How much does Sierra Club Foundation give?

Sierra Club Foundation reported 12 grants totaling $44,382,392 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 13 and 23 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.

What does Sierra Club Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Environment (99%), Education (0%), Philanthropy (0%).

Who are Sierra Club Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Sierra Club ($695M), Population Media Center Inc ($939k), Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs (See) Inc ($760k).

Does Sierra Club Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2024, 55% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Which funders back the same organizations as Sierra Club Foundation?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Patagoniaorg, Sierra Club, United States Energy Foundation.

Where is Sierra Club Foundation based?

Sierra Club Foundation is based in CA.

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

California · Public charity

Sierra Club Foundation

See schedule o.the SIERRA CLUB FOUNDATION promotes efforts to educate and empower people to protect and improve the natural and human environment.goals: - solve the climate crisis primarily through a successful transition to a resource-efficient clean energy economy that better serves people and nature;- secure protections for public…

$44M
Granted FY2025(still arriving): 12
Grants FY2025: 20
Organizations funded FY2024: 55%
First-time grantees FY2024

Read the full brief

Median grant, FY2025: $50,000
Largest grant, FY2025: $43,795,738
Organizations funded a year: 13 to 23; FY2018 to FY2024
States reached, FY2025: 8
Total assets, FY2025: $192M

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2024, 55% of the organizations Sierra Club Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 1% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 99% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $724k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

EnvironmentCommunity ImprovementInternationalPublic BenefitEducationHuman ServicesOther

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	11	$44M	64%
FY2024	20	$87M	55%
FY2023	21	$97M	57%
FY2022	22	$97M	55%
FY2021	13	$84M	62%
FY2020	23	$80M	70%
FY2019	13	$80M	54%
FY2018	22	$73M	68%

100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Environment$702MEducation$1.0MPhilanthropy$678kCommunity Improvement$516kCivil Rights$275kArts & Culture$208kHousing & Shelter$205kInternational$159kOther$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, FY2017 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

Grantee	Total granted	Years	Share of their budget
Sierra Club	$694,981,620	9	56%
Population Media Center Inc	$939,274	1	10%
Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs (See) Inc	$760,000	4	2%
The Partnership Project Inc	$650,000	3	1%
Community Initiatives	$620,000	3	0%
Rocky Mountain Institute	$388,000	2	0%
Movement Strategy Center	$320,000	1	1%
University of California Berkeley Foundation	$254,000	7	0%
Michigan Enviromental Council	$250,000	1	5%
Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous Peoples Inc	$250,000	1	9%

