Environment
Announcing Metcalf’s New 10-Year Environment Program Strategy
2025

The Metcalf Foundation is excited to share news of our Environment program’s new 10-year strategy.

Nearly a decade ago, we launched Carbon Landscapes as a new funding stream in our Environment program. In those early days, our goal was to get nature-based climate solutions on the agenda of governments in Canada, and to build public awareness and support for action in this space. Carbon Landscapes soon became the central focus of our program work. We supported important national and regional gatherings, in-depth public interest journalism, and landmark research on the potential of nature-based climate solutions in Canada. In the years since, working alongside many of you, we celebrated several milestones, including historic investments in nature-based climate solutions and Indigenous-led conservation and stewardship.

Yet headwinds remain. The economic conditions to sustain conservation at various scales are still emerging and uncertain, the capacity of leaders and communities involved in this work is stretched, and the political context is ever evolving, creating challenges for long-term visions and plans.

Our Environment program work has also continued to evolve. Recent Metcalf grants have been less about “carbon landscapes” and more about building the necessary infrastructure, strategies, and supports for conservation to thrive in Canada. Given this continued evolution, we felt the timing was right to update our Environment program strategy.

Over the past year, we consulted a range of colleagues, partners, and leaders — people familiar with our work and experts in the areas in which we are engaged. These conversations were rich with reflection and very helpful in providing us with an understanding of issues and dynamics in the field, and how Metcalf’s Environment program could have the greatest impact going forward.

Based on this input and our own experiences, insights, and learning, we are shifting our focus squarely on strengthening the long-term viability of conservation in Canada. Central to this remains support for Indigenous-led conservation and stewardship.

 

From 2025-2035, our efforts will be focused in three core areas to strengthen the political, economic, and leadership conditions for conservation to thrive in Canada.

Building a Big Tent

Bringing different perspectives, sectors, and regions together around shared conservation values to build a durable policy environment for this work.

Strengthening Economic Pathways

Demonstrating the economic value and viability of conserving lands and waters as a cornerstone of long-term community prosperity and security.

Investing in Leadership

Building and sustaining leadership by supporting opportunities for learning, mentorship, and convening around shared work.

We will advance this work by supporting a mix of complementary approaches.

As one, relatively small foundation, we take great pride in punching above our weight. This means we seek out opportunities where Metcalf funding can be stretched, leveraged, and used to achieve an outsized impact.

Under our new 10-year strategy, our aim is to support a select number of initiatives that clearly demonstrate potential to deliver results at scale. Through this “lift all boats” approach, we expect to make fewer, but larger, multi-year funding commitments. Initially, funding will be by invitation-only.

Our program work is at its best when it can adapt and respond in real-time. This new strategy is very much a “living” one. We will test, refine, and add to it during the initial years of implementation and over time, it will evolve as we make progress and learn from our successes and failures.

For much of its history, our Environment program has relied on grantmaking as the main tactic to effect positive change. Under this new strategy, we will continue to rely, in part, on grantmaking while also expanding our own role in convening, publishing research, and building partnerships and solutions.

These times call for a commitment to creative and productive engagement. We will be steadfast in our support of efforts that help to bridge rather than divide, and that help to solve rather than exacerbate challenges.

We are launching this strategy at a time of significant political change. Against this backdrop of unfolding events and heightened uncertainty, know this: the Metcalf Foundation is deeply committed to supporting leaders from coast-to-coast-to-coast who are working to safeguard lands and waters for generations to come. This work has great meaning and significance on so many levels. Now, more than ever, there is a need for long-term, flexible, and consistent funding support for these efforts. And it is in this spirit, that we are making this new 10-year commitment.

We invite you to explore our updated Environment program page and to share it widely with your networks.