Foundation funding for climate change adaptation and resilience 2025

Scientist collecting a sediment core to asses scarbon sequestration rates in the sediment of mangroves.

Foundation funding for climate change adaptation and resilience 2025

This report explores how foundations fund adaptation and resilience, revealing key gaps and opportunities for greater impact.

Download Report

Report Adaptation & Resilience

By Jessica Hitt, Narine Esmaeili, Cassidy Gasteiger, Tim Lau, Megan Turnlund

Adaptation is no longer optional — it’s essential

As climate impacts intensify, communities are facing compounding crises — from heatwaves and droughts to floods and displacement. These disruptions strain health systems, threaten food production and livelihoods, and undermine decades of progress in poverty reduction and development.

The challenge for philanthropy is clear: resilience must be built into every investment and strategy to safeguard these gains.

Today, less than 10% of total climate finance supports adaptation, while developing countries face an annual shortfall of $359 billion in meeting their adaptation needs. The gap is vast — but philanthropy can play a catalytic role by seeding innovation, generating evidence, and supporting mechanisms that de-risk investments to help catalyze larger capital flows.

Drawing on information from 40 foundations, this new report provides a detailed analysis of how foundations are funding adaptation and resilience, where critical gaps remain, and opportunities for greater impact.

Key findings from the report

Foundations are scaling up adaptation funding.
Funding remains concentrated in a few sectors.
Regional disparities persist worldwide.
All regions and sectors remain underfunded.

Three ways philanthropy can accelerate adaptation now

Expand and integrate adaptation investments

Embed a climate resilience lens across existing strategies — from health and food security to infrastructure and finance — and direct adaptation investments where climate risks are highest.

Connect and learn with other funders

Participate in initiatives like the Adaptation & Resilience Collaborative for Funders (ARC) to learn, share insights, and catalyze greater adaptation investment.

Deepen collective insight

Help improve visibility across the philanthropy community and unlock insights into adaptation. Foundations or intermediaries can participate in the growth of this funding landscape by contacting ClimateWorks.

Voices from the field

“Adaptation is a unifying thread across philanthropy. The report highlights clear opportunities to direct resources to underfunded regions, sectors, and locally led efforts — from families affected by recurrent forest fires in Brazil's Pantanal to fishing and riverine communities in the drought-stricken North.”

Maria Netto

| Executive Director of the Instituto Clima e Sociedade

“The business case for investing in adaptation and resilience efforts is clear. A recent report from WRI calculates that every dollar invested in adaptation pays off with a $10 return. It is heartening to see new philanthropic actors step into this space. It’s no longer a debate about whether to invest in adaptation or mitigation — to invest in a prosperous future, it’s both.”

Claire Harbron

| CEO at Howden Foundation

“Climate resilience can save lives, transform communities, unlock new possibilities, and safeguard economies. How funders respond to climate impacts today will shape the future for decades to come. Local leaders are already driving innovative and catalytic adaptation on the ground, but the scale of progress depends on how boldly philanthropy invests in these solutions now.”

Helen Mountford

| President and CEO at ClimateWorks Foundation

“Philanthropy plays a vital role in accelerating innovations that help communities build resilience. Momentum for climate adaptation is growing, but funding must move faster and reach farther — to local innovators and communities already facing climate extremes. Investing in locally led solutions can strengthen the food, health, and economic systems people rely on to adapt and thrive. But philanthropy can’t do it alone — progress depends on sustained, aligned investment at every level.”

Neil Watkins

| Deputy Director at the Gates Foundation

Share this report

Download Report