Shift Key with Robinson Meyer How to Make Your Climate Giving Count, According to an Expert
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Nov 26, 2025 Dan Stein, founder and executive director of Giving Green, shares his insights on effective climate philanthropy. He discusses the five top nonprofits to support in 2025, emphasizing policy and technology as key drivers for change. Stein critiques the limitations of traditional dollars-per-ton models and highlights the need for systemic shifts rather than just measurable interventions. He also reflects on Bill Gates' recent pivot to poverty reduction and argues that while adaptation is important, mitigation remains critically underfunded.
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Blend Models With Heuristics
- Dollar-per-ton models are useful but limited for policy and tech advocacy funding.
- Giving Green mixes quantitative models with heuristics and expert judgment for realistic philanthropy choices.
Cookstove RCT Taught Measurement Limits
- Giving Green once recommended Burn, which promoted efficient cookstoves in Kenya with RCT evidence.
- That project cost about $5 per ton of CO2 reduced and taught the limits of only funding highly measurable interventions.
Don't Be Trapped By Offsets Only
- Strict focus on measurable offsets narrows philanthropic upside.
- Funding system-change work can yield far larger, if less certain, emissions wins.