Across multiple issue areas, movement organizers express a desire for funders to understand the importance of funding people and organizations on the frontlines of these crises. But often the conversation goes deeper: what if we as movement leaders had our own folks running these funds? This query changes the conversation from a fund being movement accountable to also being movement-led.
I had the second of four pieces in our series on the importance of frontline movement accountable intermediaries details a conversation with the Executive Director of the Climate and Clean Energy Equity Fund [the Equity Fund], Andrea Mercado, formerly Executive Director of the movement organization Florida Rising. Mercado started her role at the Equity Fund in early 2025. Over the past year, she helped steward the Equity Fund’s core strategies – supporting movement groups by prioritizing resourcing, narrative strategy, and policy support.
A Decade of Results
The Equity Fund is turning ten this year. Starting with a goal of regranting resources to climate and environmental work, the Equity Fund began refining its state-based strategy to focus on three main pillars of change: structural policy, narrative and behavior change.
By focusing on climate equity in fourteen states, the Equity Fund supports organizations on the ground long term. The fund has moved $162 million to over 200 grantee partners with no plans to stop any time soon. The Equity Fund recognizes that by advancing a state-by-state resourcing strategy, they are building the infrastructure to support local policy wins on climate justice. When I asked Mercado what it means to fund intersectionally across multiple issue areas in service of advancing climate equity and justice, she said, “Our response has to be comprehensive…our members don’t lead single issue lives. We know that people in a lot of our communities are already underwater before it ever starts to rain.”Early in Mercado’s tenure at Florida Rising and in the middle of a special election, Hurricane Irma hit.
Canvassers pivoted to mutual aid, helping people who had lost power and did not have food or safe medication storage. They directed community members to vote early for a candidate who could ensure that their basic needs were being met before a climate disaster created a life-or-death situation. Florida Rising won extended early voting and mail in voting timelines and secured an extra $2 million in emergency SNAP benefits for impacted families. The litigation changed federal policy for emergency SNAP so that applicants across the country can apply online or over the phone rather than in person.
This mobilization illustrates the importance of funding intersectionally and highlights how important it is for organizers to be free to pivot in the moment and use all the tools in the toolbox, which can lead to big wins.
Accelerating Progress
In addition to nine funding priorities, the Equity Fund has both a