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Breakthrough Energy Foundation at a glanceAlso receives grants: funding profile →

· Public charity

Breakthrough Energy Foundation

Working with our world-class network of innovators, business and industry leaders, and policy experts, we accelerate the innovation of climate technologies at every stage - from discovery to development to deployment.

$102M
Granted FY2024still arriving
149
Grants FY2024still arriving
21
States reached
$10M
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through 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, FY2021 to 2024.

Environment$158MScience & Tech$35MInternational$21MEducation$4.4MCivil Rights$4.3MPublic Benefit$2.9MAnimals$2.0MSocial Science$1.3MOther$0
02FY2024 · 149 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 149 grants below total $71,865,100, the rows itemized in this filing. The $101,832,574 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $29,967,474 is giving the schedule does not break out (grants under the $5,000 itemization floor, grants to individuals, grants on other schedules). Every figure below describes the itemized rows only.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k2 grants · $14k
  • $10k–50k18 grants · $468k
  • $50k–250k67 grants · $8.4M
  • $250k+62 grants · $63M
$200,000
Median grant
21
States reached
$75M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
RF CATALYTIC CAPITAL INC$10,306,054
MULTIPLIER$5,000,000
BREAKTHROUGH ENERGY ACTION$4,021,314
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO$2,500,000
ROCKY MOUNTAIN INSTITUTE$2,105,050
MARS MATERIALS INC$2,062,015
GREAT PLAINS INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT$1,750,000
AIKIDO TECHNOLOGIES INC$1,687,260
TAKACHAR$1,571,129
THIRD WAY INSTITUTE$1,480,000
HGEN$1,458,165
CHEMFINITY$1,312,333
CONDUIT TECH INC$1,308,386
PHASE BIOLABS INC$1,269,221
CLEARPATH INC$1,238,520
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.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY22–24, $175k) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 29% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 9%REALIZE IMPACT: $50k → 10%PRIME COALITION INC: $125k → 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.

Which US states its grants reach

WA
MN
IL
WI
MI
NY
MA
OR
OH
NJ
CT
CA
CO
MO
VA
MD
DE
AZ
NM
NC
DC
HI
GA
TX
FL

Grants abroad, by region: $28M on the FY2024 return

Schedule F, as filed: 4 regions, $27M to organizations and $1.3M to individuals. The IRS asks for region and purpose, not the recipient, so no country or grantee can be named here.

Europe (including Iceland and Greenland)$25M · 87% · 53 grants · 9 people

Stated purpose: POLICY IMPLEMENTATION · INNOVATION PARTNERSHIP · CLEANTECH R&D

North America (Canada and Mexico)$2.7M · 10% · 4 grants

Stated purpose: CLEANTECH R&D · ECOSYSTEM GRANT · CONTRAIL SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

East Asia and the Pacific$830k · 3% · 7 grants

Stated purpose: CLEANTECH R&D · ECOSYSTEM GRANT

South Asia$213k · 1% · 2 people

Stated purpose: Fellowship Stipend

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. Grants abroad on Schedule F are filed by region, purpose and amount with no recipient name, so they are shown by region and cannot be placed on the country map or matched to a grantee.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

83%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$192M · 92 repeat orgs$39M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +29% since the first grant, against +11% for those funded once.

92 repeat relationships: 74 still active in FY2024, 18 since wound down; 45 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

92
45

Total granted

$192M
$24M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+29%
+11%

Still filing today

65%
67%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 79% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $15M went to new ones.

50%100%’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

’21’22’23’24
EnvironmentScience & TechEducationCommunity ImprovementPublic BenefitPhilanthropyOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

Backed again, and grew

  • MULTIPLIER
    3× · 2022–2024 · $11M · revenue +17%
  • Rocky Mountain Institute
    3× · 2022–2024 · $9.5M · revenue +50%
  • GP
    GREAT PLAINS INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT INC
    3× · 2022–2024 · $6.5M · revenue +61% · 28% of their budget

Funded once

  • CJ
    CLIMATE JOBS NATIONAL RESOURCE CENTER INCgraduated
    one grant, 2022 · $6.8M · revenue +91% · 84% of their budget
  • TW
    THIRD WAY
    one grant, 2022 · $2.1M · revenue +16%
  • MP
    MISSION POSSIBLE PARTNERSHIP USA INCgraduated
    one grant, 2022 · $1.2M · revenue ×19
How this is measured

Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Its 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
Advocates for Climate Innovation
Philanthropy
2
The Climate Group Inc

Climate group advances climate action by mobilizing business and government leadership to drive systemic decarbonization across energy, transport, and industry, while engaging the public through large-scale convenings and global platforms.…

Environment
3
Breakthrough Energy Foundation

Working with our world-class network of innovators, business and industry leaders, and policy experts, we accelerate the innovation of climate technologies at every stage - from discovery to development to deployment.

Public Benefit
4
Climate Catalyst Inc

Climate catalyst sparks collective action to tackle the biggest climate challenges we face today: cutting emissions in heavy industries.

Environment
5
National Caucus of Environmental Legislators

The national caucus of environmental legislators empowers a nonpartisan network of legislative champions to protect, conserve, and improve the natural and human environment.

Education
6
Coalition for Green Capital D/B/a American Green Bank Consortium

Cgc operates as a nonprofit financial institution that invests directly and through partners to transform financial markets by using public and private investing to accelerate the deployment of projects that strengthen the grid, reduce…

Environment
7
CarbonPlan

Improving the transparency and scientific integrity of climate solutions through open data and tools.

Environment
8
The Climate Center

The Climate Center is a climate and energy policy nonprofit working to rapidly reduce climate pollution at scale, starting in California.

Education
9
Climate Institute

The climate institute is organized for the purpose of educating the general public and policy makers as to the gravity of potential climate change, exploring the policy implications of the latest scientific findings on climate modelling…

Environment
10
Fresh Energy

Shape and drive bold policy solutions to achieve equitable carbon-neutral economies.

Environment
11
Watttime Corporation

To raise awareness about the potential to reduce environmental harm by shifting electricity use to particular times; to encourage the development and spread of common protocols for this practice.

Science & Tech
12
Competitive Enterprise Institute

Competitive enterprise institute (cei) is a non-profit public policy organization dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government. we believe that consumers are best helped not by government regulation but by being…

—
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Clearpath Inc; the most unlike its peers is National Wildlife Federation. 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

119 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. 119 of the 189 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.

16
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
14
Early backer (in before they grew)
119/119
Grantees still filing
75/119
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Rocky Mountain Institute: $9,531,391 · OtherRocky Mountain InstituteMANTEL CAPTURE INC: $5,005,700 · OtherMOLTEN INDUSTRIES INC: $4,978,447 · OtherMARS MATERIALS INC: $4,858,800 · OtherHGEN: $4,773,648 · OtherQUEENS CARBON INC: $4,405,865 · OtherCHEMFINITY: $3,908,800 · OtherHOLOCENE CLIMATE CORPORATION: $3,636,717 · Other+98 more: $66,893,590 · Other+98 moreMULTIPLIER: $11,000,000 · EnvironmentMULTIPLIERCLIMATE JOBS NATIONAL RESOURCE CENTER INC: $6,800,000 · EnvironmentCLIMATE JOBS NATIONAL RESOURCE CENT…NREL Foundation: $6,388,950 · EnvironmentNREL FoundationNATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL INC: $5,829,815 · EnvironmentNATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL I…Breakthrough Energy Action Inc: $4,021,314 · EnvironmentBreakthrough Energy Action IncResources for the Future Inc: $3,126,409 · EnvironmentCLEAN AIR TASK FORCE INC: $3,099,858 · EnvironmentThe Breakthrough Institute: $3,023,604 · EnvironmentEFI FOUNDATION: $2,846,625 · EnvironmentCLEARPATH INC: $2,686,970 · EnvironmentCENTER FOR CLIMATE AND ENERGY SOLUTIONS INC: $2,571,920 · Environment+34 more: $21,794,924 · Environment+34 moreRF CATALYTIC CAPITAL INC: $19,246,669 · PhilanthropyRF CATALYT…COMMUNITY INITIATIVES: $1,125,000 · Philanthropy+4 more: $1,350,169 · Philanthropy+4 moreUniversity of Chicago: $2,821,650 · EducationTHE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY: $1,137,000 · EducationNUCLEAR INNOVATION ALLIANCE: $950,000 · EducationNew York University: $920,000 · EducationMassachusetts Institute of Technology: $750,000 · EducationTHE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK: $500,000 · EducationUNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON FOUNDATION: $500,000 · Education+7 more: $1,090,000 · EducationGREAT PLAINS INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT INC: $6,508,849 · Community ImprovementNATIONAL SKILLS COALITION: $650,000 · Community ImprovementFSG INC: $365,980 · Community Improvement+6 more: $614,136 · Community ImprovementFEDERATION OF AMERICAN SCIENTISTS: $2,857,992 · InternationalWORLD RESOURCES INSTITUTE: $2,359,000 · InternationalTHE UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS INC: $1,700,000 · InternationalATLANTIC COUNCIL OF THE UNITED STATES INC: $450,000 · International+1 more: $185,283 · InternationalTHIRD WAY INSTITUTE: $4,052,084 · Civil RightsTHIRD WAY: $2,055,384 · Civil Rights+2 more: $280,000 · Civil Rights
Other$107,992,958Environment$73,190,389Philanthropy$21,721,838Education$8,668,650Community Improvement$8,138,965International$7,552,275Civil Rights$6,387,468

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

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetRF CATALYTIC CAPITAL INC: $19,246,669 over 2y, 6.2% of budgetMULTIPLIER: $11,000,000 over 3y, 7.6% of budgetRocky Mountain Institute: $9,531,391 over 3y, 3.1% of budgetCLIMATE JOBS NATIONAL RESOURCE CENTER INC: $6,800,000 over 1y, 84% of budgetGREAT PLAINS INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT INC: $6,508,849 over 3y, 28% of budgetNREL Foundation: $6,388,950 over 3y, 94% of budgetNATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL INC: $5,829,815 over 3y, 1.9% of budgetTHIRD WAY INSTITUTE: $4,052,084 over 2y, 13% of budgetBreakthrough Energy Action Inc: $4,021,314 over 1y, 85% of budgetResources for the Future Inc: $3,126,409 over 3y, 12% of budgetCLEAN AIR TASK FORCE INC: $3,099,858 over 2y, 3.7% of budgetThe Breakthrough Institute: $3,023,604 over 2y, 28% of budgetFEDERATION OF AMERICAN SCIENTISTS: $2,857,992 over 2y, 12% of budgetEFI FOUNDATION: $2,846,625 over 3y, 58% of budgetUniversity of Chicago: $2,821,650 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetCLEARPATH INC: $2,686,970 over 3y, 7.2% of budgetCLIMATEWORKS FOUNDATION: $2,670,000 over 2y, 0.6% of budgetCENTER FOR CLIMATE AND ENERGY SOLUTIONS INC: $2,571,920 over 2y, 31% of budgetNATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION: $2,399,999 over 3y, 0.9% of budgetWORLD RESOURCES INSTITUTE: $2,359,000 over 3y, 0.4% of budgetENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND INCORPORATED: $2,254,995 over 2y, 0.7% of budgetTHIRD WAY: $2,055,384 over 1y, 7.5% of budgetTHE UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS INC: $1,700,000 over 3y, 1.6% of budgetAMERICAN COUNCIL FOR AN ENERGY-EFFICIENT ECONOMY: $1,565,000 over 3y, 5.3% of budgetBUILDING TRANSPARENCY: $1,550,000 over 3y, 32% of budgetCITIZENS FOR RESPONSIBLE ENERGY SOLUTIONS FORUM: $1,408,111 over 3y, 9.6% of budgetCE BUYERS INSTITUTE: $1,350,000 over 2y, 20% of budgetBENEFICIAL ELECTRIFICATION LEAGUE: $1,340,000 over 2y, 40% of budgetThe Partnership Project Inc: $1,200,000 over 2y, 2.6% of budgetThe Conservative Coalition for Climate Solutions: $1,200,000 over 3y, 43% of budgetGridLab Inc: $1,150,000 over 2y, 15% of budgetTHE ASPEN INSTITUTE INC: $1,137,340 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetTHE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY: $1,137,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetCOMMUNITY INITIATIVES: $1,125,000 over 3y, 1.3% of budgetBIPARTISAN POLICY CENTER INC: $1,017,883 over 3y, 1.4% of budget2030 INC: $1,000,000 over 1y, 35% of budgetNEW BUILDINGS INSTITUTE: $995,700 over 3y, 10% of budgetNUCLEAR INNOVATION ALLIANCE: $950,000 over 3y, 31% of budgetNew York University: $920,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetCLIMATE LEADERSHIP COUNCIL INC: $795,000 over 2y, 12% of budgetMassachusetts Institute of Technology: $750,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCENTER FOR ENERGY WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT: $700,000 over 2y, 15% of budgetGOOD ENERGY COLLECTIVE INC: $660,500 over 3y, 14% of budgetNATIONAL SKILLS COALITION: $650,000 over 1y, 4.0% of budgetNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF STATE ENERGY OFFICIALS: $625,000 over 1y, 14% of budgetSILVERADO POLICY ACCELERATOR INC: $604,250 over 2y, 17% of budgetNATIONAL AUDUBON SOCIETY INC: $565,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetCENTER FOR CARBON REMOVAL: $503,557 over 2y, 2.4% 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.

