A different kind of “trust” fund

When people discuss climate innovation, they often picture technology. Better batteries. Smarter grids. Carbon capture at scale. Those breakthroughs matter and are happening every day. But on this World Creativity and Innovation Day, I want to make a case for a different kind of innovation. One that is structural rather than technical, already underway, and quietly accelerating climate progress.

It is, in a word, trust.

A SYSTEM BUILT FOR FRAGMENTATION

The social impact sector is filled with brilliant, committed people working on the climate crisis. It is also organized in a way almost perfectly designed to prevent the scale of impact the crisis demands. Many organizations undertaking critical work compete for the same funding. They guard their methodologies, protect their data, and duplicate efforts. They differentiate their missions so precisely that a funder reading a dozen can be forgiven for wondering whether any of them are solving the same problem.

None of this is driven by bad faith. It is driven by survival.

For decades, philanthropic funding has rewarded differentiation over collaboration and proprietary impact over shared learning. The result is a fragmented ecosystem applying fragmented resources to a problem that is anything but fragmented.

The climate crisis does not respect organizational boundaries, and those of us working to solve it must stop acting as if it does.

DESIGN FOR TRUST, NOT COMPETITION

So what would it look like to redesign the system itself, not just the solutions within it?

In 2023, my organization, Pyxera Global, joined an unusual experiment: the Collaborative for Systemic Climate Action. We did not know where it would lead, but something fundamental had to change.

We began with 15 organizations with a combined 250+ years of experience. Three years later, the Collaborative has grown to 29 organizations, including Climate KIC, the Club of Rome, the B Team, the Green Africa Youth Organization, and the Amazon Sacred Headwaters Alliance. All are united by a shared dedication to break down the silos that have long limited what any one of them could accomplish alone.

Each organization committed to driving the systems change needed to build inclusive and regenerative societies. That meant leaving organizational ego at the door. It meant rethinking power dynamics and stepping away from traditional partnership models. Most importantly, it meant sharing what is usually protected: intellectual property, business models, and even funder relationships.

This level of openness carries real risk. For any single organization, it could be destabilizing. But the members of the Collaborative believe that the scale of the climate crisis outweighs institutional self-protection, and that meaningful progress requires taking risks together.

PROOF THAT IT WORKS

And the results are beginning to speak for themselves.

Together, the Collaborative has secured significant funding from major institutional donors, including the Oak Foundation, Hans Wilsdorf Foundation, and Quadrature Climate Foundation—partners that individual organizations might not have reached on their own. It has hosted joint thought leadership and fundraising events at global convenings such as the World Economic Forum, the United Nations Climate Change Conference, and Climate Week, creating a unified platform that amplifies collective knowledge and impact.

It has also seeded more than a dozen systems-change initiatives across geographies as varied as Ghana, India, Ireland, New Mexico, and Brazil. Many of these efforts would have struggled to get off the ground independently, but through the Collaborative they are now positioned to attract the additional funding needed to scale.

Just as important is the infrastructure behind them. Partners convene twice a year for deep sensemaking and portfolio review, and meet weekly in virtual sessions to stay aligned, build trust, and continuously learn from one another.

I have spent more than two decades working on partnerships and 38 years in the social impact sector. I thought I understood collaboration. What I have seen in the Collaborative for Systemic Climate Action is something different. The level of trust, and the results already emerging from it, go beyond anything I have experienced before.

This does not mean it is frictionless. Conflicts arise. Old habits resurface. Egos occasionally reenter the room. But even with those tensions, the trajectory is clear: Something fundamentally different is taking shape.

This is what structural innovation looks like. It is as disruptive in its domain as any new technology. World Creativity and Innovation Day exists to celebrate creativity in all its forms. Redesigning how climate philanthropy operates, how knowledge is shared, and how trust is built at scale is creative work. It is not a new invention. It is a new way of organizing human effort.

WHY THIS MATTERS NOW

That shift is becoming urgent.

Public sector climate funding is shrinking. Multilateral institutions are under increasing political pressure. Corporate ESG commitments are being quietly scaled back. In this environment, the traditional nonprofit response will not close the gap.

What is needed is not just more funding, but better alignment of existing resources. That is where trust becomes a force multiplier.

The Collaborative’s approach is simple in concept and radical in practice: Reduce the friction between organizations that should be natural allies, so that existing resources can move faster and go further.

THE REAL BOTTLENECK

The Collaborative is one proof point, but the model itself is replicable. We describe it as “mycelium,” a networked system that connects and strengthens everything it touches.

It requires a convener willing to do the unglamorous work of building relationships and holding space for shared ownership. It requires funders willing to invest in connective tissue, not just individual projects. And it requires leaders willing to believe that their impact will be greater within a strong ecosystem than within a weaker one they control.

For companies and philanthropists looking to maximize their climate commitment impact, this is where the leverage lies. Not in funding a single organization, but in enabling many organizations to operate as one.

The hardest material in climate action is not carbon. It is the institutional ego and competitive reflex that keep aligned actors apart.

Building the conditions for trust at scale may be one of the most important challenges, and opportunities, in climate action today.

Deirdre White is the CEO of Pyxera Global.

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