About the Award
The Emerging Climate Champions Award is a $25 million global Open Call sponsored by the Enlight Foundation and The Patchwork Collective that will provide flexible, multiyear gifts of $1 million each to youth-led organizations advancing climate solutions across the globe. Informed by feedback from young climate leaders around the world, the Emerging Climate Champions Award directly takes into account youth perspectives, as well as cultural and localized contexts for climate work.
Today’s young people will bear the burden of the adverse impacts of climate change, yet little funding goes to youth-led solutions. Global annual funding for climate change work represents less than 2% of total philanthropic giving, or about $16 billion. Support for youth-led climate initiatives is even more limited, with just $14.2 million in annual grants.
This Award seeks to shine a spotlight on climate organizations with youth leadership. For this Open Call, youth is defined as ages 15-35, and leadership pertains to youth who hold an executive staff position or a board member position in an organization. The Award invites applications from organizations with at least two years of operation (as of the registration deadline – August 15, 2025) that are community-led, and that have demonstrated experience, impact potential, and measurable results in advancing durable climate solutions in the communities they serve.
Organizations from all around the world are encouraged to apply, including those from historically under-resourced and/or under-represented communities, such as Indigenous-led organizations, women-led organizations, grassroots organizations, and others. The Award welcomes eligible organizations working across a full spectrum of climate issues and solutions, including but not limited to areas such as education, movement building, climate justice, science/technology, economic opportunity, community resilience, conservation, advocacy, sustainable agriculture, disaster preparedness, and others.
Process + Key Dates and Resources
Before applying, complete the Organization Readiness Tool and refer to the Open Call Rules to help determine eligibility and to ensure that your organization is a strong fit for the Open Call. Take some time to review the application, which is accessible in PDF form here.
Interested organizations must register to apply before 5:00 p.m. U.S. Eastern Time on Friday, August 15, 2025. Complete applications are due before 5:00 p.m. U.S. Eastern Time on Monday, September 22, 2025.
Valid applications will be evaluated by four fellow applicants during Participatory Review between November and December 2025. Top-scoring applicants will advance to Evaluation Panel Review, where they will be evaluated by four Evaluation Panel Reviewers. Scores will be adjusted to ensure fairness. Top-scoring applicants in the Emerging Climate Champions Award will each be eligible to receive a flexible, multiyear gift of $1 million. The Emerging Climate Champions Award Open Call awardees will be announced by fall 2026.
If you have registered for the Emerging Climate Champions Award, you will have received a confirmation email confirming your registration. Within the hour, you will have received another email containing instructions for accessing the Open Call’s application.
If you have already begun your application, you may sign into your Submittable account at manager.submittable.com/login. Once signed in, you may access and continue your application. You may also view your application, once complete, via your Submittable account. If you have lost or forgotten your password, please follow the instructions here.
All communications regarding the Emerging Climate Champions Award, including answers to submitted questions, will be sent from climatechampions@submittable.com. Please safelist this address with your email service provider in addition to Submittable notification emails to ensure that you receive all open call reminders, updates, and information, as well as answers to your inquiries. Please find a brief how-to here.
Language Support
Applications must be submitted in English. We understand that using English as the sole language for the Open Call may pose a challenge for those for whom English is not a first language. However, we made this decision to ensure consistency and minimize the risk of translation errors or misinterpretations in the application and evaluation process. We encourage everyone to apply regardless of their language background, and to that end, we have built several language accessibility provisions into this Open Call. We encourage you to utilize the below translation resources to support your application:
The Open Call website provides a list of several free translation services here.
For those for whom Spanish, French, or Bahasa Indonesia is a preferred and/or primary language, you can access translations of Open Call materials here.
Please also note that we provide as standard practice language interpretation in at least French and Spanish as well as ASL interpretation for all applicant and evaluator webinars.
While your application must be submitted in English and online in the Submittable platform, the translated forms and translation resources are intended to support the development of your application.
Webinar
You may access a recording of the Emerging Climate Champions Award Pre-Registration and Pre-Application Webinar, held on July 22, here. To access the live interpretation recording in Spanish click here, for French click here, and for Bahasa Indonesia click here. This webinar covers an overview of the Emerging Climate Champions Award, a demonstration of the registration and application platform, and answers to some frequently asked questions.
About the Donor Sponsors
Enlight Foundation
Enlight Foundation focuses on education equality and youth empowerment. For this decade, the foundation is focused on three primary pillars: Youth mental wellbeing, youth-driven climate change solutions, and next-generation social change makers. To create systems change, the foundation invests in young people, elevates youth voices, and works collaboratively with other foundations, researchers, and nonprofits. By identifying and investing in ambitious social entrepreneurs and bold ideas, providing flexible and multiyear grants as catalytic capital to support pilots, research, and scale proven solutions, we collaborate with like-minded funders whenever possible for bigger collective impact.
The Patchwork Collective
The Patchwork Collective is a family philanthropic effort supporting locally-led solutions to global challenges. We fund diverse, bold, community-driven organizations and leaders across climate justice, social equity, and global health. Our mission is to empower the most vulnerable and marginalized communities, wherever they may be. By placing local leaders and communities at the center of our work, we preserve community agency, address inequity.
