Meaning-making in the struggle for climate justice:
Your life and your support matter.
Image credit: Jared Dominguez
Climate change is the defining threat of our time:
UN Secretary General Antonio Gutierrez has described climate change as a crisis multiplier, the defining issue of our time. In the words of David Attenborough, it is “the biggest security threat” that humanity has faced1https://www.un.org/press/en/2021/sc14445.doc.htm. Addressing climate change has, and will continue to be, a lifelong challenge for our team at CEPB and for many of you reading this message. For many of us, it is our core mission. For others, it is deeply intersectional to our struggles for justice2 https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/why-is-climate-change-a-racial-justice-issue/
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We are part of something bigger than ourselves:
For most of our team, and perhaps for you reading this message, what drives us is not merely surviving climate change but a deep sense of purpose, knowing that we are a tiny part of the human component of a grand, self-regulating earth system, one that itself has the potential to thrive3https://courses.seas.harvard.edu/climate/eli/Courses/EPS281r/Sources/Gaia/Gaia-hypothesis-wikipedia.pdf. Being part of a complex system suggests that every human being is more than a chance at happiness or a flicker of light in the universe: we are closer than family, pieces of a greater whole with important roles to play, and whose contributions, no matter how small, uniquely matter.
Tipping points in crisis can create systemic change:
Because climate change threatens us all, it is imperative that we each with our own unique contribution find ways to change the human systems that, like some cancer on the planet, extract and monopolize resources in ways that disrupt our homeostasis, our chances of survival. Often elusive, systemic change is most likely to occur when, at a point of crisis, those who are most vulnerable and disempowered by current systems are most organized and connected4http://whynationsfail.com/. It happens when the gains of cooperation outcompete the gains of capital and extraction5https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5R-9X_BtP4.
Everyone's role is important:
Our mission at CEPB is to contribute to this opportunity for systemic change during the inflection point of the climate crisis. We do this by finding out who is most vulnerable to climate impacts and building supportive connections to maximize the agency of those actors most well-posed to make change. Whether you are a donor, a volunteer, a staff member in a supporting role, or a local activist or partner organization, we are not just on the same team: We are extensions of one another, each performing critical functions to keep human beings and the earth alive and well.
Your support has a magnified impact:
Measuring the cost effectiveness of social resilience work can be challenging, particularly around work that addresses global risks. However, we can share with you the overall costs and impacts of our work, and information on the typical SROI of related activities. Our total revenue since our founding has been $250k, with $56k of that revenue in 2021. With that income, we developed a strategy for seeking out and building partnerships with community leaders in and from high risk areas, and supported them in achieving the impactful projects featured here.
Because our operations are highly cost effective, each project described here takes about $10k per year to conduct and about $30k over three years to achieve impact and scale. As of May 2022, $200 keeps our whole organization going for one day (and ensures our team can spend the whole day fully focused on supporting local climate justice work, not fundraising). Each hour of paid staff time, including overhead, is about $25 in total. Most of that time is spent in critical coordination roles, enabling local leadership to achieve maximum impact and ensuring that dynamic partnerships fostering community climate resilience are functioning well. The cost benefit analysis of this type of social resilience work is very challenging to measure, but the Global Commission on Adaptation’s Adapt Now report estimates the Social Return on Investment (SROI) for climate adaptation work is usually between 2x and 10x6https://wrirosscities.org/news/release-joint-statement-accelerating-climate-adaptation-%E2%80%981000-cities-adapt-now%E2%80%997https://gca.org/reports/, meaning that every dollar you give likely produces between 2 and 10 times as much value for the communities benefiting as you put in.
Because our operations are highly cost effective, each project described here takes about $10k per year to conduct and about $30k over three years to achieve impact and scale. As of May 2022, $200 keeps our whole organization going for one day (and ensures our team can spend the whole day fully focused on supporting local climate justice work, not fundraising). Each hour of paid staff time, including overhead, is about $25 in total. Most of that time is spent in critical coordination roles, enabling local leadership to achieve maximum impact and ensuring that dynamic partnerships fostering community climate resilience are functioning well. The cost benefit analysis of this type of social resilience work is very challenging to measure, but the Global Commission on Adaptation’s Adapt Now report estimates the Social Return on Investment (SROI) for climate adaptation work is usually between 2x and 10x6https://wrirosscities.org/news/release-joint-statement-accelerating-climate-adaptation-%E2%80%981000-cities-adapt-now%E2%80%997https://gca.org/reports/, meaning that every dollar you give likely produces between 2 and 10 times as much value for the communities benefiting as you put in.
Help us dedicate one day to you:
The local leaders CEPB supports do things that each of us individually would not be able to do on our own, and it brings our team great joy to see their incredible work. One of the aspects of our team that makes us special compared to larger organizations is that you can connect with any member of our team and experience the same awe and appreciation we do each day. Here are some quick things you can do to connect right now and make a difference.
- Donate $200 (individually or with friends) here and book a time with one of our team members to learn everything our team is going to be doing that day, thanks to your donation.
- Share your impact with friends! We’ll follow up with a photo or short clip from our meeting and a summary of the impact you made, which you can keep for your own memories or share with as many people as you’d like.
- Ask a few people to join you in donating. If you are like us, you want to be doing good all the time and building supportive friendships. When we talk, we’ll be happy to share what we have learned about how to ask for favors in ways that benefit others and make people feel happy by focusing on building relationships.