YCJF 2025 Annual Report
Architects of Change: Youth Climate Action When It Mattered Most
Leading Change in Unprecedented Times
Dear Partners,
As we reflect on the events of the last year, it is clear that 2025 was unprecedented in more ways than one. Global funding cuts left hundreds of thousands without needed support, rolling back the progress we’ve made over decades in working towards a more just and equitable world. At the same time, we also witnessed some of the most significant wins in the history of the environmental movement.
Among them was a plan in the works from COP26 in 2021, just as we began developing YCJF. That’s when a group of students from the Pacific Islands had an idea that changed our movement forever; they decided to seek an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the state’s obligations to fight climate change. In July 2025, the ICJ issued a landmark opinion, stating that nation states have a legal obligation to prevent significant climate and environmental harm, and that countries must take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. While the world order as we know it was crumbling around us, this win filled our hearts with hope and highlighted the leadership of young people in securing a better future for the planet.
On the heels of this victory came others, also as a result of years of dedicated and sustained work. In both South Korea and South Africa, youth mobilized and secured historic judgments protecting the rights of future generations and accelerating climate action.
Despite the global paradigm shift, at YCJF we stayed true to our course, mobilizing resources to support the most remarkable young leaders driving climate and environmental justice worldwide. Since our inception, we have funded more than 110 groups across 50+ countries, totaling $4.8 million in grants. And while our latest ecosystem scan with ClimateWorks Foundation found that only 0.96% of climate philanthropy reaches youth-led work, we're proud to have influenced and catalyzed $36.2 million in additional commitments to the field. We are also honored to receive the World Economic Forum's GAEA Award and the Environmental Grantmakers Association Award, a reflection of the sector’s recognition of our critical role in supporting youth climate movements.
Growing YCJF, supporting our partners, bringing in new philanthropic collaborators, and expanding our participatory governance model, all while navigating a sector under strain, was a major effort for our team and community. We are grateful and honored to have embarked on this journey with you. Thanks to your partnership, we were able to step up to the plate and do our part.
As YCJF continues to grow and evolve its programs in response to the enormous needs of those whose extraordinary work too often flies under the radar, we hope that new philanthropic partners will join what is truly one of the most vibrant and impactful spaces in climate philanthropy today.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Joshua Amponsem - Co-Executive Director
Nathan Méténier - Co-Executive Director
Dominique Palmer
Writer, Climate Advocate, and Member of YCJF's Governance Body
Growing Stronger Together
Reflections from a Member of the Governance Body
Since its inception, I have had the privilege of witnessing YCJF grow into a stronger, more responsive support system for an expanding network of youth-led climate justice movements. Amidst global tensions, young people continue to lay the foundations for a more just and sustainable future. At the same time, youth movements have deepened their focus on interconnected solutions and long-term resilience.
I began my journey with the YCJF as a founding Steering Committee member, working alongside other young climate leaders to launch our first open call and shape the fund’s early direction. Over the years, YCJF has evolved into a critical partner to youth movements. In 2025, as civic space continued to shrink globally, we recognized the need to strengthen governance and organizational development. Through a deliberate process of decentralization and the creation of our intergenerational governance model, YCJF entered a new phase of growth and depth.
Today, our governance structure reflects the demands of this moment. With the establishment of a new Grants Committee and an Advisory Board, bringing together exceptional global young climate justice leaders and experienced practitioners, we are strengthening our accountability and support to those leading this work on the ground. This enabled us to bring diverse, expert perspectives into our decision-making, strengthening both our grantmaking and our broader accompaniment of partners. It has also provided stability throughout the complexities of 2025: our Advisory Board’s expertise across organizational development, human resources, finance, and operations has ensured that the YCJF remains resilient, adaptive, and grounded in strong institutional practices, while continuing to support communities on the frontlines.
Youth worldwide are facing increasing limitations, including shrinking civic spaces and threats to human rights. The work of our grantee partners and the urgency of this moment underscores why we need to continue amplifying and scaling youth-led climate action. For me, the YCJF represents a source of hope, and I have seen firsthand how it is putting the vision of a fairer, greener future into action. Now more than ever, young people must draw on courage to navigate an increasingly complex political landscape and climate movement. Time is ticking for true, restorative climate justice. As young people, we choose to act now to drive the transformation our systems demand.
