Earth Quaker Action Team:

EQAT (said "equate") is eligible and currently nominated from the general endowment. A gift of $2,000 would be a significant gift for EQAT. The yearly budget for 2015 has been set at $110,000. 

EQAT has had a huge year in its campaign to get PNC to stop financing companies that practice mountaintop removal. On December 6th over 300 people took action in 13 states and washington DC by holding protests at bank branches. The nation-wide outreach that EQAT has been doing for the last 8 months has reengaged many people in having a political voice. Many of the people who participated had never experienced public protest before. At least 25 of the 31 action organizers were leading their first events. 

There are signs that PNC is starting to move on the issue. An ally group that conducts internal negotiations, the Rainforest Action Network, has said that the board is in-talks about EQAT and MTR. I think that EQAT is one of the most strategic organizations taking targeted action on environmental and corporate issues. Rather than resisting change, like a conservation group, EQAT is attempting to push for reforms and corporate policies that will protect the places people live on a systemic scale. 

EQATs mission supports "economic, social, industrial or political reform" and its current project of getting PNC out of MTR contributes to "economic sufficiency of a disadvantaged group" by weakening the coal empire in Appalachia. 

Fiscal Sponsorship

Last McClenon fund meeting, there were questions about how fiscal sponsorship works. tac-deductible gifts are made out to the Gandhian Foundation. Founded in 1961, the philadelphia based organization has been a fiscal sponsor to many many small, grassroots projects over the years. Training for Change was one, until they filed their own papers a few years ago, for example. Fiscal sponsorship is a normal and accepted process in the non-profit world and it is very common for small startups to use a fiscal sponsor instead of filing for themselves, at least until the group is well established. For donations to EQAT that go through the Gandhian foundation the full amount is directed to EQAT, minus a 3% handling/processing fee. Not a cent goes to other projects the foundation sponsors. 3% is extremely low compared to other sponsors, who may charge up to 10% for the service of filing all the paperwork and keeping records. Since the Gandhian foundation is run purely by volunteers, they keep costs low. I'm happy to answer more questions about this on the call but I want to stress that it is a normal agreement that poses no risk to the McClenon Fund. 

I should have a disclaimer that I was recently asked to be the co-chair of the EQAT fundraising committee and I accepted! I don't know if that poses any kind of conflict of interest, but I don't see anything barring that in the rules of the fund.