How much does Environmental Defense Action Fund give?

Environmental Defense Action Fund reported 14 grants totaling $9,514,294 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 18 and 26 organizations a year over FY2020 to FY2024.

What does Environmental Defense Action Fund fund?

By grant dollars over FY2020 to FY2025, its largest causes are Public Benefit (71%), Environment (28%), Civil Rights (1%).

Who are Environmental Defense Action Fund's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2020 to FY2025: Edf Action Votes Inc ($20M), League of Conservation Voters Inc ($3.5M), State of Arizona ($1.3M).

Does Environmental Defense Action Fund fund new organizations?

In FY2024, 54% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Which funders back the same organizations as Environmental Defense Action Fund?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Environmental Defense Fund Incorporated, Resources Legacy Fund, Energy Action Fund.

Where is Environmental Defense Action Fund based?

Environmental Defense Action Fund is based in NY.

Foundation Dossiers Also receives grants: funding profile →

New York · Public charity

Environmental Defense Action Fund

To advocate for legislation and policies that protect the environment.

$9.5M
Granted FY2025(still arriving): 14
Grants FY2025: 24
Organizations funded FY2024: 54%
First-time grantees FY2024

Read the full brief

Median grant, FY2025: $20,000
Largest grant, FY2025: $9,000,000
Organizations funded a year: 18 to 26; FY2020 to FY2024
States reached, FY2025: 9
Total assets, FY2025: $11M

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2024, 54% of the organizations Environmental Defense Action Fund funded were first-time grantees, receiving 36% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 64% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $4.3M went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

EnvironmentCivil RightsPublic BenefitCommunity ImprovementHuman ServicesArts & CultureOther

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.

The numbers by year

Fiscal year	Organizations funded	To those organizations	First-time grantees
FY2025still arriving	14	$9.4M	43%
FY2024	24	$12M	54%
FY2023	26	$5.2M	77%
FY2022	19	$2.5M	68%
FY2021	18	$608k	39%
FY2020	21	$2.3M	n/a

100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.

Public Benefit$23MEnvironment$8.8MCivil Rights$230kFood & Nutrition$73kCommunity Improvement$30kEducation$10kHuman Services$10kScience & Tech$10k

Where its grants go

Grant dollars by states, across the years we hold.

Which US states its grants reach

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2020 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

Grantee	Total granted	Years	Share of their budget
Edf Action Votes Inc	$20,415,000	3	n/a
League of Conservation Voters Inc	$3,519,500	2	2%
State of Arizona	$1,285,000	2	n/a
Nextgen Climate Action	$1,000,000	1	5%
Western Conservation Action	$675,000	4	24%
The Partnership Project Action Fund	$471,798	5	3%
Keep the Lights On	$450,000	1	n/a
Ocean Conservancy	$363,510	2	1%
Pennsylvania Environmental Council Inc	$290,700	5	5%
Conserve and Protect Our Water	$280,000	1	54%

