Environment
The Scherman Foundation’s decades-long commitment to environmental issues began with the support of conservation efforts, and has evolved into a more recent focus on both mitigating global climate change and supporting environmental justice.
24%
of Scherman Foundation Giving in 2021
In the 1970s, the Foundation began funding the preservation of land and waterways which sustain the biodiversity that is essential for a healthy ecosystem. And, recognizing the importance of open spaces to enhance urban life, particularly in low and moderate-income neighborhoods that typically have less access, we have funded coalitions like the community garden movement, to the benefit of hundreds of city neighborhoods.
As scientists were beginning to link greenhouse gas emissions to global warming in the late 1990s, the Foundation began to concentrate on the urgency of stemming the dangers posed by climate disruption. Acknowledging the critical need for locally-based education and mobilization efforts to drive policy change, the Foundation has supported local and state environmental work across the U.S. to build an advocacy infrastructure that can mobilize community response.
Beyond climate issues, the Foundation has worked to bolster the rising environmental justice movement. This movement seeks to enable environmentally-challenged low-income communities to look within “big picture” environmental problems and solutions to address racial, social, and economic inequities.