Powering Youth Climate Action with OVO Foundation
Case study
Background
OVO Foundation, OVO’s charity, has just celebrated its tenth birthday. Over the last decade, it has become a leader in empowering young people and supporting climate action initiatives across the UK. Beginning in 2014, the Foundation has funded a wide range of social causes, from tackling youth homelessness to providing energy access in Kenya.
It was in 2019, against a backdrop of the global school climate strikes and visible climate protests taking place across the UK, that OVO Foundation’s Board of Trustees began to review its strategy. It identified that it could have the greatest impact by focusing on the intersection of youth and climate change. This intersection is a significantly underfunded area, accounting for just 0.76% of climate mitigation funding according to ClimateWorks, despite young people being the generation most affected by, but least responsible for, the climate crisis. The strategy review also meant that OVO Foundation’s work would better complement OVO and its sustainability strategy, Plan Zero.
Today, the Foundation’s mission is to ensure a greener, brighter future for all children and young people by equipping them with the knowledge, skills, and opportunities to actively engage with and address the climate crisis. This will empower them to become the driving force behind climate solutions and action, whether in schools or their communities.
Impact examples
The Foundation’s ‘Climate Changers’ programme seeks to support projects that provide young people with the skills and knowledge they need to engage in climate action. To date, Climate Changers has partnered with six key charities working on initiatives with students and educators across the UK.
One example that OVO Foundation has supported is Earthwatch UK’s ‘Tiny Forests’ project, which densely plants 600 trees into a community space the size of a tennis court. This forest can then be used by local schools as an outdoor classroom, as well as a green space for the local community to enjoy.
OVO Foundation has also worked with Energy Sparks to help schools track and reduce their energy consumption by turning off lights and heating outside of school hours, contributing to savings on their bills and their carbon emissions.
How has Impatience Earth supported OVO Foundation?
In 2023, OVO Foundation sought support from Impatience Earth to help further refine its grant-making strategy and expand its impact in the climate education and action space. When the team began working with Impatience Earth in January 2024 they were seeking guidance on moving from solely funding the delivery of programmes in schools and communities, to considering new types of partnerships, such as policy engagement and collaborations that promote green skills development, to bring about positive change at the systemic level.
Impatience Earth worked with OVO Foundation’s Board of Trustees to better understand the concept of systems change and how it could be applied to the Foundation’s work. This included guiding them to deepen their understanding of how addressing the root causes of issues – rather than just treating the symptoms – can lead to greater change.
Through a bespoke learning journey, Impatience Earth facilitated a series of workshops with expert speakers for OVO Foundation’s trustees, helping them to consider how a systems change approach could transform their approach to grant-making.
Lessons learned: Q&A with OVO Foundation
What was it like working with Impatience Earth?
One of the key benefits has been the additional expertise and capacity that Impatience Earth has brought to OVO Foundation’s small team.
Impatience Earth have provided an extra pair of hands as well as expertise in areas such as research, facilitating connections and collaboration with other funders, and acting as a sounding board and trusted advisor throughout the process.
What are some of your key takeaways from working with Impatience Earth?
Collaboration is key. By working with other funders, the team found they have been able to amplify the Foundation’s impact and reach young people and children with their climate education programmes.
Throughout our recent work Impatience Earth has played a key role, leveraging their strong network to bring together funders in similar fields. In an area which has been underfunded, this kind of collaborative approach is critical for the foundation to scale its impact.
What outcomes and impacts has this work led to?
Developing a clearer strategic vision. OVO Foundation’s vision is to create a future where all young people have the knowledge, skills, and opportunities to take action on climate change. The Impatience Earth team were instrumental in helping OVO Foundation’s leadership to understand how systems thinking can unlock new funding pathways, new interventions and different levers of change to achieve this vision.
By strengthening the board’s confidence on the issue, and presenting the case for urgent action, Impatience Earth helped to ‘grease the wheels’ on the funding process, getting vital resources to where they need to be in less time.
What's next for OVO Foundation?
The Foundation’s objective is to commit further funding at the intersection of young people and climate in 2025, with conversations also continuing with the board on further commitments in coming years. Watch this space!
