Justice Outside’s Long-Term Commitment
You can’t take care of the earth without taking care of each other.
Eight months ago, we released “No Child Left Inside” — children who should have been exploring tide pools and hiking trails were hiding indoors, too terrified to leave their homes.
Today, as we prepare for Earth Month and Earth Day, the situation has dramatically worsened. ICE detention has surged to more than 73,000 people — the highest level in the agency’s history. Schools are going remote. Thirty thousand students were absent from Charlotte schools after one raid operation. Arrests of people with no criminal record have surged 2,450%.
This is not a moment that will pass. This is a sustained crisis affecting our communities — and it calls for a sustained response.
Why This Is an Environmental Issue
Justice Outside advances racial justice and equity in the outdoor and environmental movement by shifting resources to and building power with Black, Indigenous, and People of Color communities. We are part of these communities and we are part of the philanthropic sector. That dual identity is our strength — and it is what makes it impossible for us to stay silent.
Environmental justice means equitable access to clean air, clean water, green spaces, and outdoor learning for all communities. When immigration enforcement creates a climate of fear, that access becomes impossible.
Families in our communities are making impossible calculations about whether it is safe to go to a park. Field trips are cancelled. Summer programs lose participants before they begin. Outdoor spaces that should be places of joy become places to avoid. The next generation of environmental stewards cannot be built when our children are living in terror.
The same communities most affected by pollution, climate change, and environmental racism are the communities being targeted right now. Advancing environmental equity requires naming that connection.
Environmental justice without immigration justice is not justice at all.
Our Commitment
We commit to ensuring that every child — regardless of immigration status — can experience the healing, educational, and transformative power of nature. Not just someday. This Earth Month.
This means protecting the right to outdoor education for all children, documented or not. It means supporting youth leadership from immigrant communities, whose perspectives and solutions are essential to climate justice. It means never requiring our families to choose between safety and access to nature.
This fight is not new. For generations, Black, Indigenous, and communities of color have carried the weight of systems designed to exclude and harm. Many of our Grantee Partners, Rising Leaders Fellowship alumnx, and Network for Network Leaders participants are organizing in our communities right now — on the front lines, showing up for their neighbors, building power, creating safety, demanding justice.
We see them. We stand with them. We resource their work. We amplify their voices. We follow their leadership.
An Invitation to the Movement
We believe in this sector. We are part of it, as community members and as philanthropic partners, and we know the care that brought many of us here. Which is exactly why we are saying plainly: Earth Month 2026 arrives at a moment of serious retrenchment that we cannot afford to accept.
Federal environmental justice funding faces unprecedented cuts. According to a January 2026 survey by The Conference Board, 24% of corporate philanthropy leaders plan to scale back environmental justice initiatives this year. Our equity commitments are being tested at the exact moment our communities need them most.
The communities bearing the heaviest burden of immigration enforcement are the same communities that have been most chronically underfunded by environmental philanthropy. This is not a parallel crisis. It is one crisis with two faces — and the data makes that impossible to ignore.
The data reveals a connection we can no longer treat as coincidental:
- Retrenchment is accelerating. 24% of corporate philanthropy leaders plan to scale back environmental justice initiatives in 2026 — the steepest declines in areas facing political and reputational scrutiny. Our equity commitments must move in the opposite direction. (Companies Rethink 2026 Philanthropy Priorities Amid Pressures, Survey Says, NonProfit Pro)
- The funding gap is structural. A $2.7 billion disparity exists between what environmental philanthropy awards to white-led organizations and what it awards to Black, Indigenous, and People of Color-led organizations. This is not just a number — it is the missing infrastructure that would allow our organizations to respond to exactly this kind of crisis. (InDEEP Initiative, Closing the Gap, 2021)
- Our equity commitments have not translated to equity in funding. A 2025 analysis of 50 of the most influential U.S. climate foundations found that only 3% of climate funding reaches grassroots climate justice groups — our organizations, on the front lines of both immigration enforcement and climate impact, with the deepest relationships to the communities most affected. (Climate Justice Alliance, National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, and Tishman Environment and Design Center, The Just Returns Project, 2025)
- Financial fragility makes crisis response nearly impossible. Black, Indigenous, and People of Color-led organizations hold 76% less in unrestricted net assets than white-led counterparts. When raids surge and our families retreat indoors, our organizations lack the flexibility to pivot, respond, and protect the people they serve. This is what chronic underinvestment looks like in a moment of crisis. (Bridgespan Group: Disparities in Nonprofit Funding for Leaders of Color)
To Our Communities
The outdoors belongs to you. It always has.
We see you. We are with you. Not just today — always.
Our children deserve to explore tide pools and hike trails without fear. Our families deserve to find healing and joy in nature this Earth Month and every month. Our communities deserve to be celebrated as the leaders of the environmental movement that they are. We commit to making that possible.
To Our Fellow Organizations and Funders
There is room for all of us in this movement.
Will you recognize that environmental justice and immigration justice are inseparable? Will you commit unrestricted resources to our communities, not just statements? Will you follow the leadership of the people most impacted? Will you make this Earth Month a turning point?
We believe the answer is yes. Reach out at bren@justiceoutside.org. We are glad you are in this movement with us.
Resources
- United We Dream Hotline: (844) 363-1423
- Know Your Rights
- Find Legal Help
- Local Rapid Response Networks
