Grant winners
Here are the amazing projects and organisations our community has supported to date.
2023
Seed Mob,
August 2023
Seed are the country’s first and only youth-led First Nations organisation, living the principle of self-determination by providing the space for our mob to make decisions and lead work to protect country. Support from the Groundswell community will enable Seed to build our internal capacity by growing our staff team to lead our campaign for a ban on gas fracking, run unique peer-led training and education programs for young First Nations people, and elevate First Nations voices and leadership in the climate conversation to make progress towards our vision for climate justice.
Australian Youth Climate Coalition, August 2023
We need a strong, diverse community movement to raise Australia’s climate ambition and leave fossil fuels in the ground. Young people have a critical leadership role to play in this movement; our generation will inherit the consequences of decisions made today. With Groundswell’s support, AYCC will scale up youth-led campaigns to stop climate-wrecking gas expansion, by eroding the social licence and Federal political support of the gas industry. We will also fund training summits, workshops and mentoring programs that empower young people as lifelong leaders for climate action.
North Queensland Conservation Council, August 2023
NQCC is dedicated to climate action and conservation in North Queensland. We advocate for ambitious climate action that delivers outcomes for nature, communities and First Nations people. This funding will bolster our grassroots organising, ensuring a strong and impactful local movement in this critical time in Queensland’s energy transition. Over the next 12 months, we will strategically work to grow a powerful and diverse movement in Gurambilbarra (Townsville) and shift the narrative about local climate action, in preparation for local government elections in March 2024.
Rewiring Australia,
August 2023
If we electrify everything, we don’t just help address the climate crisis, we create a world that is cheaper, cleaner and fairer. Rewiring Australia is on a mission to Electrify Everything. That is, to replace all fossil fuel-based machines with efficient, electric ones powered by renewable energy. We are working to empower communities, transform our energy landscape and accelerate the electric future. At the heart of our strategy to deliver our mission is our research and analysis which we use to drive government policy and investment while inspiring action and supporting Australians.
Climate Integrity,
August 2023
This is the era of delaying climate action – when fossil fuel companies like Shell have a social license to publish a Net Zero pledge while expanding coal oil and gas, we have a big problem. Climate Integrity is a new project that will tackle false solutions and greenwashing in business Net Zero pledges in Australia. Groundswell funding would provide critical start-up capacity to set benchmarks for science-aligned net zero pledges, launch a national campaign to close the window for greenwashing and build public and political momentum for regulation.
Grata Fund, August 2023
Grata catalyses high impact, strategic climate litigation brought by people and communities. We make high impact, potentially game-changing cases happen, like Uncle Pabai and Uncle Paul’s Australian Climate Case. We are supporting Uncle Pabai and Uncle Paul, two Traditional Owners and Native Title rights holders from the islands of Boigu and Saibai in Zenadth Kes (the Torres Strait) to sue the Australian Government for negligence. If successful, this may force the government to reduce emissions in line with the best available science. Funding would help us to cover the cost of the next stage of this critical case, including expert testimony hearings in November and boost our capacity to take on at least one new climate justice case.
Comms Declare,
August 2023
The Fossil Ad Ban campaign is the most successful of its type in the world. Since launching in 2022, 12 Australian councils, including the City of Sydney, have voted to ban fossil fuel advertising and sponsorships. Your funding will help us scale up - moving from councils to lobbying federal politicians - to stop and/or restrict fossil fuel advertising and sponsorships across the country. National laws that prevent future fossil fuel marketing are the only guaranteed, comprehensive and long-term method of reducing the industry’s social licence.
Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action, August 2023
The 2023 El Nino brings threats of increasingly catastrophic fires but also the opportunity for bushfire survivors to powerfully communicate the need for urgent emissions reductions to create impactful and lasting change. Our personal experiences of climate impacts equip us to speak to politicians, governments, regulatory bodies and the courts, with a unique and compelling moral authority to progress change. It is through the telling of these raw stories of personal loss and trauma that we engage, motivate and compel action to call for a safer climate future.
