Grantmaker · Funders
Navigation Fund (site: navigation.org) is a U.S.-based philanthropic grantmaker that funds “neglected” or underfunded global challenges through a practitioner-led, invitation-forward model. It concentrates grantmaking in three main cause areas—Climate Change, Farm Animal Welfare, and Transforming Criminal Justice—and also supports Nuclear Safety via a partnership rather than an internal program.
The fund describes its core differentiator as funding work other philanthropic channels “often overlook,” including high-risk/high-reward strategies and capacity or movement-building efforts, with an emphasis on transparency (e.g., publishing annual program strategies) and using speed/low-overhead processes to deploy capital when opportunities are time-sensitive. Institutionally, Navigation Fund positions itself as both a direct grantmaker and a collaborator across philanthropy: it says it partners with other donors through advice, regranting, pooled funds, and coordination among grantee partners in its issue areas. It also frames its open-science stance as a grantmaking principle—stating that knowledge funded through philanthropy should belong to the public—and notes that it does not run impact investing (instead managing its endowment to support long-term grantmaking).
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The fund describes responding to climate-related federal workforce cuts, launching a “Climate Change Bridge Grants” program, narrowing top applicants, awarding grants, and summarizing example project outcomes and translation of lessons into future climate policy work.
Three Gaps in the U.S. Farm Animal Protection MovementA strategy post arguing the movement is underfunded relative to its challenge and identifying three gaps: political infrastructure, campus organizing, and strategic communications, each with examples of interventions the fund says it would like to see more investment in.
Is coordination our comparative advantage? A recipe for building trust, sharing credit, and winning togetherA farm animal welfare strategy post focused on coordination at scale, providing arguments for collaboration norms and practical suggestions for how funders and movements can strengthen trust and knowledge-sharing.