The Earth Institute’s mission is to mobilize the sciences, education and public policy to achieve a sustainable Earth. By leveraging the vast intellectual power of Columbia University, the Earth Institute has nurtured cross-disciplinary collaborations and is actively addressing the world’s most complex challenges. With over two dozen associated degree curricula and a vibrant fellowship program, the Earth Institute is educating new leaders to become professionals and scholars in the growing field of sustainable development. We work alongside governments, businesses, nonprofit organizations and individuals to devise innovative strategies to protect the future of our planet.
Read below for descriptions of initiatives and projects that you can support. Visit our ways to give page for more information on making a gift to these projects.
Ensure that the Earth Institute will continue to be a leader in sustainable development research, education, action and outreach.
Your gift to the Earth Institute Fund allows us to help nurture the educational programs, teaching and research that are so vital to our mission. We put your gift to work right away so that we can immediately take forward those ideas and innovations that hold the most potential for addressing the challenges of sustainable development.
Enable Columbia’s Water Center to continue finding comprehensive solutions to water-related challenges around the world.
The Water Center is leading intellectual inquiry into the assessment, prediction and solution of the growing scarcity of fresh water. The Water Center conducts research on water shortages in some of the most challenging settings in the world and also acts as the focal point for water-related research at Columbia.
Help the Columbia Climate Center to address the pressing issues in climate change.
The Climate Center seeks to improve humankind’s capacity to understand, predict, and respond to climate variability and change within a multi-disciplinary approach to sustainable development. The Columbia Climate Center is the hub for climate-related science and research at Columbia.
Help fight poverty at the village level by supporting a Millennium Village. Enable villages in Sub-Saharan Africa to break out of the poverty trap and build sustainable, growing, healthy communities. Through community-led development, rural Africa can achieve the Millennium Development Goals, reducing extreme poverty and hunger by half and improving education, health, gender equality and environmental sustainability – by 2015.
Invest in the future of African cities and help foster new economic relationships between them and Millennium Villages.
Help cities in Africa attract investment by boosting opportunities and opportunities for talks with foreign investors. Ensure that stakeholders can carry out needs assessments to learn what would help each city achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
Help developing countries solve urgent issues of economic development, public health, energy systems, water management, agriculture and infrastructure.
World leaders consult with the Earth Institute to solve pressing issues for their respective countries. At the Earth Clinic, students collaborate with some of the top scientists in the world to address large-scale issues of sustainable development through basic and applied research and practice.
Help establish a named professorship, allowing the Earth Institute to attract the foremost thought leaders.
An endowed professorship is among the highest honors a university can confer. By creating an endowed professorship, you ensure that the Earth Institute attracts a professor with broad understanding of the field as it now exists, an important vision for the future, and an exceptional ability to communicate that understanding and vision to others. A gift of $5 million will fully-endow a professorship.
Help support students gain practical experience in addressing the challenges of sustainable development.
The more than 24 academic programs affiliated with the Earth Institute represent one of the largest collections of environment and sustainable development education programs in the world. Your support can support student scholarships, fellowships and internships across multiple disciplines.
Student Travel Fund - Sponsor a student to attend conferences around the world. A gift of $750 will ensure this opportunity for at least one student.
Student Research Assistantship - Help students gain unique and valuable experience by working directly with Earth Institute scientists. The cost to fund one semester-long research assistantship is $2,000.
Summer Internship - Give undergraduate students the opportunity to spend three months working in the field alongside Earth Institute graduate students and faculty. A gift of $6,500 will fully fund one summer internship.
Master’s Degree Fellowships - Help a worthy student make a career in sustainable development or environmental science. Your support will help master's students combine scientific interests with careers in public policy, management, education, conservation, or journalism. There are 3 master’s programs jointly administered by the Earth Institute: M.P.A. in Environmental Science and Policy, M.P.A. in Development Practice and M.A. in Climate and Society. A gift of $70,000 will fully fund a fellow.
Sustainable Development Ph.D. Fellowships - Educate future leaders in sustainable development. Graduates of our Ph.D. in Sustainable Development program go on to become policy-makers as well as researchers and professors in social-science disciplines, policy schools, and undergraduate and graduate environmental science programs. The cost to fully support one fellowship is $300,000.
Earth Institute Fellows - Support a named postdoctoral fellow in any number of our nine fundamental research themes. Help Earth Institute fellows to apply their expertise to reduce hunger, disease, and environmental degradation, particularly in nations ravaged by the AIDS pandemic, climate change, and extreme poverty. You can fund a Fellow for $75,000 per year over two years or endow a named Earth Institute Fellowship in perpetuity for $1.5 million.