Arid Lands Environment Centre,
August 2023
The burden of climate change is borne unevenly by First Nations people, whose country and wellbeing, sacred sites and cultural practices are exponentially impacted. With an NT election in 2024 and an horrifically hot summer almost certainly ahead of us, ALEC we will use social organising principles to translate deep public concerns and the reality of climate change into ballot box pressure for decisions in the public interest, including future generations and non-humans. Specifically we will continue to engage with and amplify the voices of the region’s traditional owners; and support and resource community individuals and groups who are alive to the threats to Australia’s arid lands.
Tomorrow Movement, August 2023
Tomorrow Movement organises young people to build public and political support to win transformative policies to improve the lives of thousands of people while solving the climate crisis. By taking escalating actions we can make ambitious solutions winnable and prompt historic government investment in climate justice solutions. With the cost of living crisis dominating headlines and impacting people’s lives, now is the moment to campaign for climate solutions that explicitly tie climate action to improving everyone’s quality of life. This groundwork will make transformative climate justice solutions a defining issue leading up to, and beyond the next Federal election.
Farmers for Climate Action, May 2023
Farmers for Climate Action is one of the most influential climate groups in Australia and an organisation ideally positioned to seriously shift the dial on climate policy as our window to avoid the worst impacts of climate change rapidly closes. Farmers are some of the most trusted spokespeople on climate and there are now almost 8000 farmers in their Farmers for Climate Action network across Australia. FCA’s advice is being sought across the political spectrum by those with significant decision making powers, including by Federal Government Ministers, and their network of farmers continue to influence MPs, inside and outside of government, to ensure economy-wide emissions reductions are achieved.
Climate Media Centre,
May 2023
The Climate Media Centre (an independent Climate Council program) is Australia’s go-to bureau for climate stories - connecting journalists with more than 5,000 trained spokespeople from a diverse range of backgrounds including firefighters, farmers, athletes, doctors, climate litigants, Traditional Owners, renters, extreme weather survivors and young people. With Groundswell’s support, a Senior Media Advisor will deliver three hours of support to these spokespeople and a range of grassroots campaigns everyday for a full year, empowering them to reach their peers through the media tens of thousands of times, and fundamentally transforming the faces and voices of climate change Australia to ensure this issue is relevant for all audiences.
Australiasian Centre Corporate Responsibility,
May 2023
Scientific pathways to 1.5C require material changes to major emitters’ corporate strategies by 2030. ACCR seeks to bring about this change through forceful engagement with their portfolio companies. They target Australia’s largest emitters as well as global stocks whose footprint cannot be ignored. Avoidable delays to direct escalation with these companies, whose activities are misaligned with a safe climate, are unacceptable from an emissions perspective. With Groundswell’s support, ACCR is seeing through its mission to use (and activate company shareholders/investors to use) shareholder tools to deliver changes to company strategy across target companies, to decrease absolute, real world emissions, in line with the best available science. ACCR has proven impact and are on a growth trajectory to expand their company coverage.
Environment Centre NT,
May 2023
The NT is ground zero for the fossil fuel industry’s expansion plans in Australia, and the Environment Centre NT is the only organisation campaigning to stop all three new gas projects planned: the Beetaloo Basin, the Barossa gasfield, and the Middle Arm petrochemical hub. Funding will ensure that Munupi clan representative and community campaigner, Antonia Burke, can be paid for her time so she can continue to build her campaigning capacity and support Tiwi Traditional Owners to sustain their fight against the Barossa gas project. It is vital that this campaign is First Nations-led, to minimise extractive campaigning practices and ensure that Tiwi people can work with someone they trust implicitly.
Australian Marine Conservation Society,
May 2023
Australia remains one of the world’s most active offshore oil and gas provinces, but the political landscape is shifting against new fossil fuel projects opening. In October 2023, the next round of annual offshore petroleum releases will be announced, making now the best time to challenge these proposals. This campaign requires expertise, collaboration across the eNGO sector, resources, staff, excellent and impactful communications. While the investment required is significant, the outcomes achieved will help dictate the future of Australia's marine environment and our planet. Thanks to seed funding, AMCS has commenced a campaign to stop offshore acreage releases in the south-east region. Now, funding from Groundswell will help AMCS develop a larger, more high-profile communications campaign.
