· Public charity
Western Conservation Foundation
Building leaders to protect the west's land, air, and water.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k3 grants · $22k
- $10k–50k57 grants · $1.5M
- $50k–250k51 grants · $5.2M
- $250k+3 grants · $879k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| WESTERN CONSERVATION ACTION | $310,000 |
| VET VOICE FOUNDATION | $287,000 |
| NEW MEXICO WILDERNESS ALLIANCE | $282,300 |
| ARIZONA WILDLIFE FEDERATION | $229,000 |
| NATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION | $221,216 |
| SIERRA CLUB FOUNDATION | $201,000 |
| TROUT UNLIMITED | $185,000 |
| LEAGUE OF CONSERVATION VOTERS EDUCA | $178,440 |
| WESTERN RESOURCE ADVOCATES | $177,000 |
| MOUNTAIN MAMAS | $167,500 |
| INDIGENOUS VOICES OF NEVADA | $158,137 |
| CALIFORNIA ENVIRONMENTAL VOTERS EDU | $150,000 |
| THEODORE ROOSEVELT CONSERVATION PAR | $140,000 |
| BACKCOUNTRY HUNTERS & ANGLERS | $140,000 |
| CONSERVATION COLORADO EDUCATION FUN | $137,500 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY17–24, $2.0M) 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
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 +72% since the first grant, against +31% for those funded once.
123 repeat relationships: 84 still active in FY2024, 39 since wound down; 27 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, 89% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $843k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- WCWESTERN CONSERVATION ACTION6× · 2017–2024 · $2.2M · revenue +158%
- NWNATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION6× · 2017–2024 · $1.5M · revenue +72%
- HAHispanic Access Foundation6× · 2017–2024 · $1.5M · revenue +841% · 35% of their budget
Funded once
- UDUtah Dine Bikeyahone grant, 2017 · $313k · revenue -75%
- BEBONNEVILLE ENVIRONMENTAL FOUNDATIONgraduatedone grant, 2017 · $178k · revenue +941%
- NFNATURE FOR ALLgraduatedone grant, 2023 · $145k · revenue +132%
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.
Cascadia wildlands defends and restores cacasia's wild ecosystems in the forests,in the courts, and in the streets. we envision vast old-growth forests, rivers full of wild salmon, wolves howling in the backcountry, a stable climate, and…
Greater yellowstone coalition works with all people to protect the lands, waters, and wildlife of the greater yellowstone ecosystem, now and for future generations.
Our work secures policies and elevates leaders that advance climate action and environmental justice. we help them do it, and hold them to it. we work for a colorado where every community can breathe clean air, drink clean water, protect…
Cuenca los ojos works to preserve and restore the biodiversity of the us/mexican borderlands through land protection, habitat restoration and wildlife reintroduction.
The NW Energy Coalition is an alliance of over 100 environmental, civic, and human service organizations, utilities, and businesses in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, and British Columbia, plus many individual members. The NW Energy…
Colorado open lands' mission is to preserve the significant open lands and natural heritage of colorado through private and public partnerships, innovative land conservation, and strategic leadership.
Educate the public on forest conservation issues in New Mexico
Sustainable Conservation advances the collaborative stewardship of Californias land, air, and water for the benefit of nature and people. For over three decades, Sustainable Conservation has built coalitions of people with different…
To unite, elevate and empower colorado's conservation community to protect the lands and waters that define our state.
Icl's mission is to create a conservation community and pragmatic, enduring solutions that protect and restore the air you breathe, the water you drink, and the land and wildlife you love.
Northern Plains believes people working together can make a difference. Our mission is to organize Montanans to protect our water, land, air, and working landscapes; support a healthy, localized, and sustainable economy in farm and ranch…
The Boulder Watershed Collective is a 501c3 non-profit stakeholder-driven organization established to address forested watershed health,resiliency and stewardship. We have three program areas: ClimateAdaptation and Resilience Watershed…
How this is measured
253 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. 253 of the 261 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 WESTERN CONSERVATION ACTION ↗
- Who funds BACKCOUNTRY HUNTERS & ANGLERS ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION ↗
- Who funds Hispanic Access Foundation ↗
- Who funds VET VOICE FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds MONTANA WILDERNESS ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds CONSERVATION COLORADO EDUCATION FUND ↗
- Who funds THE DENVER FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Nevada Conservation League Ed Fund ↗
- Who funds NEW MEXICO WILDERNESS ALLIANCE ↗
- Who funds ARIZONA WILDLIFE FEDERATION ↗
- Who funds NEW MEXICO WILDLIFE FEDERATION ↗
- Who funds INSTITUTE FOR A PROGRESSIVE NEVADA ↗
- Who funds Western Resource Advocates ↗
- Who funds MONTANA CONSERVATION VOTERS EDUCATION FUND ↗
- Who funds MONTANA WILDLIFE FEDERATION ↗
- Who funds LEAGUE OF CONSERVATION VOTERS EDUCATION FUND ↗
- Who funds MT MOUNTAIN MAMAS ↗
- Who funds TROUT UNLIMITED INC ↗
- Who funds CONTINENTAL DIVIDE TRAIL COALITION ↗
- Who funds Coalition to Protect Americas National ↗
- Who funds Sierra Business Council ↗
- Who funds CALIFORNIA ENVIRONMENTAL VOTERS EDUCATION FUND ↗
- Who funds CONSERVATION VOTERS NEW MEXICO EDUCATION FUND ↗
- Who funds THEODORE ROOSEVELT CONSERVATION PARTNERSHIP INC ↗
- Who funds INDIGENOUS VOICES NEVADA ↗
- Who funds CONSERVATION VOTERS FOR IDAHO EDUCATION FUND INC ↗
- Who funds NUESTRA TIERRA CONSERVATION PROJECT ↗
- Who funds CalWild ↗
- Who funds Arizona Interfaith Power and Light ↗
- Who funds THE SURFRIDER FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Nevada Wildlife Federation ↗
- Who funds Utah Dine Bikeyah ↗
- Who funds ARIZONA ECUMENICAL COUNCIL ↗
- Who funds Mormon Women For Ethical Government Foun dation ↗
- Who funds Solar United Neighbors Inc ↗
- Who funds PUBLIC CITIZEN FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds Partnership for Responsible Business ↗
- Who funds SIERRA CLUB FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds REP ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION FOUNDATION ↗
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: Resources Legacy Fund · The Wilderness Society · Patagoniaorg · United States Energy Foundation · Western Conservation Action · Environmental Defense Fund Incorporated · The Energy Foundation · Conservation Lands Foundation · Wilburforce Foundation · The Pew Charitable Trusts · The Partnership Project Inc · Natural Resources Defense Council Inc
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Western Conservation Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Western Conservation Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- Bonneville Environmental Foundation: 100% of income from government
- Oregon Natural Desert Association: 9% of income from government
- Hunters of Color: 4% of income from government
- Love Is King Inc: 0% of income from government
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Western Conservation Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Western Conservation 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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