Show all 101 grantees

All grantees of Sierra Club Foundation by total granted
Grantee	Total granted	Years	Share of their budget
Sierra Club	$694,981,620	9	56%
Population Media Center Inc	$939,274	1	10%
Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs (See) Inc	$760,000	4	2%
The Partnership Project Inc	$650,000	3	1%
Community Initiatives	$620,000	3	0%
Rocky Mountain Institute	$388,000	2	0%
Movement Strategy Center	$320,000	1	1%
University of California Berkeley Foundation	$254,000	7	0%
Michigan Enviromental Council	$250,000	1	5%
Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous Peoples Inc	$250,000	1	9%
Latino Community Fund of Washington State	$205,000	2	2%
GreenLatinos	$200,000	2	3%
Solutions Project Inc	$200,000	1	1%
Environmental Health Coalition	$195,000	3	2%
Right to the City Alliance	$175,000	1	2%
Grassroots International Inc	$175,000	2	2%
Verde Inc	$150,000	1	4%
Confluence Philanthropy Inc	$150,000	8	2%
Florida Rising Together Inc	$144,200	3	2%
Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy	$141,000	2	3%
Earth Island Institute Inc	$114,812	2	1%
Green 20	$110,000	2	5%
BlueGreen Alliance Foundation	$100,000	1	1%
Citizen Action of Wisconsin Education Fund Inc	$100,000	1	6%
Sustainable Markets Foundation	$100,000	1	0%
Nonprofit Legal Services of Utah	$100,000	1	8%
Vermont Energy Investment Corporation	$100,000	2	0%
Centro de Periodismo Investigativo Inc	$95,000	1	7%
Amaneser 2025	$95,000	1	n/a
Washington Interfaith Network	$75,000	2	15%
Of Salt and Sand	$75,000	1	76%
West Harlem Environmental Action Inc	$75,000	1	1%
Power Shift Network	$75,000	1	3%
Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada	$70,000	1	n/a
University of Colorado Foundation	$60,000	1	0%
Earthworks	$60,000	1	1%
Frack Action Fund Inc	$60,000	1	25%
Partnership for Southern Equity	$50,000	1	1%
Greenfaith Inc	$50,000	1	n/a
United States Energy Foundation	$50,000	1	0%
Rio Grande Return	$50,000	3	2%
Nw Energy Coalition	$50,000	1	2%
Guardian Revival Inc	$50,000	1	1%
Beyond Nuclear	$50,000	1	10%
Atmos Ltd	$50,000	1	n/a
West Virginia Citizen Action Education Fund	$50,000	1	n/a
Sunrise Movement Education Fund	$50,000	1	8%
For A Better Bayou	$50,000	1	n/a
Conservation Voters of Sc Educ Fund	$50,000	1	5%
Winyah Rivers Foundation Inc	$50,000	1	15%
Appalachian Mountain Advocates Inc	$50,000	1	4%
Center for Progressive Reform Inc	$50,000	1	n/a
Sierra Foothills Audubon Society	$50,000	1	64%
As You Sow	$50,000	1	1%
Allegheny Land Trust	$47,228	1	1%
The Audubon Society of New York State Inc	$46,750	6	1%
Missouri State Parks Foundation	$46,516	1	16%
Inclusive Development International	$43,000	1	2%
The Crane Institute of Sustainability Inc	$40,000	2	2%
Warehouse Workers Justice Center Inc	$40,000	1	3%
Physicians for Social Responsibility	$39,500	1	2%
Bike Pittsburgh Inc	$36,000	4	1%
Friends of the Inyo	$35,000	1	4%
Black Sustainability Inc	$35,000	1	12%
Scholastic Inc	$35,000	1	n/a
Humanitarian Social Innovations	$33,600	1	3%
Alliance for a Just Society	$30,000	1	1%
Alaska Wilderness League	$30,000	1	1%
Clean Up the River Environment	$30,000	1	4%
Virginia Organizing Inc	$30,000	1	0%
Jewish Community Centers of Chicago	$29,573	2	0%
Turner Foundation Inc	$26,000	1	1%
Jesus People Against Pollution	$25,000	1	n/a
Emerald Cities Collaborative Inc	$25,000	1	1%
Blue Sky Institure	$25,000	1	33%
Coalicion Pro Corredor Ecologico Del Noreste Inc	$25,000	1	46%
The Aspen Institute Inc	$25,000	1	n/a
South River Watershed Alliance	$25,000	1	10%
Tribal Link Foundation Inc	$20,000	1	16%
Protectores de Cuencas Inc	$20,000	1	2%
New Mexico Environmental Law Center	$20,000	1	n/a
Karuna Foundation	$20,000	1	0%
Our Climate Education Fund	$19,000	2	3%
Chesapeake Climate Action Network Inc	$18,000	2	1%
Citizens Climate Education Corp	$18,000	2	0%
The Alliance for Climate Protection	$16,000	2	0%
Native Movement	$15,000	1	1%
Public Policy and Education Fund of New York Inc	$15,000	1	0%
Clean Air Task Force Inc	$14,812	1	0%
Center for Carbon Removal	$14,812	1	0%
Earthjustice	$14,812	1	0%
Climate Emergency Fund	$14,812	1	1%
Coalition for Rainforest Nations Secretariat	$14,812	1	0%
350org	$14,812	1	0%
Rainforest Trust	$14,812	1	0%
Southwest Environmental Center	$12,000	1	n/a
Conservation Congress	$11,000	1	n/a
Sicangu Community Development Corporation	$10,500	1	0%
The Good Food Institute Inc	$10,000	1	0%
Climate Xchange Education and Research Inc	$6,000	1	2%
Born Free Foundation	$5,383	1	n/a

Sierra Club Foundation supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 5 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 87 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 87.

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.

PatagoniaorgCA43.8× affinity23 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Patagoniaorg · Sierra Club · United States Energy Foundation · Amalgamated Charitable Foundation Inc · Windward Fund · Natural Resources Defense Council Inc · The Schmidt Family Foundation · The Energy Foundation · Tides Center · Environmental Defense Fund Incorporated · Rockefeller Family Fund Inc · Tides 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 Sierra Club Foundation with peer funders

About Sierra Club Foundation

How much does Sierra Club Foundation give?: Sierra Club Foundation reported 12 grants totaling $44,382,392 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 13 and 23 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.
What does Sierra Club Foundation fund?: By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Environment (99%), Education (0%), Philanthropy (0%).
Who are Sierra Club Foundation's largest grantees?: By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Sierra Club ($695M), Population Media Center Inc ($939k), Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs (See) Inc ($760k).
Does Sierra Club Foundation fund new organizations?: In FY2024, 55% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Which funders back the same organizations as Sierra Club Foundation?: Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Patagoniaorg, Sierra Club, United States Energy Foundation.
Where is Sierra Club Foundation based?: Sierra Club Foundation is based in CA.