2022
Multicultural Leadership Initiative, December 2022
The time to accelerate multicultral climate action is now. Given a quarter of Australians are racially, culturally and linguistically diverse yet represent only a tiny fraction of the climate movement (let alone the climate movement leadership), MLI is focused on identifying and developing community and culturally resonate climate messaging. These messages will be delivered through culturally specific trusted messengers and spaces. Through this we hope to inspire the seven million racially, culturally and linguistically diverse Australians to participate in building a climate safe future.
The Victorian Forest Alliance,
December 2022
The Victorian Forest Alliance is working closely with member communities and First Nations people to end native forest logging immediately in order to preserve forests as natural carbon sinks. Native forest logging in Victoria produces significant greenhouse gas emissions, generating around 3 million tonnes of carbon (CO2e) each year. The recent announcements by Victoria’s state government to achieve net zero by 2045 and a 75-80% emissions reduction target by 2035 presents an opportunity to leverage the latest findings of the carbon report to drive down emissions. Protecting forests is a low-cost, effective and immediate way to achieve both emissions reduction and to absorb carbon from the atmosphere.
Gudanji for Country, September 2022
‘Gudanji For Country was formed to help elevate the voices of the Clan group, the Kurrunjini Rrumburriya (part of the Gudanji Nation), in speaking for and caring for our Country. As a grass roots First Nations organisation, they are fighting to protect our Country from the damaging effects of overgrazing, mining and now fracking. In fighting to protect their Country, they are also aiming to elevate the voices of other First Nations and their own struggles. In doing so, they hope to better inform the wider public about our goals to protect Country, how they can join us in this fight and how we will all benefit from working together to protect our environment.
AYCC, $40,000,
April 2022
In the lead up to the 2022 Federal election, the Australian Youth Climate Coalition will empower young people to vote for meaningful climate action; elevate the voices and concerns of young people to our political leaders; and demonstrate our political power by growing the youth climate justice movement and building mass support for climate justice. A central goal during this time is to win strong policy commitments from at least one major party to raise their ambition on climate action.
Indigenous Peoples Organisation, April 2022
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities disproportionately feel the impacts of climate change. It threatens our rights to health, water, food, housing, self-determination. We seek to build the capacity of IPO members to raise awareness and engage decision-makers in supporting Australia’s transition to zero emissions and climate-resilient futures.
Solar Citizens,
December 2021
Solar Citizens campaigns for a fast and fair transition to renewable energy that is aligned with current climate science. To achieve this we build power in the community and advocate for government policies that benefit consumers by fast-tracking the uptake of cheaper renewable energy and cleaner electric transport.
Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action, Nov 2021
As bushfire-impacted people we use our lived experience to highlight the links between climate change and increasingly dangerous bushfires. We demand an urgent and just transition to renewable energy.
Environmental Justice Australia, August 2021
Environmental Justice Australia is an innovative public interest legal organisation, dedicated to using our legal expertise to fight for environmental justice on issues where we can have the most impact and in areas drive vital legal and policy reforms that fix the system where it is failing.
Towards Climate Justice through Valuing and Investing in Indigenous Worldviews, July 2021
Raising awareness on the importance of Indigenous knowledge systems that are integral to achieving climate justice.
No New Gas NT,
July 2021
The No New Gas campaign responds to the Australian and NT Government plans to “gas-fire” the NT’s economy. The campaign will build community opposition to new gas-based projects planned for pristine Darwin Harbour, and garner support for an alternative renewable-powered industrial precinct for Middle Arm. Project of Environment Centre NT.
Farmers for Climate Action, November 2020
FCA’s mission is to put those on the front lines of climate impacts at the forefront of climate solutions. Their vision is for Australia to be farming forever: we work to ensure emissions are reduced in a way that works for farming and rural communities, and that they are supported to be sustainable in the face of a changing climate. This is critical as farmers are frequently recognised as some of the most trusted voices on climate change and they can help communicate with public and political audiences about climate change.
Seed Indigenous Youth Climate Network, May 2020
Seed’s main campaign is to stop fracking in the Northern Territory - specifically targeting Origin Energy who are one of the first major energy companies planning to frack. In 2018, after the moratorium was lifted by the NT Labour Government, 51% of the territory was opened to unconventional oil and gas exploration and extraction. Fracking the NT will blow the world’s carbon budget past 1.5 degrees causing irreparable damage to communities, country and culture in the region.
