Measuring Impact Through People: Five Years of Climate Finance Action
When we launched Climate Finance Action, we asked ourselves a simple but difficult question: How do you measure the impact of work that’s often invisible — the mindset shifts, the a-ha moments, the narrative shifts — long before the policy wins arrive?
After five years of building this organization, we’ve learned something essential about impact: You don’t measure it only through reports published or meetings held. You measure it through people.
Through the union leader who finally feels equipped to speak up in a pension meeting.
Through the trustee who recognizes climate risk as financial risk and votes accordingly.
Through the state public financial officer who can turn ambition into policy because someone handed them the tools, language, and research they needed.
Through the stewardship and governance officer who now has the backing to influence the fund from the inside.
This year, our impact showed up in stories like these. In growing confidence. In strategic action. And most importantly, in forward movement.
That progress didn’t happen overnight. It is the result of steady, collective effort that is now shaping policies and building momentum in communities across the country. And it is made possible by the support that allows Climate Finance Action to serve as quiet, essential infrastructure behind some of the most consequential climate finance decisions taking place today.
Shifting Climate Narratives and Sparking Clarity
When Climate Finance Action began, climate conversations around pension investing tended to fall into two unhelpful extremes: overly technical or catastrophist. Neither approach supported trustees, workers, or public officials in taking meaningful action.
In 2025, we continued to change that. Climate Finance Action is now known for communicating climate risk in practical, grounded ways that resonate across roles, from union members to trustees to public financial officers. We’ve spent the year rewriting the narrative, offering nuanced explanations of how climate risk, financial systems, and pension fund decisions intersect in real life.
As one collaborator put it:
“This is the bridge we need between the high-level conversations and the work on the ground.”
By making complexity accessible without oversimplifying, we are fundamentally changing how people assess and respond to the risks climate change poses to retirement security.
Demystifying Financial Systems for Workers and Trustees
Our updated guide, Investing in Our Future: A Guide to Climate-Conscious Pension Strategies, remains one of the few plain-language roadmaps for climate-resilient pension stewardship. In 2025, we expanded this work significantly, offering:
Tailored resources and strategic guidance for state public financial officers
Workshops for union leaders and trustees
Practical tools to strengthen governance, engagement, and oversight
Educational resources for local unions to deepen member understanding and advocacy
The response has been powerful.
“CFA is one of the best resources for beneficiaries to start understanding how their public pension system works. CFA’s guides and worksheets are invaluable in breaking through the jargon and helping people see how they can influence their fund.”
“CFA’s workshops reminded our members that we’re not bystanders. We’re owners. Our voices can push pension funds to confront climate risk and invest in real climate solutions that protect workers’ futures.”
Education, we’ve learned, doesn’t just inform. It activates.
Deep Partnerships and Growing Worker Power
This year, Climate Finance Action partnered closely with unions, trustees, and public financial leaders to help advance real policy and governance outcomes across the country. While each state’s story is unique, the pattern is consistent: clearer tools, stronger collaboration, and greater confidence to act.
Across multiple public pension systems, Climate Finance Action provided strategic input on decarbonization and stewardship frameworks, supported the development of climate advisory and beneficiary engagement structures, and helped advance responsible workforce and transparency policies. Through coalition-building, policy analysis, and behind-the-scenes engagement, we supported pension leaders in translating climate risk goals into durable governance and legislative outcomes.
CFA has played a trusted bridging role, bringing workers, trustees, and public financial officers into meaningful collaboration. We’ve seen firsthand how education seeds organizing, and how organizing leads to stronger stewardship decisions.
“Working with Climate Finance Action has been extremely helpful in translating our climate risk management goals into practical opportunities for policy improvements and actionable steps.”
“Without Climate Finance Action’s early and consistent engagement, we could not have presented such a compelling story to legislators and advocates in support of the Climate Resilience Investment Act.”
Sustaining and Expanding This Work
Climate Finance Action is a nonprofit with a clear vision: a thriving planet and an inclusive economy where financial decisions account for climate risk and worker well-being.
We have the expertise.
We have the trust of unions, trustees, and public financial officers.
We have growing demand for our tools, workshops, and research.
Looking ahead to 2026, our focus is on deepening support for state treasurers and public financial officers, equipping workers and retirees to participate meaningfully in decisions shaping their financial futures, and strengthening the systems, partnerships, and narratives that move pension funds toward durable, climate-resilient investment practices.
Sustaining this momentum requires partnership.
Support for Climate Finance Action helps: equip workers and trustees with essential stewardship tools, fund the policy analysis states rely on, sustain the videos, explainers, and guides accessed by thousands each year, and support a small but deeply effective team. When you invest in Climate Finance Action, you help secure the retirement futures of millions of workers and help guide billions in public capital toward climate solutions that benefit communities and the economy.
Thank you for believing in this work and for helping build a future where pension stewardship protects both workers and the planet.