From Ideas to Impact: How Youth-Led Solutions are Transforming Communities
Gov Data Initiative
In the Philippines, local communities are often excluded from decision-making processes around energy transition minerals, and see little benefit from mining operations despite bearing the brunt of their environmental impacts. Critical data on mining revenues and financial flows remains inaccessible, preventing communities from holding companies and authorities accountable. Gov Data Initiative (GDI) makes complex mining data accessible and actionable for affected communities, enabling them to advocate for transparency, accountability, and a just transition. The youth-led think-and-do tank developed the PREDIC Tool, an online calculator that estimates revenues from mining projects, and provides training on data literacy, advocacy, and the use of digital tools for communities in extractive-affected areas across Cebu and Palawan provinces.
GDI has trained young people, the majority of them women, to document local mining sites and is currently monitoring 7,766 hectares of mining sites across two provinces. By equipping communities with transparent data and the skills to use it, the program strengthens youth leadership in resource governance and demonstrates how accessible information and youth-led data advocacy can advance community participation, corporate accountability, and climate justice in the green energy transition.
The Story Café
In Sri Lanka, local climate impacts such as deforestation, coastal erosion, and pollution often go underreported, while young people and marginalized communities have limited opportunities to shape public narratives or influence climate discussions. Story Café’s ClimateWatch initiative addresses this gap by empowering youth, particularly young women and storytellers from underserved regions, to document and advocate for climate justice through digital media and community storytelling. The organization established a youth-led ClimateWatch platform and trained participants in climate journalism, digital advocacy, and investigative storytelling through workshops, mentorship, and story hackathons, while supporting the production of multimedia stories and conducting school-based outreach to introduce climate storytelling to younger audiences.
The initiative engaged more than 50 youth from across Sri Lanka and produced over 40 documentaries, investigative articles, and photo essays to amplify local experiences of climate change and elevating voices often absent from national conversations. By placing young storytellers at the center of documenting and communicating climate impacts, the program strengthened youth leadership in climate advocacy and is advancing a grassroots model of climate storytelling that strengthens civic engagement and community-led climate action.
Parker’s Mobile Clinic
In flood-prone regions of Nigeria, climate-driven disasters are disrupting healthcare access for vulnerable communities, particularly displaced populations who struggle to reach medical facilities during extreme weather events. Parker’s Mobile Clinic addresses this gap by strengthening climate-resilient healthcare delivery through digital and community-based solutions, including a WhatsApp telemedicine consultation line, AI-supported health interventions, and targeted outreach programs. The initiative also provides health and hygiene education to reduce the spread of climate-sensitive diseases and conducts virtual and in-person workshops that build awareness of the links between climate change and public health.
They are also partnering with government entities and training community health workers to ensure interventions are locally driven, culturally relevant, and sustainable. This youth-led model demonstrates how digital health tools combined with community-led outreach can expand equitable access to care, empower local health workers and leaders, and establish a scalable approach for delivering climate-resilient healthcare in underserved communities.
Global Youth Biodiversity Network (GYBN)
Global biodiversity policy processes have historically lacked consistent youth representation, limiting the integration of youth priorities and frontline perspectives in decisions addressing accelerating biodiversity loss. GYBN, the official youth coordination platform of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), addresses this gap by organizing and strengthening youth leadership in international biodiversity governance. In 2025, with support to expand its coordination and advocacy capacity, GYBN built a globally representative 15-member youth policy team, created seven new national and regional chapters, and convened consultations across its growing network of 70 chapters to align youth priorities.
Through coordinated campaigns, policy advocacy, and youth delegations to CBD negotiations and related international forums, the network mobilizes young leaders across regions to engage directly in biodiversity decision-making and is strengthening collective youth power in biodiversity governance and establishing a durable model for youth-led coalition building that amplifies youth voices in global environmental decision-making.
Youth-led Strategic Participatory Grantmaking
Funding locally-rooted, youth-led climate initiatives with flexibility and trust
In 2025, we disbursed over USD$3,300,000 in flexible grants to 89 grantee partners building diverse leadership rooted in community, amplifying ambitions for climate and socio-environmental justice, and holding decision-makers accountable while empowering communities across diverse regions and thematic areas.
Grantee Partners by Scale of Work
More than two-thirds of all our grantee partners constitute local and national groups.
Unlocking resources for young leaders through strategic and participatory grantmaking
“As we continue to advance climate justice, YCJF's participatory grant-making process is a transformative act of shifting power and building trust with communities on the ground experiencing the crisis first-hand. It is about putting local needs at the heart of decision-making. I am grateful that I get to play a role in this process!”
