· Private foundation
The Christensen Fund
Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2024.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k22 grants · $66k
- $10k–50k36 grants · $712k
- $50k–250k57 grants · $7.2M
- $250k+19 grants · $5.2M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| INTERNATIONAL WORK GROUP FOR INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS | $350,000 |
| INDIGENOUS PEOPLES RIGHTS INC | $350,000 |
| SNOWCHANGE COOPERATIVE | $325,000 |
| RIGHTS AND RESOURCES INSTITUTE INC | $300,000 |
| CENTER FOR RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT IN DRYLANDS | $300,000 |
| RUDOLF STEINER FOUNDATION DBA RSF SOCIAL FINANCE | $300,000 |
| DRYLANDS LEARNING AND CAPACITY BUILDING INITIATIVES | $280,000 |
| FOREST PEOPLES PROGRAMME | $260,000 |
| INDIGENOUS MOVEMENT FOR PEACE ADVANCEMENT AND CONFLICT TRANSFORMATION | $260,000 |
| NATIVE AMERICANS IN PHILANTHROPY | $250,000 |
| TEBTEBBA FOUNDATION INC | $250,000 |
| INTERNATIONAL INDIGENOUS WOMEN'S FORUM | $250,000 |
| INTERNATIONAL INDIAN TREATY COUNCIL | $250,000 |
| CULTURAL SURVIVAL | $250,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $250,000 |
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: 47% of grant dollars ($29M). The need read here covers only this US portion; the 53% that went abroad ($32M) is mapped below.
Its human-services grants (FY21–24, $1.3M) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 39% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
Which US states its grants reach
Beyond the US: 53% of all-years giving ($32M)
32 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 11% of The Christensen Fund’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.
121 repeat relationships: 64 still active in FY2024, 57 since wound down; 46 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, 68% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $4.0M went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
Native Americans in Philanthropy4× · 2021–2024 · $2.3M · revenue +383%- IIInternational Indian Treaty Council Inc3× · 2022–2024 · $1.0M · revenue +28% · 33% of their budget
- AMAmah Mutsun Land Trust4× · 2020–2023 · $931k · revenue +89%
Funded once
- TVTHE VANUATU INDIGENOUS LAND DEFENSE DESK COMMITTEE INCone grant, 2020 · $510k
- NINAMATI INCgraduatedone grant, 2021 · $500k · revenue +65%
- AOASSOCIATION-FEDERATION OF ORGANIC DEVELOPMENT BIO-KGone grant, 2020 · $460k
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.
To protect the rainforest and advance the rights of Indigenous peoples in the Amazon Basin. We partner with Indigenous communities in campaigns for human rights, corporate accountability, and the preservation of the Amazon Basin's…
To strenghten people's ability to guarantee their individual and collective right to a healthy environment, via the development, implementation, and effective enforcement of national and international law.
To empower frontline communities to lead nature-based solutions that advance climate justice, ecosystem restoration, and resilient livelihoods through connecting locally-led initiatives to funding, markets, and technical support.
Nature and culture international conserves biologically diverse landscapes in latin america, in concert with local cultures, for the well-being of the planet.
Rainforest trust saves endangered wildlife and protects our planet by creating rainforest reserves through partnerships, community engagement, and donor support.
Global Forest Generation restores and protects forest ecosystems in partnership with grassroots leaders and local communities across vast landscapes which play a critical role in preserving water, protecting biodiversity, storing carbon,…
To establish and promote programs to protect the global climate, forests, wildlife and the natural environment, through research, advocacy, and investigation.
International Rivers protects rivers and defends the rights of communities that depend on them.
The intertribal agriculture council was founded in 1987 to pursue and promote the conservation, development and use of our agricultural resources of american indian and alaska native tribes.
Nuru is a global collective that enables inclusive and sustainable prosperity by identifying communities at the stability tipping point, strengthening rural livelihoods and market systems, and fostering stabilizing connections that repair…
The water protector legal collective is an indigenous-led legal nonprofit that provides support and advocacy for indigenous peoples and original nations, the earth, and climate justice movements.
Wri is committed to creating change that improves people's lives and ensures the natural world can thrive. (see schedule o)wri's bold vision requires a formula for success we call "count it. change it. scale it.":- count it: our work is…
How this is measured
150 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. 150 of the 306 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 Native Americans in Philanthropy ↗
- Who funds NATIVE AMERICAN RIGHTS FUND INC ↗
- Who funds RAINFOREST FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds Land is Life Inc ↗
- Who funds International Indian Treaty Council Inc ↗
- Who funds SEVENTH GENERATION FUND FOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLES INC ↗
- Who funds Amah Mutsun Land Trust ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL CONGRESS OF AMERICAN INDIANS FUND ↗
- Who funds RSF SOCIAL FINANCE INC ↗
- Who funds CULTURAL SURVIVAL INC ↗
- Who funds INDIGENOUS PEOPLES RIGHTS INC ↗
- Who funds ALLIANCE FOR A JUST SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds ALLIED MEDIA PROJECTS INC ↗
- Who funds SOGOREA TE LAND TRUST ↗
- Who funds Silicon Valley Community Foundation ↗
- Who funds LAW COLLEGE ASSOCIATION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA ↗
- Who funds NEW VENTURE FUND ↗
- Who funds RIGHTS AND RESOURCES INSTITUTE INC ↗
- Who funds NAMATI 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: The David and Lucile Packard Foundation · Rsf Social Finance Inc · Amalgamated Charitable Foundation Inc · Novo Foundation · The Schmidt Family Foundation · Common Counsel Foundation · Tides Foundation · Impactassetsinc · The Ford Foundation · First Nations Development Institute · Resources Legacy Fund · Silicon Valley Community Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Christensen Fund funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Christensen Fund. Bigger dots raise more.
- Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians: 10% of income from government
- President and Fellows of Harvard College: 7% of income from government
- The Trustees of the Smith College: 1% of income from government
How this is measured
Play a game based on Christensen’s filings →