What counts as environment in this data?

Each organization is grouped by its NTEE code in the IRS Business Master File, the recipient's own cause classification. Environment covers every organization the IRS places in that major group, and grants are counted by where the money lands.

What is the difference between the largest and the most committed funders of environment?

The largest by dollars are Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund and Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc, but they spread money across many causes. The most committed concentrate on environment: Sea Change Foundation gives 19.6× the national rate, with 95% of its grants going there.

How can a environment nonprofit find funders?

Look beyond the biggest names to the specialists, the funders giving environment an outsized share of their budget, and to the states where environment money concentrates, led by Washington, D.C.. Both are listed on this page.

How recent is this environment funding data?

It is read from IRS Form 990 and 990-PF e-file filings for fiscal years 2022 and 2023, the two years with complete coverage. US charity filings lag 12 to 24 months.

Funding by cause

Who funds environment

$24.3B reached 10,420 environment organizations across the 2022 and 2023 filings. The money concentrates: the few largest organizations draw a heavy share of it.

$24.3B

granted

10,420

organizations

The short version

$24.3B in tracked US grants reached 10,420 environment organizations across the FY2022 and FY2023 IRS filings.
The single largest recipient, New Venture Fund, drew $3.0B, 12% of all tracked environment funding.
The most committed funder is Sea Change Foundation, which gives 19.6× the national rate, with 95% of its grants going to environment.
Most environment money lands on organizations in Washington, D.C., 26% of the tracked total.

Funders most focused on environment

Not the biggest checks, the most committed. Each funder's share of giving to environment, against the national rate, shrunk toward that rate so a small specialist needs real volume to rank. The multiple is how many times the national rate it gives.

Sea Change Foundation19.6×$82M · 95% of its giving Aspen Global Change Institute Inc18.5×$103M · 89% of its giving Alliance to End Plastic Waste Inc18×$17M · 98% of its giving George & Miriam Martin Foundation17.7×$15M · 99% of its giving Climate Imperative Foundation17.2×$173M · 81% of its giving The Jeremy and Hannelore Grantham17×$100M · 82% of its giving Land Trust Alliance Inc16.9×$20M · 89% of its giving The Keith Campbell Foundation16.8×$58M · 82% of its giving

Organizations that draw the most

The environment organizations receiving the most grant money, sized by dollars. Pick one to see who funds it.

10,410 other environment organizations$17B

New Venture Fund$3.0B Environmental Defense Fund Incorporated$795M

Where the money lands

The states whose organizations draw the most environment money.

Washington, D.C.$6.4B · 26%

California$4.8B · 20%

New York$2.7B · 11%

Virginia$1.0B · 4%

Massachusetts$989M · 4%

Washington$729M · 3%

Largest funders of environment

Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund$1.7B Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc$778M Foundation for the Carolinas$572M National Philanthropic Trust$564M National Fish and Wildlife Foundation$517M Silicon Valley Community Foundation$511M Gordon E and Betty I Moore Foundation$510M The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation$501M

Funders by organization size

Who funds environment organizations at each size, with the funders most focused on them. Useful if you are small and the big-institution funders are not a fit.

grassroots environment$1.1B mid-size environment$4.1B large environment$8.6B

Questions and answers

What counts as environment in this data?: Each organization is grouped by its NTEE code in the IRS Business Master File, the recipient's own cause classification. Environment covers every organization the IRS places in that major group, and grants are counted by where the money lands.
What is the difference between the largest and the most committed funders of environment?: The largest by dollars are Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund and Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc, but they spread money across many causes. The most committed concentrate on environment: Sea Change Foundation gives 19.6× the national rate, with 95% of its grants going there.
How can a environment nonprofit find funders?: Look beyond the biggest names to the specialists, the funders giving environment an outsized share of their budget, and to the states where environment money concentrates, led by Washington, D.C.. Both are listed on this page.
How recent is this environment funding data?: It is read from IRS Form 990 and 990-PF e-file filings for fiscal years 2022 and 2023, the two years with complete coverage. US charity filings lag 12 to 24 months.

More from the funding graph

The regranting layer

51% of grant dollars pass through an intermediary

The DAF merry-go-round

$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds

Strange bedfellows

the named clusters of US funding

The camps

funders cluster by geography, not ideology

By state

where grant money is based, and what stays home

State money flows

the interactive map of money crossing state lines

Cause is the organization's NTEE classification in the IRS Business Master File. Grant figures are read from IRS Form 990 and 990-PF e-file XML for fiscal years 2022 and 2023, among recipients resolved by EIN. Source: IRS Form 990 downloads.