- Ayshka Najib, Regional Facilitator for MENA region
Grantee Partners by Geographical Regions
Our grantee partners are advancing youth-led climate initiatives across under-funded geographies in all major regions of the world.
Grantee Partners by Group Leadership
75% of our grantee partners identify with groups that are historically underfunded in climate philanthropy, including Indigenous, BIPOC, women, and other communities.
Climate challenges are deeply connected to other social, economic, and political issues shaping people’s everyday lives, from health and food systems to economic justice and human rights. By investing across diverse focus areas and intentionally fostering collaboration, knowledge-sharing, and community-led action, YCJF strengthens connections between local, national, regional, and international movements. We bring together initiatives that connect climate action with broader social justice efforts, enabling young leaders to build solidarity, align their efforts, and grow collective power across contexts. In doing so, we resource youth-led movements with the trust, networks, and support needed to drive more coordinated, resilient, and lasting climate solutions.
Where We Invest – Focus Areas
We support youth-led climate action across interconnected focus areas, reflecting the systemic nature of climate issues and the need for cross-sector solutions. Grantee partners self-identify the focus areas that best reflect their work and may select multiple areas. Percentages shown represent the proportion of grantee partners working in each focus area and do not total 100%.
As part of our evolving evaluation and learning framework, we are refining our approach in collaboration with our partners. As this process continues, the categories may be updated over time.
Case Study: Asia Young Indigenous Peoples Network (AYIPN)
Indigenous youth-led
Across Asia, Indigenous youth are organizing around issues of land rights, cultural integrity, and self-determination, yet remain underrepresented in climate governance spaces. The Asia Indigenous Peoples Youth Platform (AYIPN), with support from YCJF, is addressing this gap by strengthening Indigenous youth leadership and regional coordination across movements. Through its Indigenous Lands, Indigenous Hands (ILI) campaign, AYIPN connects grassroots struggles on land, identity, and climate resilience into a unified regional advocacy framework.
A core element of AYIPN’s approach is grassroots-led, data-driven organizing. In response to gaps in local data that weaken advocacy, AYIPN is conducting regional consultations across Southeast and South Asia to gather evidence on land tenure, displacement, and Indigenous youth priorities to strengthen engagement in national, regional, and global policy spaces. This work has already contributed to stronger regional coordination, including the mobilization of a unified Indigenous youth delegation to global forums such as COP30.
By investing in leadership development, intergenerational exchange, and national movement-building, AYIPN is strengthening grassroots leadership pipelines and movement infrastructure. By bridging grassroots organizing, regional coordination, and international advocacy, AYIPN demonstrates how Indigenous youth-led approaches can expand participation, increase accountability, and advance more equitable and effective climate action grounded in land, culture, and self-determination.
Tailored Capacity Strengthening
Nurturing grassroots young leaders to turn ideas into community impact
We recognize that funding alone is not enough to help young people sustain and grow their climate action. We provide tailored, needs-based capacity strengthening designed around three key goals: helping young leaders and their teams grow through workshops, coaching, and peer learning; fostering collaboration and solidarity by connecting grantee partners with one another and with broader networks; and supporting long-term resilience through spaces for relationship-building, wellbeing, and shared learning.
“Through the training, mentorship, and practical opportunities provided, I have gained stronger skills in planning, coordination, and communication. I now feel more capable of mobilizing teams, engaging stakeholders, and ensuring the effective implementation of activities. This support has not only enhanced my leadership abilities but also given me the confidence to take initiative and advocate for change more strategically, through writing project proposals, preparing budgets, tracking outputs, and applying for available opportunities.”
— Khalil Jubarah, Ymnt for Development
Supporting Youth Climate Action Through Community and Solidarity
Our capacity strengthening approach nurtures youth climate leadership by creating spaces for connection, learning, and mutual support.
Asia Youth Climate Convening
In collaboration with Tara Climate Foundation, an Asia-based philanthropic organization, we hosted our first regional convening in Asia, bringing together 77 participants across 25 countries representing 53 youth-led climate initiatives. Designed around four pillars – Community, Collaboration, Capacity Strengthening, and Wellbeing – the convening created space for peer learning, relationship-building, and leadership development across the youth climate movement. Participants rated the experience highly, highlighting new collaborations, stronger practical skills in areas such as fundraising and communications, and tools to support organizational wellbeing as strong takeaways. The convening also brought together aligned, regional donors to strengthen collaboration and deepen perspectives on accompaniment.