Emergency Leaders for Climate Action, January 2020
Tackling climate change effectively requires rapidly and deeply reducing greenhouse gas pollution here in Australia and around the world. We have the solutions at our disposal, we just need the political will to get on with the job. ELCA works strategically to create more public awareness of climate change risks and build political will for climate action.
Climate Justice Legal Project, December 2022
Over the next three years, the Climate Justice Legal Project will build capacity and support community lawyers and organisations to identify and address the impacts of climate injustice; run litigation on behalf of individuals and communities experiencing climate harm to help shape legal and policy reform; and amplify the voices of individuals and communities with lived experience, to advocate for faster, fair, and more ambitious climate action. CJLP is a partnership between the Federation of Community Legal Centres, Environmental Justice Australia, and the Climate Council.
Tomorrow Movement, September 2022
Tomorrow Movement is fighting for solutions that match the scale of the climate, jobs and housing crisis. They are calling on the federal government to deliver a Climate Jobs Guarantee: a bold and transformative policy agenda that matches the scale of the climate and economic crisis. Their goal is to build a mass movement and inspire people who are already concerned about climate to step up their actions and to activate people who don’t currently see themselves as part of the climate transition by sparking their imagination of what the Climate Jobs Guarantee could mean for them by seeding and supporting local teams to lead campaigns that develop the vision for climate jobs in their communities.
CAFNEC,
September 2022
Working alongside Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s work for land and sea Country, Cairns and Far North Queensland Environment Centre leads and empowers their members and member groups to grow the movement and take action for a safe climate and vibrant FNQ environment, pushing government and industry decision makers to take action to mitigate and adapt to climate change and protect nature in FNQ. They lead focused campaigns that build community and demand action on strategic issues that cannot be ignored, creating tangible change for a safe climate and vibrant FNQ environment.
Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council, $40,000,
April 2022
We are standing to protect the pristine Martuwarra (Fitzroy River) Catchment from imminent, last ditch fossil fuel destruction. We are defending one of Earth’s last intact bioregions and offering alternative solutions based on ancient knowledge. Over the next 12 months we will continue to engage people in a powerful, Indigenous led campaign for climate justice. We will seize the opportunity to pressure government during the 2022 Federal Election and prevent further fossil fuel extraction.
2021
Environment Victoria, November 2021
Environment Victoria is taking Victoria’s environment regulator and the Latrobe Valley coal-fired power stations to court over their failure to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. It will be the first case to test Victoria’s key climate change legislation and challenge lax regulation of pollution from the dirtiest power stations in Australia.
Sweltering Cities x The Australia Institute, Nov 2021
Working together, we will make climate impacts a central issue in the marginal Western Sydney seat of Lindsay using new analysis of local heat projections, empowering diverse community advocates, and equip politicians with tailored climate solutions.
Seed,
August 2021
The first and only First Nations youth-led environmental organisation in the country, Seed trains and build ups Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people young people; leads campaigns to protect country and fight for climate justice; and elevates First Nations voices and leadership.
Central Queensland Energy Futures, July 2021
This funding is for a project of The Next Economy. It supports their goals to mobilise leaders across the conservative and coal-dependent region of Central Queensland to take action to accelerate the transition to a zero emissions future and generating national interest in the lead up to the next election.
Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council, April 2021
The Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council is an alliance of Elders and emerging leaders from six independent nations of the Fitzroy River Catchment in the Kimberley, Western Australia. They are an entirely Indigenous led organisation, on the front line in the battle against climate change working make the state 100% frack free and powered by renewables, to keep Martuwarra flowing strong.
2020
Doctors for the Environment Australia, November 2020
Doctors are one of the most trusted professional groups in Australia. At a time when trust has been eroded in politicians and with the advent of “fake news”, they can be a voice to which the public will listen. In the lead up to the next election, DEA has the capacity to conduct national level advocacy to moderate Liberal MPs and Ministers, Labor MPs, and key independents through existing established relationships that allow for both a top-down and bottom-up approach.
