Skip to content
Plinth

· Public charity

Spark Climate Solutions

Sparks mission is to accelerate progress in emerging, potentially high-impact approaches for climate mitigation and adaptation that will contribute to humanitys comprehensive portfolio of solutions and responses to enable our return to a safe climate while minimizing risk to societal stability.

$4.4M
Granted FY2024still arriving
9
Grants FY2024still arriving
6
States reached
$600k
Largest
01What you fund
01100% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20222024.

Education$1.6MScience & Tech$1.1MEnvironment$795kRecreation & Sports$196k
02FY2024 · 9 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

The 9 grants below total $2,749,384 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $4,364,200 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $1,614,816 is giving the schedule does not break out: grants under the $5,000 itemisation floor, grants to individuals, and grants reported on other schedules. Every figure below describes the itemised rows only.

By grant size · FY2024

  • $10k–50k1 grant · $15k
  • $50k–250k2 grants · $296k
  • $250k+6 grants · $2.4M
$298,641
Median grant
6
States reached
$17M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Massachusetts Institute of Te$600,000
UltraPure Air LLC$545,000
Convergent Research Inc$405,883
The University of Chicago$299,248
Elysia Creative Biology$298,641
Leland Stanford Junior Univer$289,494
University of Maryland Colleg$196,118
Clean Air Task Force$100,000
University California Davis$15,000
02The need
03

Do your dollars go where the need is?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.

show:

Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY22–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 46% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants spread fairly evenly across need levels.

area typical 9%Massachusetts Institute of Te: $600k → 8%Clean Air Task Force: $100k → 16%Regents of the Univ Californ: $52k → 10%University California Davis: $15k → 16%UltraPure Air LLC: $545k → 7%Cornell Unversity: $279k → 16%Trustees of Columbia Univ: $160k → 17%Texas A&M Foundation: $110k → 22%Inst for Governance & Sustain: $150k → 14%Regents of the Univ Michigan: $51k → 14%Elysia Creative Biology: $299k → 8%The University of Chicago: $299k → 14%University of Maryland Colleg: $196k → 11%Convergent Research Inc: $406k → 8%Cornell Unversity: $134k → 16%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.

Which US states your grants reach

IL
MI
NY
MA
CA
MD
NC
DC
TX

Grants abroad, by region — $1.6M on the FY2024 return

Schedule F, as filed: 1 region. The IRS asks for region and purpose, not the recipient, so no country or grantee can be named here.

Region not stated$1.6M · 100% · 9 grants

Stated purpose: Acacia Impact · Leibniz-Institut · Royal Belgian

US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving. Grants abroad on Schedule F are filed by region, purpose and amount with no recipient name, so they are shown by region and cannot be placed on the country map or matched to a grantee.

03Your field

The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Trustees of Tufts College

Education and Research

Education
2
President and Fellows of Harvard College

Undergraduate, graduate, and professional education and research across a broad array of academic domains.

Education
3
The Trustees of Princeton University

Research, education and general - princeton university is a private not-for-profit, non-sectarian institution of higher learning with approximately 5,700 undergraduate and 3,300 graduate students. 2,500 students graduated in the 2024-2025…

Education
4
Trustees of Boston University

Organization's mission: boston university is an international, comprehensive, private research university, committed to educating students to be reflective, resourceful individuals ready to live, adapt, and lead in an interconnected world.…

5
Case Western Reserve University

Case Western Reserve University is an independent, research-oriented university with broadly based strengths in health, including medicine, nursing and dentistry; in engineering; in the arts and sciences; and in law, management and social…

Education
6
William Marsh Rice University

As a leading research university with a distinctive commitment to undergraduate education, Rice University aspires to path breaking research, unsurpassed teaching, and contributions to the betterment of our world. It seeks to fulfill this…

Education
7
The George Washington University

The mission of the george washington university (gw) is to educate individuals in liberal arts, languages, sciences, learned professions, and other courses and subjects of study, and to conduct scholarly research and publish the findings…

Education
8
Lehigh University

The university's goal in the coming decade is to advance learning through the integration of teaching, research and service to others. the core of this goal is to prepare graduates to engage with the world and lead lives of meaning. to do…

Education
9
University of New Haven

The University of New Haven is a student-centered comprehensive university with an emphasis on excellence in liberal arts and professional education. Our mission is to prepare our students to lead purposeful and fulfilling lives in a…

Education
10
New York University

Nyu is a private university with approximately 60,000 matriculating students in 20 schools and institutes. nyu's primary missions are education, research and scholarship, and patient care.

Education
11
University Corporation for Atmospheric Research

See schedule ouniversity corporation for atmospheric research (ucar), on behalf of, and in cooperation with its member university members, is engaged in the management of long-term atmospheric and related research and educational…

Science & Tech
12
Trustees of Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College educates the most promising students and prepares them for a lifetime of learning and of responsible leadership, through a faculty dedicated to teaching and the creation of knowledge.

Education

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Texas a&M Foundation and the most unlike its peers is Clean Air Task Force Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

04the grantee network

9 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 20172025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 9 of the 15 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
0
Early backer (in before they grew)
9/9
Grantees still filing
6/9
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

Massachusetts Institute of Technology — $600,000 · EducationMassachusetts Institute of TechnologyCornell University — $413,546 · EducationCornell UniversityUniversity of Chicago — $299,248 · EducationUniversity of ChicagoTHE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY — $289,494 · EducationTHE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVE…THE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK — $160,002 · EducationTHE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YO…Texas A&M Foundation — $110,255 · EducationTexas A&M FoundationUltraPure Air LLC — $545,000 · OtherUltraPure Air LLCElysia Creative Biology — $298,641 · OtherElysia Creative BiologyUNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND COLLEGE PARK — $196,118 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND COLLEGE PARKRegents of the Univ Californ — $51,687 · OtherREGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN — $51,000 · Other+1 more — $15,000 · OtherCONVERGENT RESEARCH INC — $405,883 · Science & TechCONVERGENT R…INSTITUTE FOR GOVERNANCE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT — $150,000 · InternationalCLEAN AIR TASK FORCE INC — $100,000 · Environment
Education$1,872,545Other$1,157,446Science & Tech$405,883International$150,000Environment$100,000

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetMassachusetts Institute of Technology — $600,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCornell University — $413,546 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetCONVERGENT RESEARCH INC — $405,883 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetUniversity of Chicago — $299,248 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY — $289,494 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK — $160,002 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetINSTITUTE FOR GOVERNANCE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT — $150,000 over 1y, 2.2% of budgetTexas A&M Foundation — $110,255 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCLEAN AIR TASK FORCE INC — $100,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budget
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them

A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

Government reliance of your grantees

Every dot is one organization Spark Climate Solutions funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal, a single department, or state — and drag the year to watch it move.

2024
202122232425
no gov · 10%0%1%3%5%your share of their income ↑0%10%20%30%40%share of the org’s income from governmentmedian 35%
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology35% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
1get no government money at all
1report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–40%
typical government reliance, FY2025

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 your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not 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 12–24 months.

04Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to Spark Climate Solutions?

Find your warmest path to Spark Climate Solutions 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.

On method. Every financial figure here is read directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 15 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears. How we build these →

Generated from your IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

More from the funding graph