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· Public charity

Conservation Innovation Fund

To increase the velocity and the scale of conservation efforts in the united states and to support the growing development of the conservation finance sector.

$4.4M
Granted FY2025still arriving
7
Grants FY2025still arriving
4
States reached
$214k
Largest
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2024 to 2025.

Environment$2.8M
02FY2025 · 7 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 7 grants below total $965,502, the rows itemized in this filing. The $4,356,090 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $3,390,588 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 · FY2025

  • Under $10k1 grant · $8k
  • $50k–250k6 grants · $958k
$159,755
Median grant
4
States reached
$299k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
MARYLAND & VIRGINIA MILK PRODUCERS COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATION$213,546
AGGROW TECH LLC$194,725
ECOSYSTEM SERVICES MARKET CONSORTIUM$186,321
STROUD WATER RESEARCH CENTER$159,755
ALLIANCE FOR THE CHESAPEAKE BAY$134,523
ALLIANCE FOR THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY$69,016
COSERVATION FOUNDATION OF LANCASTER COUNTY DBA LANCASTER CLEAN WATER PARTNE$7,616
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:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY24–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 8%, against an area that typically sits at 6%. 90% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 6%STROUD WATER RESEARCH CENTER: $160k → 6%LANCASTER CLEAN WATER PARTNERS: $17k → 9%ZIMMERMANS'S HILLTOP DAIRY: $270k → 10%SHOW TOP FARMS INC: $55k → 11%DAVIS DAIRY: $277k → 13%AGGROW TECH LLC: $195k → 16%ECOSYSTEM SERVICES MARKET CONSORTIUM: $186k → 6%COOL LAWN LLC: $733k → 6%ALLIANCE FOR THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY: $69k → 12%ALLIANCE FOR THE CHESAPEAKE BAY: $135k → 6%CHESAPEAKE GOLD FARMS INC: $32k → 10%STROUD WATER RESEARCH CENTER: $121k → 6%COSERVATION FOUNDATION OF LANCASTER COUNTY DBA LANCASTER CLEAN WATER PARTNE: $8k → 9%FANTASYLAND FARMS LLC: $21k → 11%ECOSYSTEM SERVICES MARKET CONSORTIUM: $97k → 6%ALLIANCE FOR THE CHESAPEAKE BAY: $81k → 6%MARYLAND & VIRGINIA MILK PRODUCERS COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATION: $214k → 6%MARYLAND & VIRGINIA MILK PRODUCERS COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATION: $156k → 6%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.
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.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

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

42%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$1.2M · 5 repeat orgs$1.7M to everyone else

5 repeat relationships: 5 still active in FY2025, 0 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

5
6

Total granted

$1.2M
$1.4M

Still filing today

80%
0%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 73% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $264k went to new ones.

50%100%’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’24’25
EnvironmentScience & TechCommunity ImprovementOther
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

  • MV
    MARYLAND & VIRGINIA MILK PRODUCERS COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATION
    2× · 2024–2025 · $370k
  • ES
    ECOSYSTEM SERVICES MARKET CONSORTIUM
    2× · 2024–2025 · $283k · revenue +34%
  • SW
    STROUD WATER RESEARCH CENTER
    2× · 2024–2025 · $280k · revenue 0%

Funded once

  • CL
    COOL LAWN LLC
    one grant, 2024 · $733k
  • DD
    DAVIS DAIRY
    one grant, 2024 · $277k
  • ZH
    ZIMMERMANS'S HILLTOP DAIRY
    one grant, 2024 · $270k
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
04the grantee network

5 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. 5 of the 13 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
5/5
Grantees still filing
2/5
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

COOL LAWN LLC: $733,365 · OtherCOOL LAWN LLCMARYLAND & VIRGINIA MILK PRODUCERS COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATION: $369,631 · OtherMARYLAND & VIRGINIA MILK PRODUCERS COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATIONDAVIS DAIRY: $276,615 · OtherDAVIS DAIRYZIMMERMANS'S HILLTOP DAIRY: $270,210 · OtherZIMMERMANS'S HILLTOP DAIRYAGGROW TECH LLC: $194,725 · OtherAGGROW TECH LLC+3 more: $108,890 · Other+3 moreECOSYSTEM SERVICES MARKET CONSORTIUM: $282,884 · EnvironmentECOSYSTEM SERVICES M…ALLIANCE FOR THE CHESAPEAKE BAY INC: $215,053 · EnvironmentALLIANCE FOR THE CHE…CONSERVATION FOUNDATION OF LANCASTER COUNTY: $25,036 · EnvironmentSTROUD WATER RESEARCH CENTER: $280,409 · Science & TechSTROUD WATE…ALLIANCE FOR THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY: $69,016 · Community Improvement
Other$1,953,436Environment$522,973Science & Tech$280,409Community Improvement$69,016

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

25%50%75%100%$10Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetECOSYSTEM SERVICES MARKET CONSORTIUM: $282,884 over 2y, 4.1% of budgetSTROUD WATER RESEARCH CENTER: $280,409 over 2y, 1.0% of budgetALLIANCE FOR THE CHESAPEAKE BAY INC: $215,053 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetCONSERVATION FOUNDATION OF LANCASTER COUNTY: $25,036 over 2y, 1.0% 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 ECOSYSTEM SERVICES MARKET CONSORTIUM ↗
  • Who funds STROUD WATER RESEARCH CENTER ↗
  • Who funds ALLIANCE FOR THE CHESAPEAKE BAY INC ↗
  • Who funds ALLIANCE FOR THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY ↗
  • Who funds CONSERVATION FOUNDATION OF LANCASTER COUNTY ↗

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.

National Fish and Wildlife FoundationDC12.8× affinity4 shared granteesties to 0 of 0Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: National Fish and Wildlife 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 Conservation Innovation Fund funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Conservation Innovation Fund. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%19%38%56%75%share of the org’s income from government →median 28%
  • Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay Inc: 28% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
3report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–75%
typical government reliance, FY20–24
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 Conservation Innovation Fund?

Find your warmest path to Conservation Innovation Fund 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 13 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 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

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