The Ford Foundation, one of the largest private foundations in the United States, announced Monday that it will divest millions from fossil fuels, following similar investment decisions made by other sizable foundations in recent years.

For years, climate activists have put pressure on endowed institutions, like Ford, to end their investments in companies involved with producing fossil fuels — coal, oil and natural gas. The MacArthur Foundation, another dominant player in the philanthropy world, and Harvard University both announced last month that their institutions will end investments in fossil fuel-related companies.

“As with any significant decision in a dynamic organization, this choice did not come without trade-offs,” Ford Foundation President Darren Walker said in a statement posted on the organization’s website.

“Although just 0.3% of the Ford Foundation’s endowment is directly invested in fossil fuel companies, we take our duties as fiduciaries seriously and we’re mindful that if we put restrictions on our investments, we may forsake some amount of return for future generations,” he added.

Going forward, the foundation says it will invest its energy portfolio in alternative and renewable energy and funds that “address the threat of climate change, and support the transition to a green economy.” The announcement from the organization — which has a $16 billion endowment — came as donors await the United Nation’s Climate Change Conference, set to be held in Glasgow, Scotland, Oct. 31-Nov. 12.

The foundation made the announcement in an effort to align “our investments and our values,” Walker wrote in his statement. The organization’s overall mission is to challenge inequality in all its forms, with a particular focus on supporting social justice movements across the globe. 

Since assuming the leadership of America’s second-largest private foundation in 2013, Walker has steered the organization to tackle that mission. In June, the foundation announced that it will spend $420 million over the next five years to advance global gender equality and combat gender-based issues exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, including violence against women.

The funding, announced at the United Nations Women’s Generation Equality Forum in Paris, will also support groups that are working to strengthen workplace equality and build feminist movements.

“I think for too long we have focused on Band-Aids — on charity, generosity — which is all admirable and necessary but insufficient to do the transformational work that needs to be done to change culture, to change systems and structures,” Walker said in an interview with The Associated Press at the time. “Philanthropy needs to be investing in the efforts to reform those systems, to change the cultural practices and norms that actually keep women from fully realizing their dreams, that keep girls married off at young ages, keeps girls from being educated and knowledgeable.”