How much does National Fish and Wildlife Foundation give?

National Fish and Wildlife Foundation reported 1,165 grants totaling $437,706,178 in its FY2024 IRS filing. It funded between 684 and 954 organizations a year over FY2017 to FY2023.

What does National Fish and Wildlife Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2024, its largest causes are Environment (88%), Animals (7%), Recreation & Sports (1%).

Who are National Fish and Wildlife Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2017 to FY2024: La Coastal Protection & Restoration ($444M), Ms Department of Environmental Quality ($104M), Alabama Dept Conservation & Natural Res ($75M).

Does National Fish and Wildlife Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2023, 19% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Which funders back the same organizations as National Fish and Wildlife Foundation?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include The Nature Conservancy, National Forest Foundation, Bonneville Environmental Foundation.

Where is National Fish and Wildlife Foundation based?

National Fish and Wildlife Foundation is based in DC.

National Fish and Wildlife Foundation

National Fish and Wildlife Foundation at a glance Also receives grants: funding profile →

· Public charity

National Fish and Wildlife Foundation

To sustain, restore, and enhance the nation's fish, wildlife, plants, and habitats.

$438M

Granted FY2024still arriving

1,165

Grants FY2024still arriving

States reached

$29M

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, FY2017 to 2024.

Environment$2.1BAnimals$169MRecreation & Sports$30MFood & Nutrition$17MScience & Tech$15MPublic Safety & Disaster$14MEducation$13MCommunity Improvement$9.6MOther$0

02FY2024 · 1165 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

Under $10k61 grants · $461k
$10k–50k381 grants · $11M
$50k–250k471 grants · $58M
$250k+252 grants · $364M

$81,584

Median grant

States reached

$3.1B

Total assets

Largest grants
Recipient	Amount
COASTAL PROTECTION AND RESTORATION AUTHORITY OF LOUISIANA	$29,047,733
MOBILE COUNTY COMMISSION	$24,666,387
TOWN OF DAUPHIN ISLAND	$24,638,207
MARINE ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES CONSORTIUM DAUPHIN ISLAND SEA LAB	$23,511,268
MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY	$17,983,468
WALKER BASIN CONSERVANCY	$15,017,699
DUCKS UNLIMITED INC	$12,497,710
ALABAMA DEPT CONSERVATION & NATURAL RES	$12,000,000
THE NATURE CONSERVANCY	$9,946,898
TEXAS GENERAL LAND OFFICE	$7,393,462
TROUT UNLIMITED INC	$5,921,842
WALKER RIVER IRRIGATION DISTRICT	$4,032,586
PYRAMID LAKE PAIUTE TRIBE	$3,949,138
APALACHEE REGIONAL PLANNING COUNCIL	$3,865,867
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR US FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE	$3,717,813

02The need

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 (FY21–21, $210k) land where the poverty rate runs at 21%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

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

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.

Where the work is directed

The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.

About 9% of National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address.

National Fish and Wildlife Foundationlessmore of its giving

Placed by recipient address

How this is measured

Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the funder’s own 990 grant descriptions.

03Its grantees

repeat funding

Who it funds again

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

96%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.

$2.2B · 1589 repeat orgs$84M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +62% since the first grant, against +17% for those funded once.

1589 repeat relationships: 863 still active in FY2024, 726 since wound down; 173 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

1589

229

Total granted

$2.2B

$46M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+62%

+17%

Still filing today

57%

46%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 91% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $38M went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

EnvironmentAnimalsEducationCommunity ImprovementArts & CultureScience & TechOther

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

WB
WALKER BASIN CONSERVANCY
8× · 2017–2024 · $67M · revenue +387% · 93% of their budget
THE CONSERVATION FUND A NONPROFIT CORPORATION
8× · 2017–2024 · $42M · revenue +40%
ME
MARINE ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES CONSORTIUM
8× · 2017–2024 · $41M · revenue +109% · 60% of their budget

Funded once

FF
FUND FOR THE CITY OF NEW YORK INC
one grant, 2021 · $4.0M · revenue -39%
FN
FIDELITY NATIONAL TITLE COMPANY
one grant, 2020 · $3.5M
TO
TOWN OF NAVASSA
one grant, 2022 · $3.4M

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.

Cascadia Wildlands

Cascadia wildlands defends and restores cacasia's wild ecosystems in the forests,in the courts, and in the streets. we envision vast old-growth forests, rivers full of wild salmon, wolves howling in the backcountry, a stable climate, and…

Environment

Nature Collective

Nature collective's mission is to drive a passion for nature for all. we think inclusively and diversely when serving those devoid of nature those who remember nature and want to connect back to it and those who have an affinity with…

Environment

Sustainable Conservation

Sustainable Conservation advances the collaborative stewardship of Californias land, air, and water for the benefit of nature and people. For over three decades, Sustainable Conservation has built coalitions of people with different…

Environment

Idaho Conservation League Inc

Icl's mission is to create a conservation community and pragmatic, enduring solutions that protect and restore the air you breathe, the water you drink, and the land and wildlife you love.

—

Rainforest Trust

Rainforest trust saves endangered wildlife and protects our planet by creating rainforest reserves through partnerships, community engagement, and donor support.

International

California Wildlife Foundation

The foundation works with diverse groups representing many interests to acquire and restore critical wildlife habitat and protecting species

Animals

Center for Natural Lands Management

The mission of the center for natural lands management is (a) to conserve native species, their habitat and functioning ecosystems in perpetuity, (b) to own and/or manage lands in an ecologically beneficial manner consistent with local,…

Environment

Coast Fork Willamette Watershed Council

The Coast Fork Willamette Watershed Council is a local nonprofit organization that strives to enhance and restore habitat for fish and wildlife our community and for future generations. Our Board of Directors consists of seven members with…

Environment

Resource Renewal Institute

The resource renewal institute facilitates the creation, development and implementation of practical strategies to solve the entire complex environmental problem by addressing it comprehensively.

Environment

Environmental Action Committee of West Marin

To protect and sustain the unique lands, waters, and biodiversity of west marin.

Environment

Oregon Natural Resources Council Fund

Oregon Wild works to protect and restore Oregon's wildlands, wildlife and waters as an enduring legacy for future generations.

Environment

Washington Forest Law Center

Dedicated to protecting the world's natural environment on behalf of the public by serving as a public interest law firm. refer to schedule o, part iii, line 4a, for list of litigated cases or advocacy work.

—

How this is measured

The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Wildlands Conservancy Inc; the most unlike its peers is Ndponics. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

05the grantee network

1119 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. 1119 of the 2,000 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.

190

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

437

Early backer (in before they grew)

1097/1119

Grantees still filing

825/1119

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Other$1,308,108,604Environment$407,771,012Animals$92,976,204Science & Tech$54,896,753International$8,723,291Education$7,364,665Recreation & Sports$5,207,234

Showing the 200 largest grantees by grant value.

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.

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.

The Nature ConservancyVA81.3× affinity316 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Nature Conservancy · National Forest Foundation · Bonneville Environmental Foundation · Land Trust Alliance Inc · American Forests · United States Endowment for Forestry · Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation · Patagoniaorg · American Rivers Inc · Restore America's Estuaries · Chesapeake Bay Trust · Resources Legacy Fund

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 National Fish and Wildlife Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

3get no government money at all

17report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)

7rely 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.

Play a game based on National Fish and Wildlife’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