How much does Institute for Local Self Reliance give?

Institute for Local Self Reliance reported 13 itemized grants totaling $1,302,424, out of $1,357,821 in total grant expense reported on the return in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 12 and 24 organizations a year over FY2022 to FY2024.

What does Institute for Local Self Reliance fund?

By grant dollars over FY2022 to FY2025, its largest causes are Public Benefit (29%), Environment (26%), Community Improvement (16%).

Who are Institute for Local Self Reliance's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2022 to FY2025: Powerswitch Action ($1.3M), Solar United Neighbors Inc ($534k), Community Power ($451k).

Does Institute for Local Self Reliance fund new organizations?

In FY2024, 67% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Which funders back the same organizations as Institute for Local Self Reliance?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include New Venture Fund, Amalgamated Charitable Foundation Inc, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors Inc.

Where is Institute for Local Self Reliance based?

Institute for Local Self Reliance is based in DC.

Foundation Dossiers Mostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

Washington, D.C. · Public charity

Institute for Local Self Reliance

To provide the conceptual framework, strategies, and information to aid the creation of ecologically-sound and equitable communities. To that end, ilsr works with citizens, activists, policymakers, and entrepreneurs to design systems, policies, and industries that meet local or regional needs; to maximize local human, material, natural,…

$1.4M
Granted FY2025(still arriving): 13
Itemized grants FY2025: 24
Organizations funded FY2024: 67%
First-time grantees FY2024

Read the full brief

Itemized, FY2025: $1.3M; The rest is grants the schedule does not break out
Median grant, FY2025: $52,000
Largest grant, FY2025: $625,000
Organizations funded a year: 12 to 24; FY2022 to FY2024
States reached, FY2025: 8
Total assets, FY2025: $9.7M

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2024, 67% of the organizations Institute for Local Self Reliance funded were first-time grantees, receiving 67% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 33% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $1.1M went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

EducationCrime & LegalEnvironmentCivil RightsFood & NutritionCommunity 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.

The numbers by year

Fiscal year	Organizations funded	To those organizations	First-time grantees
FY2025still arriving	13	$1.3M	38%
FY2024	24	$1.6M	67%
FY2023	13	$1.0M	69%
FY2022	12	$809k	n/a

100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2022 to 2025.

Public Benefit$1.4MEnvironment$1.3MCommunity Improvement$769kEmployment$487kCivil Rights$280kPhilanthropy$210kArts & Culture$167kEducation$150kOther$0

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, FY2022 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

Grantee	Total granted	Years	Share of their budget
Powerswitch Action	$1,250,000	2	5%
Solar United Neighbors Inc	$534,018	3	3%
Community Power	$451,000	4	12%
Recast City LLC	$317,408	2	n/a
Missouri Workers Center	$224,000	2	12%
Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs (See) Inc	$217,000	3	0%
The Awood Center	$166,500	3	14%
Alliance for Global Justice Corp	$155,000	3	1%
Northeastern University	$150,000	1	0%
Fight for the Future Education Fund	$120,000	1	15%

Show all 42 grantees

All grantees of Institute for Local Self Reliance by total granted
Grantee	Total granted	Years	Share of their budget
Powerswitch Action	$1,250,000	2	5%
Solar United Neighbors Inc	$534,018	3	3%
Community Power	$451,000	4	12%
Recast City LLC	$317,408	2	n/a
Missouri Workers Center	$224,000	2	12%
Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs (See) Inc	$217,000	3	0%
The Awood Center	$166,500	3	14%
Alliance for Global Justice Corp	$155,000	3	1%
Northeastern University	$150,000	1	0%
Fight for the Future Education Fund	$120,000	1	15%
Warehouse Workers Justice Center Inc	$100,000	1	n/a
Business Education Fund	$100,000	2	4%
Compost Power	$92,500	1	n/a
Make The Road States Inc	$77,000	2	0%
United for Respect Education Fund	$67,506	1	4%
New York Main Street Alliance Inc	$60,000	1	n/a
Good Jobs First	$55,000	3	1%
Philadelphia Area Jobs With Justice	$55,000	1	n/a
Demand Progress Education Fund	$52,000	1	n/a
Defending Rights and Dissent Inc	$45,400	2	3%
Align the Alliance for a Greater New York Inc	$40,000	1	2%
Clean Water Fund	$40,000	1	1%
The Equal Rights Center	$25,000	1	1%
World Resources Institute	$25,000	1	0%
Global Village Farms Inc	$20,000	1	n/a
Garden Time Inc	$20,000	1	3%
350 Seattle	$20,000	2	0%
The Center for Media Justice DBA MediaJustice	$20,000	1	1%
New Haven Ecology Project Inc	$20,000	1	0%
Bootstrap Compost Inc	$20,000	1	n/a
People's Solar Energy Fund	$20,000	1	1%
Ceiba Arbor LLC	$20,000	1	n/a
Penobscot Indian Nation	$20,000	1	n/a
Bk Rot Inc	$20,000	1	6%
Root Life LLC	$15,000	1	n/a
Pocasset Pokanoket Land Trust Inc	$15,000	1	2%
New Working Majority LLC	$14,318	1	n/a
Surveillance Technology Oversight Project Inc	$10,000	1	2%
Ceeds4change	$10,000	1	23%
Backbone Campaign	$10,000	1	2%
Yotam Marom Consulting	$8,789	1	n/a
Congregations Caring for Creation	$7,000	1	1%

Each grantee by its size and the share of its budget Institute for Local Self Reliance supplied at peak.

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 29.

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.

New Venture FundDC30.5× affinity15 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: New Venture Fund · Amalgamated Charitable Foundation Inc · Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors Inc · Tides Foundation · Windward Fund · Proteus Fund Inc · United States Energy Foundation · Powerswitch Action · Jobs with Justice Education Fund · Impactassetsinc · Omidyar Network Fund Inc · Freedom Together 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.

Compare Institute for Local Self Reliance with peer funders

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to Institute for Local Self Reliance?

Find your warmest path to Institute for Local Self Reliance 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.

About Institute for Local Self Reliance

How much does Institute for Local Self Reliance give?: Institute for Local Self Reliance reported 13 itemized grants totaling $1,302,424, out of $1,357,821 in total grant expense reported on the return in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 12 and 24 organizations a year over FY2022 to FY2024.
What does Institute for Local Self Reliance fund?: By grant dollars over FY2022 to FY2025, its largest causes are Public Benefit (29%), Environment (26%), Community Improvement (16%).
Who are Institute for Local Self Reliance's largest grantees?: By total granted over FY2022 to FY2025: Powerswitch Action ($1.3M), Solar United Neighbors Inc ($534k), Community Power ($451k).
Does Institute for Local Self Reliance fund new organizations?: In FY2024, 67% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Which funders back the same organizations as Institute for Local Self Reliance?: Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include New Venture Fund, Amalgamated Charitable Foundation Inc, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors Inc.
Where is Institute for Local Self Reliance based?: Institute for Local Self Reliance is based in DC.