Goldman Fund Gives Three Environmental Organizations Grants
9/10/97
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Headline: Goldman Fund Gives Three Environmental Organizations Grants
Source: Karen Peterson
Program Assistant
Goldman Environmental Prize
karen@goldmanprize.org
Date: 9/10/97
PRESS RELEASE: RICHARD AND RHODA GOLDMAN FUND
Media Contacts:
Fenton Communications: Kristen Wolf - 202/822-5200
Richard & Rhoda Goldman Fund: Duane Silverstein - 415/788-1090
Northern California Media Only: Shahnaz Taplin - 415/296-8744
Goldman Fund Gives Three Grassroots Environmental Organizations
Unsolicited Grants of One Million Dollars Each
September 10, 1997 -- The Richard & Rhoda Goldman Fund has announced
three one million dollar grants to Earth Island Institute,
International Rivers Network and Rainforest Action Network. These
organizations did not apply for these grants. Based on their
outstanding track records, the Fund approached them and asked each
organization what they would do to protect the environment if they had
one million dollars to create new programs.
"These three organizations are responsible for extraordinary
accomplishments such as promoting safer commercial fishing practices
which have saved over 500,000 dolphins, protecting more than 2.5
million acres of rainforest in Ecuador and helping to stop over 100
billion dollars from being spent on the construction of dams around
the world," says Richard N. Goldman, President of the Richard & Rhoda
Goldman Fund. "Given the remarkable achievements these organizations
have accomplished on limited budgets, we are confident that with the
proper resources they can help us right our environmental wrongs."
One of the major environmental victories of all time -- "dolphin-safe"
tuna -- was achieved by a project launched at Earth Island Institute
(EII). Currently providing organizational support for 30 cutting-edge
environmental projects, EII has quietly helped to set the
environmental agenda for the past 15 years. In fact, International
Rivers Network and Rainforest Action Network -- the two other grant
recipients -- were originally launched by EII. The one million dollar
gift will help EII dramatically expand its successful model of
organizational support to address such issues as the emerging Russian
environmental movement, protect indigenous sacred lands and develop
urban multicultural leadership.
International Rivers Network (IRN) is the world's leading organization
working to halt the construction of destructive river development
projects and to promote sound river management options worldwide. IRN
plans to use the money to develop much needed campaigns in Southern
Africa and South America where large ecologically devastating projects
are in the works. By strengthening local groups, IRN can work with
them to oppose these outdated projects and help promote more
appropriate alternatives. IRN will also work to deter private sector
financing of dams.
For the past 12 years Rainforest Action Network (RAN) has worked to
protect the Earth's few remaining rainforests and support the rights
of their inhabitants. With the one million dollars, RAN will expand
its campaign work beyond the temperate and tropical rainforests of
North and South America to focus attention on the embattled
rainforests in Africa. RAN will also develop a Japanese language web
site to promote environmental awareness and activism in Japan.
"The Richard & Rhoda Goldman Fund has placed a major vote of
confidence in the future of innovative grassroots action for the
environment," says David R. Brower, noted environmentalist and founder
of Earth Island Institute. "In all my 60 years of working with people
whose clear insights and big ideas speak directly to issues, this is
the boldest, most important challenge from the funding community. Now
we activists need to justify that confidence and show that money in
the right places can change the world and frame the agenda for a
future that honors our children."
The only restriction on these grants is that they must be used for new
programs. The three one million dollar grants represent by far and
away the largest gifts each of these organizations has ever received.
"We realize we are taking a risk by giving these groups grants that
are as much as ten times larger than their previous biggest gifts,"
says Richard N. Goldman. "With 214,000 acres of rainforest being
destroyed every day and 50,000 species being driven to extinction each
year it is time for bold initiatives, not band-aid approaches."
The Richard & Rhoda Goldman Fund is one of the Bay Area's leading
philanthropies and creator of such prestigious initiatives as the
Goldman Environmental Prize, awarded every year to individuals making
significant contributions to the global environment. It has been
called by news media throughout the world the "Nobel Prize for the
environment." The Goldman Fund recently awarded $10 million to the
Graduate School of Public Policy of the University of California at
Berkeley. The Goldman Fund also established the Ken Saro-Wiwa
Memorial Fund at Human Rights Watch, to protect environmentalists
throughout the world from human rights abuses. The Saro-Wiwa Fund was
named for the executed Nigerian activist, author and recipient of the
1995 Goldman Environmental Prize for Africa.