Our Reverse Call For Proposals

Are you ready to take responsibility for ending fossil-fuel finance?

The world does not need another traditional Call for Proposals. It needs funders who are ready to take responsibility for ending fossil-fuel finance.

According to the 2024 Banking on Climate Chaos report, the world’s 60 largest private banks have channelled approximately USD 6.9 trillion into fossil fuels since the Paris Agreement.
This dramatic financing gap illustrates how, despite public climate commitments, major financial institutions continue to fund fossil-fuel expansion, highlighting the misalignment between climate ambition and real-world financial practice.

Bank.Green exists to close this gap by empowering consumers, civil society, and allied organisations to exert coordinated pressure on financial institutions. Our model links consumer mobilisation, public education, evidence-based campaigning, and global advocacy to shift banks away from fossil fuels and toward climate-aligned practices.

To date, Bank.Green has catalysed the divestment of £27 million from banks that continue to finance fossil fuels. While this demonstrates clear proof of concept, divestment must now occur at significantly greater scale if the world is to avert catastrophic climate breakdown. This urgency is heightened by the outcome of COP30 in Belém, where countries once again failed to reach consensus on a concrete roadmap for transitioning away from fossil fuels.

Philanthropy has stepped up in many areas of climate action, yet shifting private finance away from fossil fuels remains dramatically underfunded, despite being one of the highest-leverage interventions available. Progress has been incremental, not transformational.

Instead of organisations competing for limited grant opportunities, we invite funders to propose how they intend to support one of the most under-resourced, high-impact areas of climate action: shifting financial flows away from fossil fuels. This is an opportunity for institutional funders to demonstrate climate leadership, not simply endorse it.

Supporting Bank.Green’s programme represents an investment opportunity to accelerate systemic change and end fossil-fuel finance at its source.  

Purpose of the Reverse Call for Proposals

Bank.Green is seeking catalytic funding to expand its reach, strengthen its digital infrastructure and accelerate the global shift toward climate-aligned banking. Each level represents a stage of growth — from maintaining visibility and trust to building a professional communications engine capable of influencing public and corporate behaviour at scale.

This is an opportunity for funders to catalyse one of the most underfunded yet highest-leverage areas of climate action: shifting private-sector finance away from fossil fuels through informed, strategic, citizen-led pressure.

By supporting this Reverse Call for Proposals, funders will enable Bank.Green with:

• New research,
• New digital infrastructure,
• New advocacy capacity,
• New alliances, and
• New public engagement pathways.

Funders may choose to support the entire portfolio (all levels plus add-on) or specific programme components. We are open to negotiate any other specific model. Supporting all components would help transform Bank.Green into a main player in the fossil-free movement. Overhead costs are included.

Evaluation Criteria

Proposals will be assessed based on:

• Alignment with Bank.Green’s objective
• Commitment to equitable partnership principles
• Commitment to system’s change
• A proposal outlining how the institutional funder intends to support the growth of Bank.Green to become a leader in the fossil-free movement

Timelines: Proposals should not exceed 3 pages (excl. attachments). Submissions should be sent to zak@bank.green, indicating in the subject line ‘RCFP’. Joint proposals and consortium-led initiatives are also accepted.

Timelines

Call for proposal launch date: TBD

Proposal deadline: TBD

Review and selection: TBD

Partnership activation: TBD