Clean State WA,
July 2020
The oil and gas industry is one of the biggest blockers to greater ambition on climate action in Western Australia. Clean State WA’s mission is to block the Woodside Burrup Hub, which is the single most polluting fossil fuel project anywhere in Australia, and by doing so, create pathways for clean energy solutions in Western Australia. The Groundswell Grant they received helped with the launch of the ‘Clean Jobs Plan’ – an ambitious program of action on climate change and job creation in WA.
Healthy Homes for Renters, December 2022
Healthy Homes for Renters is a collaborative campaign for minimum energy efficiency standards for rental homes in every state and territory in Australia, accelerating renewables uptake and reducing the burden of energy transition away from low income people and families. Their project goal is for every state and territory government to commit to minimum energy efficiency standards for rental homes. Their focus right now is NSW – by the end of 2023 they want the NSW Government and one other state jurisdiction to have committed to this and have begun implementations.
Hi Neighbour, September 2022
Hi Neighbour is an organisation utilising community-funded solar projects to finance training scholarships for locals to move to low-carbon jobs. Inspired by Indigenous systems thinkers like Tyson Yunkaporta, they are working for the social, economic and environmental health of Illawarra/Dharawal land and the people who live there. By reframing the transition to renewable energy as one grounded in economic prosperity and local jobs, they are building support for a clean energy future and implementing it at the same time. This practical approach circumnavigates the gridlock that's been holding regional transition back and develops a national case study for what what a positive transition looks like at a local level.
FrontRunners,
September 2022
Athletes are some of the most trusted voices in our community, frequently and FrontRunners is harnessing this cultural power to accelerate climate action and environmental care. Their strategy basis is if athletes and sporting organisations realise the threat climate and environment crises pose to their business model, and the positive opportunities climate action offers them, then they will take action on these issues. To do this, FrontRunners motivate and mobilise athletes and sporting organisations and give them the right information, tools, and opportunities to take care of the future of sport and the future of all of us.
Doctors for the Environment, $40,000, April 2022
Health is a universal issue that is relevant to all Australians and cuts across social, cultural and political divides and doctors are proven to be strong messengers on climate. This campaign raises community awareness of the links between climate change and health, and increases political ambition for progressive climate policy. Doctors use their trusted voices to shift mainstream audiences and to build relationships with electoral candidates in the lead-up to the federal election and beyond.
Environmental Defenders Office, November 2021
The Environmental Defenders Office is the largest environmental law practice in the Australia Pacific region. They use the power of the law to run groundbreaking cases and deliver legal solutions for people, nature and climate, driven by their vision of the world where nature thrives.
Hunter Jobs Alliance,
August 2021
The Hunter Jobs Alliance is delivering a sustainable, safe and prosperous future for the Hunter in which workers, their families, and the environment thrive by embracing shared community interests in securing jobs that enable and respond to the clean energy transition.
Australian Parents for Climate Action, August 2021
Australian Parents for Climate Action is on a mission to increase the political and corporate will for climate action by engaging and empowering millions of parents and carers across Australia to advocate for climate action in their communities, in the media, and to politicians and businesses.
Our Islands Our Home,
July 2021
Torres Strait Islanders are on the frontline of the climate crisis, and urgent action is needed to ensure they can remain on their Islands. Our Islands Our Home is a climate justice campaign led by Torres Strait Islanders to protect their island homes and a project of 350 Australia.
Indigenous Peoples’ Organisation, April 2021
IPO aims to strengthen and guide the positions of both the Australian Government and other stakeholders participating in the November 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), strengthen our capacity to engage the broader climate movement and raising of voices around the important role that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples can play in tackling the climate crisis.
Lock the Gate,
July 2020
Lock the Gate Alliance is a unique coalition of farmers, conservationists and Indigenous Traditional Owners working together to protect land, water and communities from dangerous coal and unconventional gas mining. They are a powerful de-centralised grassroots movement of communities impacted by mining working to constrain risky coal and gas projects, to hold mining companies to account, and to prevent or limit the damage to natural resources, climate and communities.
Climate and Health Alliance, May 2020
CAHA are Australia’s peak body on climate change and health, with 45 health group members, including the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, the Public Health Association of Australia and the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation. In February, the Climate and Health Alliance launched our Climate Change is a Health Emergency campaign, aiming to reach out to and support this new cohort of health organisations and professionals to take strategic action on climate. Now, we need to scale up.