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As You Sow at a glanceMostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

· Public charity

As You Sow

To promote environmental and social corporate responsibility on issues relating to climate change and environmental health; social issues included racial justice and workplace diversity; and toxic ingredients in consumer products.

$100k
Granted FY2023
2
Grants FY2023
2
States reached
$50k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its fieldRead
04Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2018 to 2023.

Public Benefit$100kEnvironment$86kInternational$80kPhilanthropy$53kEducation$40kFood & Nutrition$13kHealth$4kHuman Services$4k
02FY2023 · 2 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

$50,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$9.2M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Democracy Forward Foundation$50,000
Sustainable Investments Institute$50,000
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

US giving: 79% of grant dollars ($300k). The need read here covers only this US portion; the 21% that went abroad ($80k) is mapped below.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY19–19, $4k) land where the poverty rate runs at 8%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%COMMONWEAL: $4k → 8%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.

Beyond the US: 21% of all-years giving ($80k)

1 country, by the recipient’s country on the filing.

grant dollars sentlessmore
Germany$80k · 1 grant
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving. International giving is mapped by the recipient’s country from the same 990 filings; comparable need data isn’t available at that grain.
03Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Commons Impact Foundation
Philanthropy
2
Global Policy Forum Inc

Research and education of United Nations activities

International
3
One Planet Research Foundation
Philanthropy
4
One Planet Foundation
Philanthropy
5
Changing Markets Foundation Inc

Changing Markets Foundation's mission is to accelerate and scale up solutions to sustainability challenges by leveraging the power of markets. Working in partnership with NGOs, other foundations, and research organizations, the…

Environment
6
Us - China Policy Foundation
—
7
Heal the Planet Foundation
Philanthropy
8
Environment Now
—
9
Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Foundation

To engage and catalyze global seafood supply chains in rebuilding depleted fish stocks and reducing the environmental impacts of fishing and fish farming.

Animals
10
International Council On Environmental Economics and Development Union
Human Services
11
Green Advocates Usainc
—
12
Technology Policy Institute
International
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Public Citizen Foundation Inc; the most unlike its peers is The Manaaki Foundation. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

10 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 10 of the 11 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
5
Early backer (in before they grew)
10/10
Grantees still filing
7/10
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

UZBEK-GERMAN FORUM FOR HUMAN RIGHTS: $80,000 · OtherUZBEK-GERMAN FORUM FOR HUMAN RIGHTSSUSTAINABLE INVESTMENTS INSTITUTE INC: $50,000 · OtherSUSTAINABLE INVESTMENTS INSTITUTE INC+3 more: $9,000 · Other+3 moreTHE MANAAKI FOUNDATION: $53,235 · PhilanthropyTHE MANAAKI FOU…DEMOCRACY FORWARD FOUNDATION: $50,000 · Crime & LegalDEMOCRACY FORW…PUBLIC CITIZEN FOUNDATION INC: $50,000 · Public BenefitPUBLIC CITIZEN…UNITED STATES PARTNERSHIP FOR EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPME: $40,000 · EducationUNITED STAT…GREEN AMERICA: $35,000 · AnimalsGREEN AMER…CLEAN LABEL PROJECT FOUNDATION: $12,750 · Food & Nutrition
Other$139,000Philanthropy$53,235Crime & Legal$50,000Public Benefit$50,000Education$40,000Animals$35,000Food & Nutrition$12,750

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetTHE MANAAKI FOUNDATION: $53,235 over 1y, 3.9% of budgetDEMOCRACY FORWARD FOUNDATION: $50,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetSUSTAINABLE INVESTMENTS INSTITUTE INC: $50,000 over 1y, 12% of budgetPUBLIC CITIZEN FOUNDATION INC: $50,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetUNITED STATES PARTNERSHIP FOR EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPME: $40,000 over 1y, 57% of budgetGREEN AMERICA: $35,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetCLEAN LABEL PROJECT FOUNDATION: $12,750 over 2y, 6.4% of budgetCOMMONWEAL: $4,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetNONTOXIC CERTIFIED INC: $4,000 over 2y, 1.2% of budget
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a set of overlaps that mostly run through this funder rather than between each other.

Amazonsmile Foundation
Amazonsmile FoundationWA1.9× affinity4 shared granteesties to 0 of 0Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Amazonsmile Foundation

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization As You Sow funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from As You Sow. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 10%4%15%34%60%funder's share of their income ↑0%1%3%4%5%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    1get no government money at all
    1report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–5%
    typical government reliance, FY20–25
    How this is measured
    Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12 to 24 months.
    04Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to As You Sow?

    Find your warmest path to As You Sow through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.

    Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 11 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

    How this is measured
    Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

    Generated from the IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2023, released 2023. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Possibly out of date. A more recent filing (FY2024) is on record and reports $90 of grant expense, but none of it to a named recipient. On a Form 990 that can mean grants abroad, filed by region only (Schedule F), grants under $5,000, which are not itemized, or a schedule referenced as an attachment the e-file does not carry. The figures above are therefore from FY2023, the most recent year this funder named its grantees.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on As You Sow’s filings →

    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