatory meetings, both in-person and virtual, to accompany and learn from these two organizing spaces. We also provided financial support for the organization of both events and for the participation of social movements in Brazil and internationally.
In addition to learning from our partners and allies and deepening our relationships at the Peoples’ Summit, we were there as a connector. For instance, we created opportunities for movement partners from Haiti and West Africa to build relationships. We also connected our partner, Organización Boricua from Puerto Rico, to speak on a panel about peasant seeds organized by the Popular Peasant Movement (MCP), which is also one of our partners in Brazil.
EGA: Grassroots International supported the IV International Meeting of Communities Affected by Dams and the Climate Crisis during COP30. What were the goals of this meeting?
GI: The IV International Encounter is another space that has been built over decades, organized by social movements articulating struggles against dams. It is incredible to see how much the social movements led by people affected by dams have accomplished since their first encounter in Mexico (2010).
In Belém, the IV International Encounter brought together over 350 people from 62 countries across the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Europe. We can call this a victory by the Movement of People Affected by Dams of the Americas (MAR in Spanish). It took a lot for them to organize in the current context, including raising the funds for this event. The communities and families organized in MAR are an example for all of us. They remind us of the false narratives of large “clean energy” projects that supply other extractive projects.
The Encounter had several goals. One was to sustain and grow organizing to defend the rights of families who have lost their relatives, homes, and livelihoods to hydropower dams, wind farms, and mining waste dams. An exciting benchmark related to this goal is the decision to build a new global movement of people affected by dams, socio-environmental crimes, and the climate crisis. This is a major initiative to strengthen the coordination of thousands of communities worldwide. Additionally, participants discussed real solutions based on communities’ self-determination, collective well-being, and international solidarity.
EGA: What other priorities and outcomes were your organization focused on at COP30 that impacted your overarching work?
GI: These gatherings led by social movements are not isolated events. They are built on processes that came before and things to come. For example, the 3rd Nyéléni Global Forum last September, the International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ICARRD+20) planned for February 2026 in Cartagena, and the World Social Forum planned for August 2026 in Porto Novo, Benin. These are spaces for reflection, learning exchange, and relationship building.
As allies, staying in praxis – reflecting, learning, and having clarity of the next steps we are taking collectively with our partners – is the foundation of accountability and trust.
Our team is coming back re-connected, re-committed, and re-energized after meeting with old friends, sharing space, meals, conversations, and experiencing the vibrancy and resilience of our grassroots partners. Similar to the 3rd Nyéléni Global Forum’s Kandy Declaration, the final declaration of the Peoples’ Summit and the forthcoming declaration from the IV International Encounter will serve as guideposts for social movements and our work accompanying them for years to come.
The participating grassroots movements, such as La Via Campesina International, World March of Women, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, HOMEF, The Global Convergence of Struggles for Land and Water – West Africa, The No REDD in Africa Network, and others, left the Peoples’ Summit emboldened by their ability to articulate their collective strength into the Summit’s deliberations.
Several described the success of the Peoples’ Summit as being directly linked to years of trust- and confidence-building, including the recent 3rd Nyéléni Global Forum. The events in Belem confirmed how deeply important it is for social movements to accompany, support, and learn from one another as they face common challenges, threats, and enemies. The Summit was imbued with a strong spirit of internationalism. The solidarity with Palestine was especially palpable.
EGA: Grassroots International recently released a report and call to action on Solidarity Philanthropy. Can you share what solidarity philanthropy is, and how it connected to your programming at COP30?
GI: We - including movement partners, our supporters, and peers in philanthropy - are excited about the Solidarity Philanthropy framework. Through the interconnected components of solidarity, internationalism, praxis, positionality, alignment with movements, donor organizing, and movement accompaniment, solidarity philanthropy offers a pathway towards the immediate resourcing of social movements and the transformation of philanthropy into a movement-support sector. While the latter is a long-term goal, support for social movements needs to happen now.
Both the Peoples’ Summit and the IV International Encounter were underfunded, forcing organizers to scale back their goals. This is a common situation that needs to end. Global social movements – which are the engine of policy change and long-term transformation – are not getting the resources they need. Yet, they were able to organize one of the largest mobilizations of Indigenous Peoples and movements that challenged the failures of COP and highlighted a grassroots-led agenda.
The Solidarity Philanthropy framework offers a clear vision and methodologies of how we - people in philanthropy - can build alignment with social movements to meet the moment. Grounded in decades of learning, the framework highlights essential elements, such as internationalism, which we believe must be front and center in our work as funders. We believe that Solidarity Philanthropy adds to the important work of frameworks like Trust-Based Philanthropy, Justice Funders’ Resonance Framework, Resource Generation’s Social Justice Philanthropy, and Solidaire’s Transformative Donor Organizing, among others.
Solidarity Philanthropy plays a critical role for social movements to build power and effectively influence the discussions on the climate crisis. The framework is now part of the outputs of the 3rd Nyeleni Global Forum in Sri Lanka and was presented at the Peoples’ Summit. Our task now is to get more people in philanthropy to understand the framework and engage in future actions in alignment with social movements. The discussions from the 3rd Nyeleni Global Forum, the Peoples’ Summit, and the International Feminist Organizing School that will take place in September 2026 in Kenya are interconnected. We already see growth in organizing at the global level.