  • Who funds RF CATALYTIC CAPITAL INC ↗
  • Who funds MULTIPLIER ↗
  • Who funds Rocky Mountain Institute ↗
  • Who funds CLIMATE JOBS NATIONAL RESOURCE CENTER INC ↗
  • Who funds GREAT PLAINS INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT INC ↗
  • Who funds NREL Foundation ↗
  • Who funds NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL INC ↗
  • Who funds THIRD WAY INSTITUTE ↗
  • Who funds Breakthrough Energy Action Inc ↗
  • Who funds Resources for the Future Inc ↗
  • Who funds CLEAN AIR TASK FORCE INC ↗
  • Who funds The Breakthrough Institute ↗
  • Who funds FEDERATION OF AMERICAN SCIENTISTS ↗
  • Who funds EFI FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds University of Chicago ↗
  • Who funds CLEARPATH INC ↗
  • Who funds CLIMATEWORKS FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds CENTER FOR CLIMATE AND ENERGY SOLUTIONS INC ↗
  • Who funds NATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION ↗
  • Who funds WORLD RESOURCES INSTITUTE ↗
  • Who funds ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND INCORPORATED ↗
  • Who funds THIRD WAY ↗

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 tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Climateworks Foundati…United States Energy …The William & Flora H…The Energy FoundationEnvironmental Defense…Climate Imperative Fo…Bernard and Anne Spit…John D and Catherine …MultiplierCombined Jewish Phila…The Heising-Simons Fo…Sequoia Climate Found…
Climateworks FoundationCA48.5× affinity22 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Climateworks Foundation · United States Energy Foundation · The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation · The Energy Foundation · Environmental Defense Fund Incorporated · Climate Imperative Foundation · Bernard and Anne Spitzer Charitable Trust · John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation · Multiplier · Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston Inc · The Heising-Simons Foundation · Sequoia Climate 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 Breakthrough Energy Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Breakthrough Energy Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 90%6%25%56%100%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 35%
  • New Buildings Institute: 100% of income from government
  • Health Effects Institute: 39% of income from government
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology: 35% of income from government
  • The Trustees of Princeton University: 11% of income from government
  • Consensus Building Institute Inc: 4% of income from government
  • Greentown Collaborative Inc: 0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
9get no government money at all
11report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
1rely on government for over half their income
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.
05Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to Breakthrough Energy Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Breakthrough Energy Foundation 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 189 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 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Breakthrough Energy’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