New Jersey · Nonprofit
CLIMATE CENTRAL INC
CLIMATE CENTRAL INC (New Jersey) receives grants from 88 organizations whose IRS filings report $51,503,186 to it, the largest being THE SCHMIDT FAMILY FOUNDATION ($13,075,000). 58 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $22M
- Funders on record
- 88
- Grants received
- $52M
- Net assets
- $15M
What Climate Central Inc does
Mission
Climate central, inc. (the organization") is an independent not-for-profit organization of leading scientists, technology experts and communication professionals that are dedicated to researching and reporting on climate change and its impacts and solutions. The organization surveys and conducts scientific research on climate change and informs the public and decision makers of key findings. The organization is not an advocacy organization and does not lobby or support any specific legislation, policy or bill regarding climate change.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Attribution science + climate fingerprints: the organization played a lead role in transforming the public narrative to recognize that some extreme weather events can be attributed to climate change, a claim validated by the national academy of sciences in 2016. This pioneering research is just one example of how the organization's scientists helped change the global climate conversation. The organization continues to advance science that will enable the quantification of climate fingerprints in worldwide local weather daily a true grail for climate communications. To achieve this impact, the attribution science + climate fingerprints program develops tools to help reveal how climate change is disrupting our world. Its first operational tool, the climate shift index, provides daily estimates of how climate change is impacting air temperature.
$3,316,315 spent37% of program spendingClimate matters: climate matters is a climate reporting resource program grounded in the latest science that helps meteorologists and journalists report on climate impacts and solutions in ways that are local, immediate, and personal. The organization's team of scientists, data analysts and visual artists identify and interpret data and produce easy-to-understand text and visual materials, including graphics, interactive content and videos, to help journalists build stories that will engage and enlighten their audience. The organization's reporting tools are available, free of charge, to anyone interested in telling engaging local, science-based stories about how global climate change is impacting their community, why it matters, and what can be done about it.
$2,077,143 spent23% of program spendingRealtime climate: realtime climate is an initiative to dispatch timely alerts and related content to meteorologists, other journalists, and other subscribers when current local conditions present a notable opportunity to communicate about climate change, its impacts, or its solutions. At realtime climate's core is a continually updated software system that monitors a growing range of data streams from local weather forecasts to coastal water levels to local renewable energy generation. When key thresholds are met, the system assembles related content, largely leveraging research and materials from the climate matters, sea level rise, and attribution programs, and sends alerts to subscribers in the areas experiencing threshold conditions. Subscribers include participants in the climate matters program and many stakeholders of the sea level rise program, as well as anyone who opts in using an online form on climate central's website.
$763,506 spent8% of program spendingSea level rise: the organization's program on sea level rise strives to provide science-based, clear and granular information about sea level rise and coastal flood hazards both locally and globally, today and tomorrow. Anchored in rigorous primary research, the organization's work distinguishes itself by its user-friendly maps and tools, extensive datasets, and high-quality visual presentations. The program dedicates its efforts to helping journalists, citizens, communities, businesses, organizations, and governments at every level to understand the consequences of different carbon pathways and to navigate the shifting waters of our warming world. Floodvision: floodvision, an innovative tool developed by climate central, uses advanced data collection techniques, ai-based algorithms, and intuitive software to produce science-based augmented-reality photos of specific locations. Users can choose optional views to contrast meaningful scenarios in their neighborhoods, such as projected sea levels based on different carbon pathways or local storm surge forecasts from approaching hurricanes. Floodvision is designed to empower the organization's broad media networks, as well as local…
$2,888,909 spent$324,877 earned by the program32% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $9,045,873.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2024 to 2025, from $6.1M to $16M (+164%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2017 9% · 2018 5% · 2019 7% · 2020 8% · 2021 1% · 2022 1% · 2023 0% · 2024 1% · 2025 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
98% of CLIMATE CENTRAL INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (52% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Dr Benjamin Strauss
CEO & chief scientist
Board chair
Dr Stephen Pacala
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 15 funders to 40 funders, grant income rose $2.3M → $7.5M.
19 of 88 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 17% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of CLIMATE CENTRAL INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 88 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
CLIMATE CENTRAL INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 25% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
25% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund CLIMATE CENTRAL INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 29% · 2018 29% · 2019 33% · 2020 32% · 2021 30% · 2022 34% · 2023 47% — growing more concentrated.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
34% of CLIMATE CENTRAL INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 66% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
CLIMATE CENTRAL INC draws 93% of its grant income from funders outside New Jersey, across 21 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $9.0M arriving through sponsors registered in 11 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
CLIMATE CENTRAL INC runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 78 science & tech nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 78 science & tech nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Organizations like CLIMATE CENTRAL INC
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In New Jersey
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
78% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
64%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 3 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CLIMATE CENTRAL INC: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds CLIMATE CENTRAL INC?
- CLIMATE CENTRAL INC (New Jersey) receives grants from 88 organizations whose IRS filings report $51,503,186 to it, the largest being THE SCHMIDT FAMILY FOUNDATION ($13,075,000). 58 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CLIMATE CENTRAL INC have?
- IRS filings report 88 organizations giving $51,503,186 in grants to CLIMATE CENTRAL INC, 58 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CLIMATE CENTRAL INC?
- THE SCHMIDT FAMILY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $13,075,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CLIMATE CENTRAL INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New Jersey. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds Climate Central →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 88 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing