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Taproot Earth at a glanceMostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

· Public charity

Taproot Earth

Taproot Earth works with communities to support strategies around the use of water, energy and land.

$6.1M
Granted FY2023
10
Grants FY2023
8
States reached
$1.1M
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its fieldRead
04Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2022 to 2023.

Environment$5.8MCivil Rights$1.0MHealth$33kEducation$25kPublic Safety & Disaster$10k
02FY2023 · 10 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2023

  • $50k–250k4 grants · $532k
  • $250k+6 grants · $5.4M
$983,596
Median grant
8
States reached
$18M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Southern Sector Rising$1,127,000
New Bethel Comm Dev Corp$1,000,000
Community Justice Project$1,000,000
GASP$1,000,000
Sierra Club Puerto Rico$983,596
Amigxs del M A R$327,865
Alliance Affordable Energy$243,389
Mujeres del Isla$163,933
Haitian Bridge Alliance$75,000
Out for Sustainability$50,000
02The need
03

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 (FY23–23, $1.1M) land where the poverty rate runs at 19%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 93% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%Haitian Bridge Alliance: $75k → 11%New Bethel Comm Dev Corp: $1.0M → 19%0%20%40%50%more need →
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

NY
CA
AZ
DC
LA
MS
AL
TX
FL

Grants abroad, by region: $106k 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.

Sub-Saharan Africa$106k · 100% · 1 grant

Stated purpose: Eco-Education

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. 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.
03Its 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.

1
Louisiana Bucket Brigade

To support communities use of grassroots action in order to create sustainable neighborhoods free from industrial pollution.

Environment
2
Center for Contemporary Documentation Inc
Philanthropy
3
Conservation Law Foundation Inc

Conservation law foundation, inc. (clf) protects new england's environment for the benefit of all people and future generations. we use the law, science, and markets to create solutions that preserve and restore our natural resources,…

Environment
4
California Environmental Justice Alliance

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…

Environment
5
Environment Now
—
6
Educator Collective for Envionmental Justice Inc

Environmental Justice & Equality

Education
7
Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition - Tag

Elevate the voice of those impacted by the Duwamish River pollution and other environmental injustices for a clean, healthy, equitable environment for people and wildlife. We promote place-keeping and prioritize community capacity and…

Environment
8
Strategic Concepts in Organizing & Policy Education

To Build grassroots power to eliminate structural barriers to social and economic opportunities in low-income and disenfranchised communities.

Human Services
9
Acterra Action for a Healthy Planet

To bring people together to create local solutions for a healthy planet.

Environment
10
Alliance for Metropolitan Stability

The alliance is a coalition of community-based organizations and advocacy groups with a mission to build power across the intersections of geography, race, culture, and issues in the twin cities region to eliminate systems of oppression…

Community Improvement
11
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
12
Beyond Extreme Energy

Public education, outreach and communication related to the climate crisis and extreme energy.

Environment
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Society of Native Nations; the most unlike its peers is Ironton Reconstruction and Development Commitee. 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

19 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. 19 of the 21 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.

