| Hey readers, Now that Joe Biden is the president-elect of the United States, the prospects of staving off total climate disaster look a little bit more hopeful. Republicans will probably keep control of the Senate and that will constrain Biden, but there are still plenty of ways he can use his power to fight climate change. Given that Biden campaigned on climate and has indicated that he's willing to make bold moves on that front, it's more likely now than it was under President Trump that philanthropists can actually improve US climate policy by funding advocacy. People's contributions over the next couple months can have an outsized impact on the climate, according to a new assessment from Founders Pledge, an organization that guides entrepreneurs committed to donating to effective charities. Johannes Ackva, the researcher who authored the Founders Pledge assessment, notes that now is a particularly important time to focus on advocacy that targets Washington lawmakers, rather than focusing on grassroots activism. "Especially in light of the election result, we believe this kind of advocacy to be more impactful and more neglected than grassroots activism; right now, we need to be working to turn proposals and visions into politically feasible and effective policies," the assessment says. "The work of grassroots campaigners like the Sunrise Movement, which targets Democrats to encourage a more progressive climate agenda, likely won't be so impactful as the US needs bipartisan policy favorable to both parties." That last point is important. Ackva notes that the combo we're likely to end up with — a Democratic House and a Republican Senate — means we're going to need to craft climate proposals that Republicans can get behind. There's reason to be skeptical that the GOP will agree to any bipartisan climate deal; after all, this is the Mitch McConnell Senate we're talking about. And Ackva acknowledges that "the Democrats will probably need to compromise as their preferred climate policies are unlikely to pass through the Senate." But Republican intransigence on climate, Ackva suggests, is the reason why our best bet is to fund organizations that know how to make inroads with Republicans, rather than only having strong ties to Democrats. Doing that obviously doesn't guarantee any wins, but the claim is that failing to do that probably guarantees a loss. So now, Founders Pledge recommends donating to a couple of organizations: the Clean Air Task Force and Carbon180. The former has a long history of successfully advocating for bipartisan climate policies under divided government (during the Bush years, it led a successful campaign to reduce the pollution caused by coal-fired power plants in the US and helped establish regulations of diesel, shipping, and methane emissions). Meanwhile, Carbon180's executive director, Noah Deich, has just joined the transition team at the Department of Energy, and the organization often briefs congressional staffers and provides input on legislation. Founders Pledge believes both these groups are well-positioned for this moment. And the "this moment" part is key: Founders Pledge thinks giving to those charities now is more impactful than giving later. That's partly because presidents often do their most significant policy work in the first years of their presidency. To be clear, this doesn't mean it's a bad idea to support grassroots activism strongly tied to Democrats or the groups that fund it — like the Climate Emergency Fund, which I've previously recommended supporting because there's evidence that movement-building is essential in the climate fight. It just means that given the current political situation, the most bang for our buck may lie elsewhere right now. I wish more philanthropists would approach climate donations through this lens, looking for high-impact, cost-effective organizations that aren't already getting a big influx of cash from other sources and hence could really use extra funding. Remember when Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the world's richest person, announced in February that he'd donate $10 billion of his own money to fight climate change? That's the biggest gift in the history of climate philanthropy, so I waited eagerly as it took Bezos nine months to finally decide which groups he'd be funding. On Monday, he announced that he'll be awarding $100 million each to the Environmental Defense Fund, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Nature Conservancy, the World Resources Institute, and the World Wildlife Fund, among others. The windfall is good news for these groups and good news for the climate. And yet, as Recode noted, "Those five groups are among the largest environmental nonprofits in the country. The Nature Conservancy had almost $1 billion in revenue in the most recent fiscal year on file, and the other four had over $100 million each." The point is not that these groups aren't doing good work. It's just that their good work is already well funded. So a more effective use of Bezos's cash would probably be investing in more neglected groups, including several moonshots. Unfortunately, he decided to play it safe and go for the household names — the ones likely to burnish his company's image among, well, lots of households. If you want to make cost-effective climate donations right now, you might want to consider donating through Founders Pledge's Climate Fund. It will distribute contributions based on its findings about the impacts of Biden's victory. Plus, entrepreneur Erik Bergman has offered to match contributions that come in before December 31. It's a nice chance to double the change you can make. —Sigal Samuel, @SigalSamuel | 
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