$3.25 Million in Environmental & Civil Liberties Grants Awarded in 2019!
In the second half of 2019, environmental mitigation payments and cy pres enabled the Rose Foundation to award more than $1.5 Million in grants to community-oriented environmental organizations and groups advocating for consumer rights, bringing our total grant awards enabled by settlement funds to $3.25 Million for the year! The Rose Foundation is never a party to the underlying litigation. Our role is to help fulfill the terms of the settlements and to ensure that the settlement payments achieve maximum community benefit in nexus with the underlying environmental or consumer protection issues raised in the case. Grants awarded from July through December address water issues as they relate to highly toxic compounds and chemical elements in both watersheds and drinking water sources, water conservation, green infrastructure, homelessness, and environmental justice. Projects include traditional strategies, such as environmental education, restoration, and research, and some others are more advocacy-based, including community organizing and legal advocacy. We also completed a grantmaking round of the Consumer Products Fund to groups working at the intersection of cutting-edge technology and truth-in-advertising advocacy, including protecting minors’ privacy, genetic testing, internet-connected cars, and other emerging consumer technologies.