· Public charity
Catalyst4 Inc
To foster, support, promote and conduct activities designed to benefit and improve the environment and global health.
Read this first · the figures below need context
64% of Catalyst4 Inc’s FY2024 grant dollars went to Sixteen Thirty Fund, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2024 names 7 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2023, the last year Catalyst4 Inc named its own grantees at scale: 6 organizations, $84M. It is dated, not current.
Organizations named directly on the return
Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2022 to 2024.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| MICHAEL J FOX FOUNDATION FOR PARKINSON'S RESEARCH | $50,000,000 |
| ENERGY ACTION FUND | $24,000,000 |
| SIXTEEN THIRTY FUND | $4,000,000 |
| FUND FOR A BETTER FUTURE | $3,029,854 |
| SPARK NS INC | $1,700,000 |
| TIDES ADVOCACY | $800,000 |
| PARTNERSHIP PROJECT ACTION FUND | $500,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY22–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 69% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +103% since the first grant, against 0% for those funded once.
3 repeat relationships: 3 still active in FY2023, 0 since wound down; 7 grantees were first funded in FY2023 (too recent to call). Read against FY2023, the last year this funder named its own grantees directly; its giving has since run through a sponsor, which reports no donor behind each grant.
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 67% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $5.2M went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- EAENERGY ACTION FUND3× · 2022–2024 · $36M · revenue +103% · 50% of their budget
- SNSPARK NS INC2× · 2023–2024 · $4.8M · 99% of their budget
- FFFUND FOR A BETTER FUTURE INC2× · 2023–2024 · $3.6M · revenue -82%
Funded once
THE MICHAEL J FOX FOUNDATION FOR PARKINSON'S RESEARCHgraduatedone grant, 2023 · $50M · revenue +124%- LOLEAGUE OF CONSERVATION VOTERS INCone grant, 2024 · $3.5M
- GAGREENLIGHT ACTIONone grant, 2024 · $1.2M · 59% of their budget
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.
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.
Partnership for Policy Integrity (PFPI) uses data-driven advocacy and litigation to fight for forests, communities and the climate.
The united states energy foundation's mission is to secure a clean and equitable energy future to tackle the climate crisis.
To build political support for advancing the goals of the natural resources defense council.
Global Forest Generation restores and protects forest ecosystems in partnership with grassroots leaders and local communities across vast landscapes which play a critical role in preserving water, protecting biodiversity, storing carbon,…
Using legal advocacy to make advances in science and technology safer for people and the planet.
Floodlight is an environmental news organization that investigates the people and corporations stalling climate action. We collaborate with local and nonprofit publications.
To research and develop healthy climate solutions comprising global food security, ecosystem regeneration and carbon balance in seas and soils.
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.
To establish and promote programs to protect the global climate, forests, wildlife and the natural environment, through research, advocacy, and investigation.
The world's economic and energy policies are built around technologies that emit greenhouse gases. That must change. We develop and advocate for smart policies that public and private sector leaders can implement to support clean energy…
Our vision for the future abundant clean energy dramatically lowers u.s. greenhouse gas emissions, mitigating the pace of climate change and stopping the severe and inequitable health continued on sch o
Research and inform the public about the hazards of high-volume hydraulic fracturing and other gas and oil extraction processes, other energy industry practices, environmental sustainability, and renewable energy.
How this is measured
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 12 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.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
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 THE MICHAEL J FOX FOUNDATION FOR PARKINSON'S RESEARCH ↗
- Who funds ENERGY ACTION FUND ↗
- Who funds SIXTEEN THIRTY FUND ↗
- Who funds SPARK NS INC ↗
- Who funds FUND FOR A BETTER FUTURE INC ↗
- Who funds HUMBOLDT AREA FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds GREENLIGHT ACTION ↗
- Who funds TIDES ADVOCACY ↗
- Who funds The Partnership Project Action Fund ↗
- Who funds ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE ACTION FUND ↗
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.
Open a dossier: The Heising-Simons Action Fund · NEO Philanthropy Action Fund Inc · Fund for a Better Future Inc · Advocacy Action Fund Inc · League of Conservation Voters Inc · Sixteen Thirty Fund
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Catalyst4 Inc funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Catalyst4 Inc. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Catalyst4 Inc?
Find your warmest path to Catalyst4 Inc 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.
Play a game based on Catalyst4’s filings →