7
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
5
Early backer (in before they grew)
17/19
Grantees still filing
8/19
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Gasp: $1,000,000 · EnvironmentGaspSIERRA CLUB FOUNDATION: $983,596 · EnvironmentSIERRA CLUB FOUNDATIONALLIANCE FOR AFFORDABLE ENERGY: $243,389 · EnvironmentALLIANCE FOR AFFORDABLE ENERGYOccidental Arts and Ecology Center: $80,000 · EnvironmentTURTLE ISLAND RESTORATION NETWORK: $80,000 · Environment+1 more: $10,000 · EnvironmentSOUTHERN SECTOR RISING: $1,240,333 · Community ImprovementSOUTHERN SECTOR RISINGMUJERES DE ISLAS INC: $163,933 · Community ImprovementMUJERES DE ISLAS INCSOCIETY OF NATIVE NATIONS: $80,000 · Community ImprovementSOCIETY OF NATIVE NATION…+1 more: $10,000 · Community ImprovementNEW BETHEL COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION: $1,000,000 · Human ServicesNEW BETHEL COMMUN…HAITIAN BRIDGE ALLIANCE: $75,000 · Human ServicesHAITIAN BRIDGE AL…COMMUNITY JUSTICE PROJECT INC: $1,000,000 · Civil RightsCOMMUNITY JUSTICE…OUT FOR SUSTAINABILITY INC: $50,000 · Civil RightsAmigxs del M A R: $402,865 · OtherAmigxs del …CARRIZO COMECRUDO NATION OF TEXAS INC: $130,000 · OtherCARRIZO COM…PORT ARTHUR COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK: $100,000 · OtherPORT ARTHUR…RIPP RESILIENCE IS POWER PROGRAM: $53,333 · OtherRIPP RESILI…West Street Recovery: $83,333 · Public Safety & DisasterCHOICES INTER-LINKING: $33,333 · HealthLPE COLLECTIVE INC DBA CLASS CRITS INC: $25,000 · Education
Environment$2,396,985Community Improvement$1,494,266Human Services$1,075,000Civil Rights$1,050,000Other$686,198Public Safety & Disaster$83,333Health$33,333Education$25,000

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetSOUTHERN SECTOR RISING: $1,240,333 over 2y, 63% of budgetCOMMUNITY JUSTICE PROJECT INC: $1,000,000 over 1y, 35% of budgetNEW BETHEL COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION: $1,000,000 over 1y, 76% of budgetGasp: $1,000,000 over 1y, 65% of budgetSIERRA CLUB FOUNDATION: $983,596 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetALLIANCE FOR AFFORDABLE ENERGY: $243,389 over 1y, 10% of budgetWest Street Recovery: $83,333 over 1y, 5.3% of budgetOccidental Arts and Ecology Center: $80,000 over 1y, 1.3% of budgetSOCIETY OF NATIVE NATIONS: $80,000 over 1y, 12% of budgetTURTLE ISLAND RESTORATION NETWORK: $80,000 over 1y, 2.3% of budgetHAITIAN BRIDGE ALLIANCE: $75,000 over 1y, 2.2% of budgetOUT FOR SUSTAINABILITY INC: $50,000 over 1y, 56% of budgetCHOICES INTER-LINKING: $33,333 over 1y, 37% of budgetLPE COLLECTIVE INC DBA CLASS CRITS INC: $25,000 over 1y, 21% of budgetIRONTON RECONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT COMMITEE: $10,000 over 1y, 41% of budgetEarth Island Institute Inc: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budget
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.

Amalgamated Charitabl…Rockefeller Philanthr…Healthy GulfTides FoundationEarthworksSustainable Markets F…Sierra ClubSolutions Project IncRockefeller Family Fu…Silicon Valley Commun…Vanguard Charitable E…Fidelity Investments …
Amalgamated Charitable Foundation IncDC20× affinity8 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Amalgamated Charitable Foundation Inc · Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors Inc · Healthy Gulf · Tides Foundation · Earthworks · Sustainable Markets Foundation · Sierra Club · Solutions Project Inc · Rockefeller Family Fund Inc · Silicon Valley Community Foundation · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift 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 Taproot Earth funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Taproot Earth. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 10%6%23%51%90%funder's share of their income ↑0%13%25%38%50%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    1get no government money at all
    3report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–50%
    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.
    04Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Taproot Earth?

    Find your warmest path to Taproot Earth 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 from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 21 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

    How this is measured
    Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its 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.

    Generated from the IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2023, released 2023. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Possibly out of date. A more recent filing (FY2024) is on record and reports $106k of grant expense, but none of it to a named recipient. On a Form 990 that can mean grants abroad, filed by region only (Schedule F), grants under $5,000, which are not itemized, or a schedule referenced as an attachment the e-file does not carry. The figures above are therefore from FY2023, the most recent year this funder named its grantees.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Taproot Earth’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