· Public charity
Natural Resources Defense Council Inc
We safeguard the earth: its people, its plants and animals, and (see schedule o) the natural systems on which all life depends.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
How this is measured
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k11 grants · $77k
- $10k–50k86 grants · $1.5M
- $50k–250k17 grants · $1.3M
- $250k+2 grants · $2.4M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| NRDC ACTION FUND INC | $2,000,000 |
| COMING CLEAN INC | $400,000 |
| THE PARTNERSHIP PROJECT INC | $153,000 |
| DOGWOOD ALLIANCE | $151,400 |
| COMMUNITIES FOR A BETTER ENVIRONMENT | $100,000 |
| CENTER FOR EARTH ENERGY AND DEMOCRACY | $100,000 |
| WESTERN RESOURCE ADVOCATES | $80,000 |
| WINDWARD FUND | $75,000 |
| WOODROW WILSON INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR SCHOLARS | $75,000 |
| SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENTREPRENEURS | $69,300 |
| NW ENERGY COALITION | $62,500 |
| SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER | $60,000 |
| UNITED TRIBES OF BRISTOL BAY | $60,000 |
| THE INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR DIALOGUE AND PEACEBUILDING | $60,000 |
| CENTRAL UNITED METHODIST CHURCH | $58,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY17–25, $1.4M) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 94% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
Which US states its grants reach
Grants abroad, by region: $7.2M on the FY2025 return
Schedule F, as filed: 6 regions. The IRS asks for region and purpose, not the recipient, so no country or grantee can be named here.
Stated purpose: CLEAN ENERGY ADVOCACY
Stated purpose: CLEAN ENERGY ADVOCACY
Stated purpose: BIOGEMS ADVOCACY
Stated purpose: CLEAN ENERGY ADVOCACY
Stated purpose: BIOGEMS ADVOCACY · CLEAN ENERGY ADVOCACY
Stated purpose: CLEAN ENERGY ADVOCACY
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 +43% since the first grant, against +18% for those funded once.
231 repeat relationships: 67 still active in FY2025, 164 since wound down; 46 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).
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 FY2025, 83% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $906k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- NANRDC ACTION FUND INC8× · 2018–2025 · $8.8M · revenue +82%
The Partnership Project Inc9× · 2017–2025 · $6.5M · revenue +35%- SASOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENTREPRENEURS (SEE) INC9× · 2017–2025 · $3.4M · revenue +490%
Funded once
- PFPARTNERSHIP FOR SOUTHERN EQUITYone grant, 2022 · $500k · revenue -58%
- SPSolutions Project Incone grant, 2023 · $500k · revenue -54%
- PPPEORIA PUBLIC SCHOOLS DISTRICT 150one grant, 2020 · $469k
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.
Our mission is to fight against fossil fuel executives and industries that have turned our communities into dumping grounds for toxic waste, poisoning our air, water, lan, and bodies. We organize to oppose giant oil refineries, dirty…
The Climate Center is a climate and energy policy nonprofit working to rapidly reduce climate pollution at scale, starting in California.
Improving the transparency and scientific integrity of climate solutions through open data and tools.
One Earth connects thinkers, doers, activists, and knowledge holders from around the world to solve humanity's greatest ecological challenges--together. Our belief is simple: The solutions to the climate crisis already exist. By connecting…
Climate catalyst sparks collective action to tackle the biggest climate challenges we face today: cutting emissions in heavy industries.
In service to communities, the earth and future generations, the science and environmental health network forges science, ethics, and law into tools for action.
The environmental law & policy center (elpc) is the midwest's leading public interest environmental legal advocacy and ecobusiness innovation organization, and among the nation's leaders. we develop and lead successful strategic…
To research and develop healthy climate solutions comprising global food security, ecosystem regeneration and carbon balance in seas and soils.
Ceres is a nonprofit advocacy organization working to accelerate the transition to a cleaner, more just, and resilient world. through education and research, we make the business case for action on the most pressing sustainability…
The organization's mission is to advocate for policy that meets the scale and urgency of our environmental challenges. as a massachusetts-based organization that engages in advocacy across a full spectrum of climate, environmental, and…
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…
How this is measured
529 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. 529 of the 593 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
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.
- Who funds MOVEMENT STRATEGY CENTER ↗
- Who funds NRDC ACTION FUND INC ↗
- Who funds The Partnership Project Inc ↗
- Who funds SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENTREPRENEURS (SEE) INC ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CITY TRANSPORTATION OFFICIALS INC ↗
- Who funds THE ROSE FOUNDATION FOR COMMUNITIES THE ENVIRONMENT ↗
- Who funds COMING CLEAN INC ↗
- Who funds LOW INCOME INVESTMENT FUND ↗
- Who funds BlueGreen Alliance Foundation ↗
- Who funds Elevate Energy ↗
- Who funds STAND ↗
- Who funds PARTNERSHIP FOR SOUTHERN EQUITY ↗
- Who funds Solutions Project Inc ↗
- Who funds TIDES FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds BLUEPRINT NORTH CAROLINA ↗
- Who funds FAIR DISTRICTS FUND ↗
- Who funds ENVIRONMENT NORTH CAROLINA RESEARCH AND POLICY CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds NW ENERGY COALITION ↗
- Who funds INSTITUTE FOR MARKET TRANSFORMATION ↗
- Who funds SOUTHWEST ENERGY EFFICIENCY PROJECT ↗
- Who funds ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND INCORPORATED ↗
- Who funds West Harlem Environmental Action Inc ↗
- Who funds THE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK ↗
- Who funds TIDES CENTER ↗
- Who funds GREEN LIGHT NEW YORKINC DBA BUILDING ENERGY EXCHANGE (BEEX) ↗
- Who funds Western Resource Advocates ↗
- Who funds AMERICA WORKS USA ↗
- Who funds Environmental Health Coalition ↗
- Who funds ALLIANCE FOR A JUST SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds NORTH CAROLINA BLACK ALLIANCE INC ↗
- Who funds PEOPLES WATER BOARD COALITION ↗
- Who funds Community Food Advocates Inc ↗
- Who funds METEC ↗
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: United States Energy Foundation · The Energy Foundation · Resources Legacy Fund · Movement Strategy Center · Windward Fund · Environmental Defense Fund Incorporated · The Schmidt Family Foundation · The Partnership Project Inc · Patagoniaorg · Solutions Project Inc · Sierra Club · Energy Action Fund
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Natural Resources Defense Council Inc funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Natural Resources Defense Council Inc. Bigger dots raise more.
- University of Delaware: 30% of income from government
- Coalition of Communities of Color: 15% of income from government
- New England Aquarium Corporation: 12% of income from government
- Yale University: 12% of income from government
- Sea Research Foundation Inc: 8% of income from government
- The Orion Society Inc: 2% of income from government
- Anthropocene Alliance: 0% of income from government
How this is measured
Play a game based on Natural Resources Defense Council’s filings →