Minnesota · Nonprofit
ENVIRONMENTAL INITIATIVE
ENVIRONMENTAL INITIATIVE (Minnesota) receives grants from 35 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,341,789 to it, the largest being WAL-MART FOUNDATION ($2,547,524). 27 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $4.6M
- Funders on record
- 35
- Grants received
- $5.3M
- Net assets
- $2.3M
What Environmental Initiative does
Mission
Catalyze collaboration across perspectives, power, and systems for social equity and environmental health.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Clean air minnesota: clean air minnesota is a diverse coalition of air quality leaders convened by Environmental Initiative working together to reduce emissions from mobile sources, small businesses, and wood smoke. Partners form teams that coordinate, collaborate, and develop specific projects to reduce emissions from minnesota's smaller, widespread and less regulated sources of air pollution which contribute nearly 75 percent of air pollution emissions in the state. The organization's clean air work includes: project green fleet which reduces diesel emissions, project car which provides automobile repairs for low-income individuals, project stove swap that reduces emissions from wood burning appliances, and clean air assistance project which works with small businesses to reduce air pollution.
$2,208,831 spent$977 earned by the program56% of program spendingMidwest row crop collaborative: administered by Environmental Initiative, the midwest row crop collaborative (mrcc) explores and implements new approaches to agricultural challenges. The collaborative's members work together to find solutions that increase productivity while ensuring soil health, protecting water, addressing the factors contributing to climate change, and supporting farm families in the upper mississippi river basin. In 2025, mrcc established a regenerative agriculture leadership cohort providing mentorship from leading companies and ngos to companies actively building on-the-ground capacity for conservation projects with farmers.
$862,845 spent22% of program spendingEnvironment and natural resources trust fund community grants and community engagement- Environmental Initiative and rainbow research convene a working group of bipoc and rural leaders and mainstream environmental organizations to advocate for the approximately $25 million per year community grants program funded by the environment and natural resources trust fund. The working group collaborates with the minnesota department of natural resources to design the community grants program and coordinates outreach to the bipoc and rural communities that will be eligible to apply to the program once funds are available. Through other partnerships and community engagement, Environmental Initiative is working within itself and across difference to facilitate openness to address environmental, economic, and public health issues between diverse stakeholders and working towards social equity and environmental health for all.
$527,212 spent$147,407 earned by the program13% of program spendingSustainable growth coalition: a business-led partnership with 15 businesses and organizations administered by Environmental Initiative harnessing member expertise to advance the circular economy, where all energy is renewable, waste is eliminated, and natural, social, and human resources are protected and preserved. Individually, each organization is committed to sustainability, and recognizes that together they can have a larger societal impact on their operations, industries, environment, and community.agricultural programs: Environmental Initiative partners with agricultural stakeholders to accelerate the development and implementation of farmer-led solutions that benefit the environment, economic viability of farmers, and vitality of rural communities. These partnerships offer innovations to accelerate continuous improvements in our environment, particularly for water quality, soil health, habitat, and climate protection. In 2025, the organization's agricultural projects included: reach farmers faster, a partnership with trust in food, to help conservation implementers better understand the motivations of farmers and to design programs to more effectively lead to practice…
$373,425 spent9% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,972,313.
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 2020 to 2021, from $2.1M to $4.5M (+116%).
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 10% · 2018 22% · 2019 51% · 2020 64% · 2021 41% · 2022 49% · 2023 37% · 2024 23%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
96% of ENVIRONMENTAL INITIATIVE’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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
Mike Harley
Executive director
Board chair
Halston Sleets
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 7 funders to 13 funders, grant income rose $53k → $346k.
12 of 35 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 23% 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 ENVIRONMENTAL INITIATIVE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 35 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
ENVIRONMENTAL INITIATIVE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 48% of grant income and the top three 69%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
29% 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 ENVIRONMENTAL INITIATIVE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 42% · 2018 79% · 2019 90% · 2020 97% · 2021 57% · 2022 86% · 2023 40% — 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
33% of ENVIRONMENTAL INITIATIVE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 77% 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
ENVIRONMENTAL INITIATIVE draws 68% of its grant income from funders outside Minnesota, across 7 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.3M arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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
ENVIRONMENTAL INITIATIVE runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 2,187 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,187 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding ENVIRONMENTAL INITIATIVE receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $7.7M on record.
- Environmental Protection Agency$7.7M
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like ENVIRONMENTAL INITIATIVE
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 Minnesota
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
85% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
83%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ENVIRONMENTAL INITIATIVE: 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 ENVIRONMENTAL INITIATIVE?
- ENVIRONMENTAL INITIATIVE (Minnesota) receives grants from 35 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,341,789 to it, the largest being WAL-MART FOUNDATION ($2,547,524). 27 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does ENVIRONMENTAL INITIATIVE have?
- IRS filings report 35 organizations giving $5,341,789 in grants to ENVIRONMENTAL INITIATIVE, 27 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ENVIRONMENTAL INITIATIVE?
- WAL-MART FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $2,547,524 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ENVIRONMENTAL INITIATIVE find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Minnesota. 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 Environmental Initiative →
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 35 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