· Private foundation
Sequoia Climate Foundation
Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2021 to 2024.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2024
- $50k–250k7 grants · $1.1M
- $250k+180 grants · $304M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| ROCKEFELLER PHILANTHROPY ADVISORS INC | $17,900,000 |
| STICHTING EUROPEAN CLIMATE FOUNDATION | $15,000,000 |
| TARA CLIMATE LTD | $12,500,000 |
| CLIMATEWORKS FOUNDATION | $7,924,000 |
| ROCKEFELLER PHILANTHROPY ADVISORS INC | $7,550,000 |
| UNITED STATES ENERGY FOUNDATION | $7,500,000 |
| CLIMATE LEAD INC | $7,000,000 |
| MELIORE FOUNDATION (FUP) | $6,800,000 |
| MELIORE FOUNDATION (FUP) | $6,000,000 |
| THE SUNRISE PROJECT AUSTRALIA LTD | $5,700,000 |
| STICHTING EUROPEAN CLIMATE FOUNDATION | $5,615,000 |
| THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA | $4,450,000 |
| CLASP | $4,250,000 |
| INTERNATIONAL SUSTAINABLE ENERGY FOUNDATION | $4,070,000 |
| INSTITUTO CLIMA E SOCIEDADE | $3,800,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
US giving: 60% of grant dollars ($516M). The need read here covers only this US portion; the 40% that went abroad ($347M) is mapped below.
Its human-services grants (FY21–24, $414k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, 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.
How this is measured
Which US states its grants reach
Beyond the US: 40% of all-years giving ($347M)
19 countries, by the recipient’s country on the filing.
How this is measured
Where the work is directed
The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.
About 14% of Sequoia Climate Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address.
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 +21% since the first grant, against +17% for those funded once.
101 repeat relationships: 87 still active in FY2024, 14 since wound down; 33 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (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 FY2024, 83% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $47M went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
UNITED STATES ENERGY FOUNDATION3× · 2021–2024 · $27M · revenue +44%
NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL INC3× · 2022–2024 · $26M · revenue +34%- TETHE ENERGY FOUNDATION4× · 2021–2024 · $23M · revenue +31%
Funded once
- EFENERGY FOUNDATION CHINAone grant, 2022 · $3.0M
- RLRESOURCES LEGACY FUNDone grant, 2021 · $3.0M · revenue -5%
WORLD WILDLIFE FUND INCone grant, 2022 · $2.2M · revenue -4%
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.
Climate group advances climate action by mobilizing business and government leadership to drive systemic decarbonization across energy, transport, and industry, while engaging the public through large-scale convenings and global platforms.…
The union of concerned scientists puts rigorous, independent science into action, developing solutions and advocating for a healthy, safe, and just future.
Cgc operates as a nonprofit financial institution that invests directly and through partners to transform financial markets by using public and private investing to accelerate the deployment of projects that strengthen the grid, reduce…
Improving the transparency and scientific integrity of climate solutions through open data and tools.
Cdp north america, inc. 's ("cdp-na") vision for the future is a thriving economy that works for people and planet in the long term. we focus investors and companies on taking urgent action to build a truly sustainable economy by measuring…
E3g is a leading international not-for-profit think tank specialising in climate diplomacy harnessing expertise in the politics and economics of climate change.
To research and develop healthy climate solutions comprising global food security, ecosystem regeneration and carbon balance in seas and soils.
The Climate Center is a climate and energy policy nonprofit working to rapidly reduce climate pollution at scale, starting in California.
Climate imperative foundation's mission is to employ science and economics to cut global carbon emissions to secure a better future for all.
To raise awareness about the potential to reduce environmental harm by shifting electricity use to particular times; to encourage the development and spread of common protocols for this practice.
Working with our world-class network of innovators, business and industry leaders, and policy experts, we accelerate the innovation of climate technologies at every stage - from discovery to development to deployment.
How this is measured
119 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. 119 of the 200 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
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 ROCKEFELLER PHILANTHROPY ADVISORS INC ↗
- Who funds WORLD RESOURCES INSTITUTE ↗
- Who funds UNITED STATES ENERGY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL INC ↗
- Who funds CLIMATEWORKS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds THE ENERGY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Rocky Mountain Institute ↗
- Who funds WINDWARD FUND ↗
- Who funds CLASP ↗
- Who funds International Sustainable Energy Foundation ↗
- Who funds LEAGUE OF CONSERVATION VOTERS EDUCATION FUND ↗
- Who funds SUSTAINABLE MARKETS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds CLIMATE LEAD INC ↗
- Who funds THE INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL ON CLEAN TRANSPORTATION INC ↗
- Who funds ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND INCORPORATED ↗
- Who funds NEW VENTURE FUND ↗
- Who funds Potential Energy Coalition Inc ↗
- Who funds The Partnership Project Inc ↗
- Who funds CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS ↗
- Who funds CENTER FOR APPLIED ENVIRONMENTAL LAW AND POLICY ↗
- Who funds SIERRA CLUB FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds MULTIPLIER ↗
- Who funds Cornell University ↗
- Who funds UNITED NATIONS FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds CERES INC ↗
- Who funds ENERGY SYSTEMS INTEGRATION GROUP INC ↗
- Who funds ROCKEFELLER FAMILY FUND INC ↗
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: Climateworks Foundation · The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation · The Heising-Simons Foundation · Climate Imperative Foundation · United States Energy Foundation · Wellspring Philanthropic Fund Inc · Windward Fund · John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation · The Energy Foundation · Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors Inc · New Venture Fund · Rockefeller Brothers Fund Inc
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Sequoia Climate Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Sequoia Climate Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology: 35% of income from government
- Trustees of Tufts College: 13% of income from government
- Johns Hopkins University: 12% of income from government
- Greenhill Humane Society Spca: 1% of income from government
- The Trustees of Mount Holyoke College: 1% of income from government
- Ceres Inc: 0% of income from government
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Sequoia Climate Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Sequoia Climate Foundation 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.
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