Philanthropy vet launches startup to help people ‘get smart’ about climate investing and giving

President-elect Donald Trump is proposing fossil fuel champions for U.S. leadership roles. New research shows the world is off the mark for hitting carbon emissions targets.

These headlines could make climate advocates want to curl up and check out.

Mike Rea wants to help people do better.

The Seattle entrepreneur is launching ClimeOn to support individuals and families in addressing the climate crisis through impact investing and philanthropic giving. The startup will offer virtual and in-person workshops and activities explaining the climate challenges and the most immediately beneficial solutions. It will also provide emotional and psychological support to guide people through climate anxiety.

“If you care about climate, get smart,” Rea said. “Focus on stuff that really matters.”

While there’s a general consensus that Trump’s re-election will result in wide-ranging setbacks for climate policy and U.S. leadership, it could also stoke private investing and giving in the sector.

Rea has spent most of his career helping people channel their resources to important causes. He was most recently the executive director of E8, a Seattle-area climate investing angel group that also has a philanthropic fund called Decarbon8. Rea’s other past roles include working as a senior program manager for the Gates Foundation and as CEO of Tourism Cares, a nonprofit supporting “travel for good.”

“People have no idea that you can use philanthropic capital to invest in any of these startups as long as they’re mission, impact-driven,” Rea said, adding that this can be a lower-risk alternative to traditional investing.

ClimeOn is finishing its research-and-development phase and plans to start offering workshops early next year. Rea is eager to get cash flowing to efforts that are quick-acting, “climate emergency breaks” such as preventing deforestation and curbing emissions of methane, which is a potent greenhouse gas.

The startup is also seeking funds to back its own effort. Rea is pursuing a philanthropic, recoverable grant raise in which donors stand to make a small return on their contribution.

ClimeOn’s business model targets high net-worth individuals, and will include fees for workshops and consulting, and possibly subscriptions.

Rea said he hasn’t found anyone offering a comparable approach to climate education that fosters philanthropy and impact investing while providing mental health support.

And climate giving could use a boost. The United Nations reports that philanthropies are targeting only 2% of their funds for climate efforts. But there is plenty of charitable cash available. In the U.S., there are 1.8 million donor-advised funds holding more than $252 billion ready to deploy philanthropically.

The new leadership in the White House could unlock some of those dollars in targeted ways.

“A second Trump term appears likely to increase climate philanthropy’s focus on state and regional efforts, while shifting federal funding into a more defensive mindset, like we saw with his first election,” said Michael Kavate, a reporter for Inside Philanthropy who focuses on environmental giving.

Kavate added that the situation highlights the need for no-strings-attached philanthropy that gives receiving organizations flexibility to allocate funds where they’re needed.

In the Pacific Northwest, the Ballmer Group, a foundation created by former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and his wife, Connie, is likely tops for climate change mitigation philanthropy.

While they won’t match Ballmer, Rea hopes other employees from Microsoft and Amazon, as well as successful startup entrepreneurs and shareholders, will direct resources toward climate solutions. He’s talking to employee giving programs and worker affinity groups at tech companies, and is reaching out to personal wealth advisors.

Kathleen Simpson, CEO of The Russell Family Foundation, a Seattle-area organization, echoed the importance of investing alongside philanthropy in a World Economic Forum post.

“Using endowments to finance climate solutions allows smaller organizations to bring more power to their efforts, extending beyond what their grant-making dollars can achieve,” Simpson wrote in August.

U.S. climate investments rose overall during the first Trump administration, and many in the sector hope that happens again. Investing in the space hit $14.1 billion by 2020, according to PitchBook. And U.S. venture capital firms are sitting on huge amounts of money — a total of $300 billion by the end of last year.

Rea has assembled a team with diverse backgrounds to tackle the issue. It includes psychology lead Steffi Bednarek, founder of the Centre for Climate Psychology and Change; science and systems lead Anders Halverson, a science advisor for the online learning community Terra.do; behavioral science advisor Jylana Sheats, a Tulane University associate professor; and experience designer Nikyta Palmisani, a climate educator.

ClimeOn’s advisors are Ramez Naam, a futurist, author and Seattle tech veteran, and Britt Wray, author of “Generation Dread.”

The time to act is now, Rea said, to get “all assets, all hands on deck.”

Related: Clean tech outlook: How investors are strategizing given Trump’s climate antagonism