“Before attending the convening, I was struggling to reconnect with my sense of motivation at work. I had a vague understanding of why, but there were many complex and intertwined reasons that left me feeling confused. When I first read the program guide for the convening, I felt a sense of hope. I am deeply grateful to the organizers for designing such a thoughtful and well-crafted program. After returning home, even more reflections continued to surface. Our team then came together for an open and honest discussion. We reached an agreement on a plan for adjustment—from rebuilding our organizational culture to redefine roles and responsibilities. This truly feels like a significant shift and an important milestone for us.”
— Pham Minh Tu, Green Youth Collective
Strengthening Youth-Led Organizations for Lasting Impact
In 2025, we deepened our support for skills strengthening as part of its broader capacity support, offering optional opportunities for grantee partners to strengthen the skills, knowledge, and networks needed to sustain and scale their impact. We connect grantee partners with tailored coaching through partnerships with Social Movement Coaching (SMC), ensuring youth leaders receive individualized support to strengthen their organizations and grow their leadership.
In 2025, we conducted a survey to better understand how our capacity strengthening support is helping our grantee partners in their work. Every responding partner reported improvements in leadership skills, including public speaking, communication and storytelling, advocacy and climate justice knowledge, project and program management, and fundraising. Over 90% of partners said they are already putting these skills into practice and feel more confident leading their own projects and initiatives
Influencing philanthropy to scale youth-led solutions
Unlocking Investment in Youth-Led Climate Solutions
Beyond our work to resource young climate leaders globally, we know that the lack of access to resources is a key barrier for our partners and the ecosystem. In 2025, we continued our work to grow the pie of resources available for youth-led climate initiatives by strengthening the broader funding ecosystem. Our goal is to help build a resilient infrastructure with the evidence, partnerships, and collective momentum needed to sustain and scale youth initiatives across geographies and thematic areas.
In addition to building tools and influencing philanthropic practice, we also work directly with donors and funders to provide advisory support and help shape more effective funding approaches.
Investing in Youth-Led Climate Action Through Strategic Support
For every dollar invested in the YCJF, we unlock 8x in total funding for youth-led climate groups, highlighting the powerful multiplier effect of intermediary support for philanthropic impact.
Key events
Release and reception of Youth Climate Funding Study
In partnership with the ClimateWorks Foundation, we launched the updated Youth Climate Funding Study—the most comprehensive analysis of youth climate funding to date. The study found that youth-led groups now receive 0.96% of total climate funding, up from 0.76%, marking important progress while reinforcing the continued need to close the funding gap.
Read the Youth Climate Funding Study.
We continue to strengthen our role as an accountable, transparent, and participatory funder by working in close partnership with regional peer climate funds, philanthropic allies and youth-led funds.
Recognitions
Strengthening Our Governance and Team Structures
Within our team, 2025 was a transformational year. Following a period of rapid growth in 2024 across our operations, team size, and organizational structure, we continued strengthening our internal capacity in key program areas by welcoming a Community Associate and a Learning Manager to our team.
‘‘Over the past year, YCJF has been intentionally investing in strengthening its foundations: building the systems, structures, and team capacity needed to support an expanding portfolio of programmatic work. Our focus in 2025 has been on cultivating a healthy and sustainable work culture, developing clear end-to-end processes, and improving visibility of data to enable better decision-making, while reducing administrative burden across the team. As we move forward, we are transitioning from a phase of building to one of thriving, where these foundations begin to translate into stronger routines, greater clarity, and the ability to operate at a faster pace. This positions YCJF to more effectively support our partners and have the infrastructure in place to grow our support to the ecosystem.’’
- Fahad Awan, Operations Director
“Joining YCJF, I was drawn to the opportunity to strengthen how we learn alongside the partners we support. For youth-led climate action, it’s not just about funding outcomes – it’s about understanding what is working, shifting, and how we can grow together in real time. Learning in this way helps ensure that youth movements are not only resourced, but continuously strengthened to adapt, lead, and sustain long-term change.”
- Sylvia Gan, Learning Manager
Operations and Financial Overview
Moving forward
The energy and creativity of young leaders around the world remind us that change is possible, even in uncertain, challenging times. In 2026, we will continue to invest in their growth; supporting their ideas, nurturing leadership, strengthening connections across movements and funders, and organizing our second ecosystem regional youth convening, this time in Accra, Ghana.
We will amplify youth voices, expand opportunities for collaboration, and ensure that next generation leaders, particularly in underfunded regions, have the resources and long-term support to sustain and scale their work. Together, we can turn ambition into action and inspire lasting impact for equitable climate action.
