OUR STORY
Youth Climate Finance Alliance got its start under Future Coalition in May 2021, working to transition the infrastructure of the US Youth Climate Strike Coalition and reignite the youth climate justice base. Many of our founding member organizations were key leaders in the 2019 US Youth Climate Strike and found that mass mobilizations hadn’t necessarily translated into sustained power. The 2019 climate strikes ultimately lacked strategic, specific demands and targets. Where we had abundant energy and dedication from youth, we lacked the analysis or structure to transform it all into concrete wins. These reflections led to the start of YCFA, a movement aiming to channel youth climate organizer energy toward specific, actionable climate finance campaigns.
In June 2021, we began offering campaign training and coaching to a network of intelligent, dedicated, and powerful young people.
After eleven months of hard work and campaign successes, we departed from Future Coalition in May 2022 and would spend the next year focused on frontloading, strategizing, and building up program infrastructure.
Following worker direction and worker-owned models, the YCFA team has developed a system of democratic decision-making both within our organization’s staff and across the network of young people we work with.
YCFA convened our first Adult Advisory Board in the spring of 2023. A body of five adults who have spent their careers building the movement for climate justice, the Adult Advisory Board supports YCFA’s campaign and fundraising development, ensuring we are working alongside partners and continuing to build our own institutional knowledge as we continue to build up YCFA. Presently, the Board consists of members from the following partner organizations: Climate Finance Action, Climate Nexus, Dayenu: A Jewish Call to Climate Action, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and The Sunrise Project.
In the fall of 2023, we established our Youth Advising Council, a body of geographically diverse youth climate organizers, to advise YCFA’s campaign strategy and coaching and organizer support programming. With the help of the Council, we are ensuring that our programs are supportive of youth climate organizers and that we are accountable to the people we aim to serve and support. The Council currently comprises 6 youth organizers from the following organizations: Emory Stop Cop City, Fossil Free Penn, Fossil Free Stanford, Ohio Youth for Climate Justice, and Sunrise Columbia.
In September 2023, we re-launched our public campaigning and coaching program. Shortly after, our Organizer Support Fund went live, offering micro-grants to power the organizing potential and actions of young people across our member organizations and beyond.
