New York · Nonprofit
CLIMATE SCIENCE LEGAL DEFENSE FUND
CLIMATE SCIENCE LEGAL DEFENSE FUND (New York) receives grants from 47 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,606,227 to it, the largest being The David and Lucile Packard Foundation ($412,500). 27 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $466k
- Funders on record
- 47
- Grants received
- $2.6M
- Net assets
- $1.3M
What Climate Science Legal Defense Fund does
Mission
See schedule othe Climate Science Legal Defense Fund (csldf) protects the scientific endeavor by putting our legal expertise to work for scientists who are threatened or silenced for doing their jobs. Our efforts and educational resources preserve and expand scientists' rights and strengthen legal protections to promote scientific integrity.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
The Climate Science Legal Defense Fund works to educate the scientific community about their rights and their responsibilities regarding legal issues surrounding their work, as well as educate the public on legal issues facing scientists. The Climate Science Legal Defense Fund also serves as a clearinghouse for information related to legal actions taken against scientists in order to provide lawyers representing scientists with information about past cases and strategies. The Climate Science Legal Defense Fund takes an active interest in litigation involving scientists, including helping raise funds for scientists' defense, serving as a resource in finding pro bono representation, filing court papers urging the protection of science and scientists, and providing support during difficult litigation or threatened litigation.
$251,979 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $251,979.
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 2017 to 2018, from $569k to $791k (+39%).
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: 2021 7% · 2022 7%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
99% of CLIMATE SCIENCE LEGAL DEFENSE FUND’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (79% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 8 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
Lauren Kurtz
Executive director
Board chair
Joshua Wolfe
Chair of the board
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 15 funders to 19 funders, grant income rose $224k → $236k.
13 of 47 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 32% 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 SCIENCE LEGAL DEFENSE FUND’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 47 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 SCIENCE LEGAL DEFENSE FUND has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 16% 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
38% 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 SCIENCE LEGAL DEFENSE FUND.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 26% · 2018 38% · 2019 41% · 2020 18% · 2021 34% · 2022 23% · 2023 25% — broadly stable.
“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
44% of CLIMATE SCIENCE LEGAL DEFENSE FUND's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 57% 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 SCIENCE LEGAL DEFENSE FUND draws 96% of its grant income from funders outside New York, across 17 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $834k 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 SCIENCE LEGAL DEFENSE FUND holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 793 science & tech nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 793 science & tech nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like CLIMATE SCIENCE LEGAL DEFENSE FUND
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 York
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
61% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
80%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 11 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CLIMATE SCIENCE LEGAL DEFENSE FUND: 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 SCIENCE LEGAL DEFENSE FUND?
- CLIMATE SCIENCE LEGAL DEFENSE FUND (New York) receives grants from 47 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,606,227 to it, the largest being The David and Lucile Packard Foundation ($412,500). 27 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CLIMATE SCIENCE LEGAL DEFENSE FUND have?
- IRS filings report 47 organizations giving $2,606,227 in grants to CLIMATE SCIENCE LEGAL DEFENSE FUND, 27 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CLIMATE SCIENCE LEGAL DEFENSE FUND?
- The David and Lucile Packard Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $412,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CLIMATE SCIENCE LEGAL DEFENSE FUND find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New York. 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 Science Legal Defense →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 47 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing