Shaping climate philanthropy through cellphilm making | Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change

*A young racialized climate justice activist filming on their cellphone. Photo by Lauren Castelino.*

What do you get when you combine cellphones, filmmaking and intention? “Cellphilm making”, according to MES candidate, Lauren Castelino.

As a young racialized climate justice activist aspiring to secure funding for her grassroots activism, projects and nonprofit organizations, Castelino sought to focus on inequities within the realm of climate philanthropy for her major research project. The intention was to bridge the gap between racialized activists and environmental funders, who are often not in the same room together.

Supervised by York Research Chair in Community-Based Participatory Research, Sarah Flicker, Castelino’s project was multifaceted. Through a five-part cellphilm making workshop series, Castelino was able to train other young racialized activists across the country on how to engage in storytelling by showcasing their barriers and solutions to climate philanthropy by filming with their cellphones. The resulting output was a quilted cellphilm titled ‘Climate Coins & Consciousness: A Collective Cellphilm’ which showcases these stories. She also engaged in conversations with the racialized activists, finding out their top barriers and solutions in securing funding.

*Lauren Castelino speaking on the panel at the Cellphilm Screening event. Photo by Isatu Barrie.*

Impressively, Castelino met with 13 environmental funders and shared the quilted cellphilm, along with a brief barriers and solutions document. Through her major research project, she interviewed these environmental funders and put together a highly influential paper that will play a major role in shaping climate philanthropy for racialized communities. Castelino’s major research paper titled ‘Uncovering Funding Inequities: Young Racialized Climate Justice Activists' Struggle within the Realm of Climate Philanthropy’ was nominated by the Faculty for the Outstanding Paper Series. The paper details a list of actionable recommendations and corresponding resources for governments, funders, funder networks, businesses and communities.

“There are strong power and privilege dynamics with acquiring capital, and racialized communities are on the front lines fighting the climate crisis with tremendous barriers in the way of gaining the financial support that we need.” - Lauren Castelino

Through the funding support received in part from York University’s Academic Excellence Fund, Castelino was also able to host a public screening of the quilted cellphilm and panel on the topic, with 70+ members of the Tkaronto community in attendance. The quilted cellphilm was very well received by the attendees. As put forward by one viewer, “I really loved seeing the wide variety of backgrounds & experiences among all the participants of the cellphilm - it was really thought provoking to see the diverse ways that young people are taking action & engaging with community organizing”.

Some memorable quotes from the panelists include:

“I do feel like a lot of the time, I don't see the amplifying of grassroots movements and grassroots leaders with philanthropy. I think that it's good to recognize and I think some more people are doing more in the climate movement to recognize frontline workers and on the ground people.” - Atreyu Lewis, Founder and Project Lead, Rising from our Roots

*Panelists at the Cellphilm Screening (from left to right): Lauren Castelino, Atreyu Lewis, Gabe Oatley, and Devika Shah. Photo by Isatu Barrie.*

“The challenge we have in the philanthropic sector is no one is really pressuring, like students aren't taking signs and posting up in front of the offices of philanthropic foundations across the country, they're just sort of out of sight, out of mind. On the flip side, funders are really sensitive. These are folks who care about their own professional reputations. And I do think that we would see their funding priorities change if they were under more pressure.” - Gabe Oatley, Philanthropy Reporter, Future of Good

The greatest takeaways from her master’s research project has been the disconnect between funder expectations and the limited capacity and resources of young racialized climate justice activists. Although funders are surprisingly very eager to fund equity seeking communities, racialized activists struggle with meeting funder requirements such as robust financial management and governance systems coupled with teams with extensive leadership experience. Lauren’s next steps for her major research project include finding interested journals to publish her work as well as continuing the conversation with environmental funders and stakeholders on LinkedIn.

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Lauren Castelino is a Master’s of Environmental Studies (MES) candidate at the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change. Lauren is also the founder of the Green Career Centre, where she prepares underrepresented youth for green careers. Over more than six years, Lauren has reached thousands of youth through developing environmental programs and sharing career development resources. Impressively, Lauren has secured more than $1.6 million dollars for BIPOC-led and impact-driven organizations which has financed the creation of scores of environmental events, dozens of green jobs, three community gardens and spaces for community organizing. Lauren has been recognized among the Starfish Canada’s Top 25 Under 25 Environmentalists, Corporate Knights’ 30 Under 30 Sustainability Leaders, and VERGE’s Emerging Leaders among over a dozen other awards and accomplishments.