Show all 80 grantees

All grantees of Environmental Defense Action Fund by total granted
Grantee	Total granted	Years	Share of their budget
Edf Action Votes Inc	$20,415,000	3	n/a
League of Conservation Voters Inc	$3,519,500	2	2%
State of Arizona	$1,285,000	2	n/a
Nextgen Climate Action	$1,000,000	1	5%
Western Conservation Action	$675,000	4	24%
The Partnership Project Action Fund	$471,798	5	3%
Keep the Lights On	$450,000	1	n/a
Ocean Conservancy	$363,510	2	1%
Pennsylvania Environmental Council Inc	$290,700	5	5%
Conserve and Protect Our Water	$280,000	1	54%
Clean Energy For America Education Fund	$250,000	1	60%
Climate Reality Action Fund	$250,000	1	11%
The Partnership Project Inc	$200,000	1	0%
Ab Foundation	$195,000	2	1%
Future Freedoms	$150,000	1	n/a
Third Way	$150,000	1	1%
Clean Energy For America Inc	$110,000	1	35%
Clean and Prosperous America	$100,000	1	11%
American Independent Media	$100,000	1	0%
Tides Advocacy	$80,000	2	0%
Evangelical Environmental Network	$77,500	3	5%
Clean Energy Business Network	$68,485	3	n/a
Business Council for Sustainable Energy Foundation	$61,000	3	11%
Western Citizens Protecting Our Constitution	$60,000	1	3%
Taxpayers for Common Sense Action	$55,000	3	n/a
Progressnow New Mexico	$50,000	1	10%
Rep Environmental Education Foundation	$50,000	3	8%
Clean Air Action Fund	$45,000	2	9%
Natural Resources Council of Maine Action Fund Inc	$43,000	3	n/a
Sierra Club	$40,000	1	0%
Een Action Inc	$40,000	2	n/a
The Virginia Climate Program	$35,542	1	8%
The Farmers Educational and Cooperative Union of Americarocky Mountain Division	$35,500	1	2%
Nm Native Vote	$35,000	3	4%
National Audubon Society Inc	$34,500	1	0%
Latino Victory Project	$33,000	2	2%
Mi Familia En Accion	$30,000	1	0%
Legislative Accountability 1	$30,000	1	2%
Vote Yes on 113	$30,000	1	21%
Seafood Harvesters of America Education	$30,000	2	6%
Conservation Voters New Mexico	$30,000	2	1%
Natural Resources Council of Maine Inc	$30,000	3	0%
California Environmental Voters Education Fund	$25,000	1	1%
Environment America Inc	$25,000	2	0%
Conservation Voters New Mexico Education Fund	$25,000	1	3%
Progressive State Leaders Committee Inc	$25,000	1	0%
Politico Llc	$24,000	1	n/a
Federation of Southern Cooperatives	$22,500	1	0%
NEO Philanthropy Inc	$20,000	1	n/a
Pennenvironment Inc	$20,000	2	1%
Texas Campaign for the Environment	$20,000	1	n/a
Texas Campaign for the Environment Fund	$20,000	1	1%
Women Vote	$20,000	1	n/a
Friends of St Vrain and Left Hand Water	$20,000	1	n/a
No on 2117 Committee	$20,000	1	n/a
League of Conservation Voters Education Fund	$17,500	1	0%
Katie Hobbs Inaugural Fund	$17,500	1	n/a
Bonneville Environmental Foundation	$16,000	1	0%
America Votes	$15,275	1	0%
All Together Colorado	$15,000	1	n/a
Minorities in Aquaculture	$15,000	2	5%
Latino Victory Fund	$15,000	1	n/a
Seafood Harvester of America	$15,000	1	7%
Ground Game Texas	$10,000	1	1%
Renew Oregon Action Fund	$10,000	1	5%
Texas Tribune Inc	$10,000	1	0%
Western Leaders Network	$10,000	1	4%
Earthworks	$10,000	1	0%
BlueGreen Alliance Inc	$10,000	1	0%
Wyoming Outdoor Council	$10,000	1	0%
West Virginia Rivers Coalition Inc	$10,000	1	1%
Naeva	$10,000	1	0%
Public Land Solutions	$10,000	1	3%
Long Island Citizens Campaign for the Environment	$10,000	1	1%
Western Environmental Law Center	$10,000	1	0%
Arizona Technology Council	$10,000	1	n/a
Project for Clean Energy and Innovation co 38 North Solutions	$10,000	1	11%
Hispanic Access Foundation	$10,000	1	0%
Rgisc Inc	$9,000	1	1%
Nevada Conservation League	$6,000	1	1%

Environmental Defense Action Fund supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 3 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 62 largest grantees; load-bearing ones sit top left.

Tap a dot to name the grantee.

How this is measured

Share of budget is the funder’s grant in a year over the grantee’s total revenue that year, at its highest across the years we hold; revenue is from all sources. Only grantees confirmed against their own filings, whose grants do not exceed their revenue, are plotted: the largest 62.

Nonprofits that may fit its grantmaking

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.

Environmental Defense Fund IncorporatedNY56.5× affinity26 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Environmental Defense Fund Incorporated · Resources Legacy Fund · Energy Action Fund · Sixteen Thirty Fund · The Partnership Project Inc · United States Energy Foundation · Western Conservation Action · League of Conservation Voters Inc · Western Conservation Foundation · The Wilderness Society · Patagoniaorg · Fund for a Better Future Inc

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.

Compare Environmental Defense Action Fund with peer funders

About Environmental Defense Action Fund

How much does Environmental Defense Action Fund give?: Environmental Defense Action Fund reported 14 grants totaling $9,514,294 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 18 and 26 organizations a year over FY2020 to FY2024.
What does Environmental Defense Action Fund fund?: By grant dollars over FY2020 to FY2025, its largest causes are Public Benefit (71%), Environment (28%), Civil Rights (1%).
Who are Environmental Defense Action Fund's largest grantees?: By total granted over FY2020 to FY2025: Edf Action Votes Inc ($20M), League of Conservation Voters Inc ($3.5M), State of Arizona ($1.3M).
Does Environmental Defense Action Fund fund new organizations?: In FY2024, 54% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Which funders back the same organizations as Environmental Defense Action Fund?: Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Environmental Defense Fund Incorporated, Resources Legacy Fund, Energy Action Fund.
Where is Environmental Defense Action Fund based?: Environmental Defense Action Fund is based in NY.