While social movements will continue sharing the framework among their members, we will also bring the action points to the 2nd Solidarity Philanthropy Praxis Retreat May 13-17 in Occidental, CA. Joining us at the Retreat are five global social movements and individual donors, funders, and philanthropic advisors.
EGA: How can local and regional grantmakers practice solidarity philanthropy to advance global climate action?
GI: First, we encourage everyone to read our publication. There, we explain the key elements and conditions to deepen your relationship with grassroots organizations, social movements, and more.
An important step is to integrate an internationalist perspective into local and regional grantmaking dockets. Internationalism broadens our view and action. It should not be seen as being opposed to a local and regional focus. It is hard to accomplish climate justice without internationalism, as no one thrives in isolation. The root causes are the same everywhere, and communities will not stand a chance without the connection and solidarity of others.
We, as grantmakers, can further strengthen our analysis and impact by integrating a more holistic perspective and adding more layers for growth and resilience by local communities. An internationalist practice pushes us to move beyond a limited focus on geography to understand and reflect on the interconnection of struggles in different localities. It is this interconnectedness that will generate the conditions for local communities to win long after the financial support ceases.
It is important to remember that local peasant communities built global social movements like La Via Campesina International, with 162 organizations in 81 countries representing over 200 million people. Philanthropy can create the conditions for even more grassroots power by making our grantmaking a tool to strengthen the organizing on the ground.
Local and regional funders can embed an internationalist perspective in their grantmaking by supporting local communities to participate in global spaces and also participate alongside them and other allies. That will not divert funders’ attention from local issues. On the contrary, it will help them see how others are confronting the same issues while building new connections.
EGA: COP30 is contextualized by a complex geopolitical landscape. Notably, the United States, the second-highest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and the climate crisis, is not in attendance. How did you see geopolitics impact the overall negotiations?
GI: The United States' absence from the negotiations did not significantly affect the expected outcomes of this COP. For instance, the U.S.’s absence did not prevent the positions it usually advances from appearing on the agenda. The current US administration’s climate-denialist tendencies, the promotion of the financialization of nature, and other false solutions were well represented by US allies and by lobbyists operating within the US sphere of influence. Two proposals vastly discussed at the COP – the Tropical Forest Forever Initiative (TFFI) and the Belém 4x Pledge on Sustainable Fuels – are not too far removed from past U.S. interventions in the negotiations.
The U.S. absence makes it more apparent than ever that we live in a multi-polar world in which the U.S. government is far removed from the real solutions needed by people and the planet. It continues to escape responsibility or accountability towards the global community.
Countries in the Global South are taking the opportunity to lead, but unfortunately, the majority of nations have embraced carbon markets, which, from the non-binding Paris Agreement of COP21 (2015), are becoming more insulated from public scrutiny. In Belém, corporations and governments went further in passing the risks and the costs to Indigenous Peoples and other communities.
In many ways, the scenario is clear for us in climate philanthropy. We need to resource social movements now that they are on a steady path of growth. Working alongside them will dictate whether we will have enough power to fight back against harmful initiatives in the future. At COP30, social movements had the right analysis: create spaces of convergence and unity to gather enough power to fight back against false solutions. With little support from philanthropy, they still were able to mobilize 20,000 people for the Peoples’ Summit.
EGA: Accountability measures are often omitted in the development of climate agreements. How can philanthropy support accountability for global climate goals that emerge from COP30?
GI: Philanthropy is at a crossroads in its own turf. For different reasons, important actors in philanthropy are retracting at a moment when social movements most need them. The assessment is that philanthropic actors alone are not able to hold corporations and governments accountable, not only on climate, but on other related issues.
It is time for us to build more alignment in philanthropy and with social movements. Social movements are showing us the way in these challenging times, with the Peoples’ Summit Final Declaration affirming the importance of “public financing and taxation of corporations and the wealthiest individuals” and “international climate financing (that does) not go through institutions that deepen inequality between North and South, such as the IMF and the World Bank,” but is instead “structured in a fair, transparent, and democratic manner“.
The Solidarity Philanthropy framework offers us clarity and concrete steps on how we can build power with Indigenous Peoples and social movements. From our perspective, we need to strengthen alignment between people in philanthropy and global social movements. We cannot win in isolation. We win by working together. Global social movements have the infrastructure, the analytical sophistication, the permeability, and the membership that no one else has. At this decisive moment for philanthropy, building alignment with social movements is necessary to create enough power to push for more accountability from corporations and governments.
This member interview is one of three in our series covering EGAer's COP30 perspectives. We invite you to read our interview with Casa Socio-Environmental Fund and an op-ed from the Global Greengrants Fund as well.
EGA conducted this interview with:
- Saulo Araujo is Director of Global Philanthropy at Grassroots International.
- Boaventura Monjane is Solidarity Program Officer for West Africa and Haiti at Grassroots International.
- Juan Reardon is Solidarity Program Officer for Latin America at Grassroots International.
- Lydia Simas is Solidarity Program Officer for Brazil at Grassroots International.
Grassroots International, is a global grantmaking and movement support organization. They accompany, fund, and work in solidarity with movements, predominantly in the Global South and the U.S., on the frontlines of change.