[Top image: Lilian Koriongi from CIPDP trains Ogiek mappers to use Mapeo in Chepkitale, Kenya]
Digital Democracy is thrilled to announce a three year, $500,000 grant from the Skoll Foundation. We are honored to count this mission-aligned funder amongst our key supporters and to join their impressive list of grantees.
The Skoll Foundation
In 1999, Jeff Skoll created the Skoll Foundation to build a sustainable world of peace and prosperity for all. The Skoll Foundation catalyzes transformational social change by investing in, connecting, and championing social entrepreneurs and other social innovators who together advance bold and equitable solutions to the world’s most pressing problems. To mobilize climate action, the Skoll Foundation supports social innovations that advance renewable solutions, shape policies, influence private sector action, advance climate justice in partnership with the hardest-hit communities, and build strong support for climate action globally.
The generous support provided by the Skoll Foundation will allow us to continue and expand our work co-developing tech tools for social and environmental justice in collaboration with on-the-ground earth defenders around the world.
Our local partners represent communities whose human rights are most severely impacted by environmental abuse. They come to us for the missing link they need to effectively protect their ecosystems to support cultural resilience, food security, and community health, and ultimately, to turn back climate change.
We are so grateful to the Skoll Foundation’s belief in our work, which will allow us to provide frontline defenders with critical tools and training to enable their work as first responders and advocates to hold governments and corporations accountable, halt deforestation, gain legal title over their land, and fight against environmental degradation.
With the Skoll Foundation’s critical support, we will continue working on strategies to build resilience and autonomy within partner (and non-partner) communities. We will continue improving Mapeo together with our partners, making sure it best responds to frontline communities’ unique needs; we will promote the creation and improvement of guides and platforms, such as the Earth Defenders Toolkit and the Mapeo Support Materials site; and we will support the establishment of virtual and locally-based networks of frontline communities, allies, tech-developers, and more in the communal fight for climate justice.
Read more about the Skoll Foundation at skoll.org