Funding the Missing Middle: Shockwave at New York Climate Week

What will it take to fund nature-based water solutions at scale?

That question was at the foundation of Advancing the Water Towers Funder Coalition, an event we co-hosted alongside The Nature Conservancy, The Coca-Cola Foundation, and the World Bank Group’s 2030 Water Resources Group at New York Climate Week. The gathering convened implementers and funders to think about ways to operationalize a Water Towers Funder Coalition with an eye toward launching as a Flagship Initiative at the 2026 UN Water Conference. This new initiative aims to align private, corporate, and philanthropic capital around landscape-scale nature-based solutions investment programs that meet a common standard.

Our CEO, Jeny Wegbreit, joined Rochi Khemka (World Bank Group), Venkat Iyer (The Coca-Cola Foundation), and Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak (IUCN) on a panel moderated by Daniel Shemie (The Nature Conservancy) to discuss the role of different types of funders in such a coalition and the value of this work.

"There's a missing middle in nature-based solutions that often gets overlooked," Jeny said. "Connecting promising projects with interested investors takes good data, technical studies, and strong local partnerships. That in-between work is hard to fund, and it's where catalytic philanthropy can be especially useful."

For Shockwave, the coalitions worth joining build a clear pipeline of strong projects and enable each funder to step in at the right stage and play the role they’re best suited for. 

Thank you to The Nature Conservancy for bringing us together, and to our co-sponsors for their partnership. We're excited to keep building this coalition and to share more as it takes shape.