About the ECF

Our vision: a green, peaceful and democratic Europe

The coming years provide a once-in-a-generation opportunity to use the green transition as a springboard to build a more secure, resilient, and prosperous Europe. This vision includes future-proofed infrastructure and jobs; warm, safer homes; affordable energy and food; clean air; better health; and thriving biodiversity.

To achieve this vision, we focus on eight interconnected ‘big bets’ with the greatest impact on solving the climate and nature crisis. Across these priorities our strategies are built by national and regional teams grounded in local realities, economies and opportunities.

We build the capacity of our partners to learn and adapt — because durable climate progress depends on a network that can respond to new challenges as they emerge.

We strive for a climate transition that strengthens Europe’s resilience, security, and democratic foundations — and leaves no one behind.

Our work sits within a wider global movement: we’re part of an international network of foundations working on climate action across different regions and sectors.

Our team

Our team includes experts on topics critical to climate action, from energy policy to strategic communications to philanthropy. Our Operations and Finance team runs our grantmaking infrastructure, oversees our day-to-day operations, and supports our partners through learning, capacity building and organisational development.

Where we work

The ECF has national and regional teams on the ground across Europe, as well as a dedicated EU institutions and governance programme based in Brussels.

Strategies are built by these teams in close collaboration with the ECF’s in-house sector experts, tailored for the social, policy and economic systems of the places we work to maximise our impact. We help ensure that climate policies are fair, effective, and reflect citizens’ priorities — as well as being feasible and effective.

A whole-of-society approach to climate action

With a diverse network of partners — from youth groups and consumer organisations to trade associations and research institutions — we work to ensure the transition to net zero is one where everyone has a stake and no one gets left behind.

• Policy: We help embed climate action in robust, future-proof frameworks that withstand political change and deliver for working people, strengthening trust in institutions and Europe’s long-term security.
• Politics: We build broad, cross-partisan alliances — across business, labour, and civil society — to make climate leadership viable and durable.
• People: We work with partners to turn public concern into lasting support by empowering communities, building local leadership, and making climate action relevant to everyday lives.