How do I find funders for a large environment nonprofit?

Start with the funders most focused on large environment organizations, currently Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Foundation, Holden Arboretum Trust, Sea Change Foundation. Donor-advised funds and mega-funds are excluded, so these are funders that genuinely back organizations your size, not pass-through accounts.

How much grant money goes to large environment organizations?

$23.2B reached 1,363 large environment organizations from 15,860 funders. Money parked in the regranting layer is netted out.

How recent is this data?

It is read from IRS Form 990 and 990-PF e-file filings across recent fiscal years. US charity filings lag 12 to 24 months.

Causes · Environment · large

Who funds large environment organizations

The funders that back large environment organizations are specialists, not generalists: Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Foundation gives them 29.5× the national rate, with 100% of its grants going here. Large environment institutions draw a deep funder base, 12 on average, so the competition for their attention is intense.

$23.2B

granted

1,363

organizations

15,860

funders

The short version

15,860 funders gave $23.2B to 1,363 large environment organizations (large ($10M and up)) across recent IRS filings.
The most focused funder is Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Foundation, giving 29.5× the national rate to large environment organizations.
The largest non-DAF funder is The Bloomberg Family Foundation Inc, at $567M.
The large environment organization drawing the most is The Nature Conservancy, at $1.9B.

Funders most focused on large environment organizations

Not the biggest checks, the most committed: each gives this size and cause an outsized share of its budget against the national rate, shrunk toward that rate so a small specialist needs real volume to rank.

Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Foundation29.5×$46M · 100% of its giving Holden Arboretum Trust28.9×$34M · 100% of its giving Sea Change Foundation27.6×$253M · 89% of its giving Dreamorg27.6×$50M · 93% of its giving S L Gimbel Foundation27.2×$19M · 100% of its giving Aspen Global Change Institute Inc26.1×$110M · 85% of its giving Tompkins Conservation25.8×$26M · 91% of its giving Gulf of Mexico Alliance25.8×$17M · 95% of its giving

Largest funders by dollars

Real grantmakers giving the most to large environment organizations (donor-advised and mega-funds excluded).

1The Bloomberg Family Foundation Inc$567M 2National Fish and Wildlife Foundation$511M 3The David and Lucile Packard Foundation$425M 4Climate Imperative Foundation$425M 5Gordon E and Betty I Moore Foundation$404M 6Waverley Street Foundation$347M 7Sergey Brin Family Foundation$323M 8Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston Inc$307M

Large environment organizations that draw the most

Sized by grant dollars received. Pick one to see exactly who funds it.

1,353 other large environment organizations$14B

The Nature Conservancy$1.9B Environmental Defense Fund Incorporated$1.2B Climate Imperative Foundation$877M

Questions and answers

How do I find funders for a large environment nonprofit?: Start with the funders most focused on large environment organizations, currently Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Foundation, Holden Arboretum Trust, Sea Change Foundation. Donor-advised funds and mega-funds are excluded, so these are funders that genuinely back organizations your size, not pass-through accounts.
What counts as a large organization here?: Size is the organization's median total revenue across its filings: large ($10M and up). Cause is where each grant is placed by its stated purpose and the recipient's mission, falling back to the recipient's IRS activity category where that is unclear.
How much grant money goes to large environment organizations?: $23.2B reached 1,363 large environment organizations from 15,860 funders. Money parked in the regranting layer is netted out.
How recent is this data?: It is read from IRS Form 990 and 990-PF e-file filings across recent fiscal years. US charity filings lag 12 to 24 months.

More from the funding graph

The unnamed billions

grants reported with no recipient in the public record

The regranting layer

51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer

The DAF merry-go-round

$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds

The endowment market

who holds foundation money, and what just moved

The camps

funders cluster by geography, not ideology

By state

where grant money is based, and what stays home

Size is median total revenue; each grant is placed by its stated purpose and the recipient's mission, falling back to the recipient's IRS activity category where that is unclear. Read from IRS Form 990 and 990-PF e-file XML across recent fiscal years, among (c)(3) funders and recipients resolved by EIN, with the regranting layer netted out. Source: IRS Form 990 downloads.