Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
ENVIRONMENTAL WORKING GROUP
ENVIRONMENTAL WORKING GROUP (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 295 organizations whose IRS filings report $60,088,604 to it, the largest being FOUNDATION FOR THE CAROLINAS ($20,300,000). 162 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 63% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $16M
- Funders on record
- 295
- Grants received
- $60M
- Net assets
- $14M
What Environmental Working Group does
Mission
The Environmental Working Group (ewg) is committed to empowering people to live healthier lives in healthier environments. We are a nonprofit research and advocacy organization with a community made up of millions of consumers who stand-up for healthy food, farms, water and people.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Toxics and human health - ewg believes people should be able to trust that the products they are buying are safe and won't cause harm to their health or their families. Our simple theory is unfortunately not the reality in today's chemical safety regulatory environment. Our science program has two primary objectives: first, to influence consumer behavior by directly informing and motivating a large audience to adopt habits of environmental health, using original research about chemicals of concern found in everyday environments. Second, to influence mass market change by disrupting the food, household cleaner, and personal care product markets through evidence-based research on toxic ingredients and consumer pressure for safer alternatives.our science program is working to produce cutting-edge, newsworthy research and consumer education projects on environmental health to educate citizen activists, move markets and generate debate on chemical policy reform. Ewg has a dedicated team of scientists with expertise in toxicology, chemistry, public health and nutrition. Our team of a dozen experts is one of the largest and most recognized in the environmental field.from the top…
$6,875,524 spentof which $11,000 as grants$68,363 earned by the program44% of program spendingLicensing - "ewg verified" is ewg's verification and licensing program that helps consumers identify safer personal care products without having to do research. It is rapidly pushing the market toward the strict ingredient and transparency criteria defined by our team of research scientists. Ewg established standards in the interest of public health and created an ewg verified seal that means a product is free from dangerous chemicals with known negative health impacts, and that product has met ewg's strict, protective standards for these chemicals.an ewg mark for safety and health at point of sale inspires consumers to shop with our standards in mind, and ultimately, shaping consumer habits will drive market change. Our goal is to have marquee brands formulate toward our standards, making it that much easier for consumers to find better alternatives.
$3,932,563 spent$1,520,706 earned by the program25% of program spendingFood and agriculture - our conservation program works to protect the source of our food: our soil and water. This includes ongoing projects to protect drinking water from agricultural pollution, and to protect soil from pesticides, erosion and contamination from these same industries. We do this work to protect our natural resources because they are vital and irreplaceable, but also because pollution in our environment inevitably becomes pollution in our bodies. Our goal is to illustrate the connection between the broken u.s. Agricultural system, farm subsidies, the damage being done to our land and health, and the increasing lack of access to healthy food and fresh produce for today's families. Our strategy is designed to address these issues and push u.s. Agriculture in a more sustainable direction that stands up for both the health of our land and our food.
$3,225,156 spent21% of program spendingEnergy & natural resources program
$811,906 spentof which $10,000 as grants5% of program spendingNews
$645,970 spent4% of program spending
The 5 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $15,491,119.
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 2021 to 2022, from $15M to $23M (+56%).
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%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
81% of ENVIRONMENTAL WORKING GROUP’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (87% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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.
Board chair
Ken Cook
Chair & president
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 61 funders to 114 funders, grant income rose $4.1M → $10M.
45 of 295 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 63% 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 WORKING GROUP’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 295 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 WORKING GROUP has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 34% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
66% 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 WORKING GROUP.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 49% · 2018 48% · 2019 45% · 2020 11% · 2021 34% · 2022 33% · 2023 40% — diversifying over time.
“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
37% of ENVIRONMENTAL WORKING GROUP's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 55% 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
63% of ENVIRONMENTAL WORKING GROUP's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $22M that is directly attributable, 94% of it comes from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 36 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $38M arriving through sponsors registered in 25 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 WORKING GROUP is better cushioned than half of the 210 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 210 environment nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Organizations like ENVIRONMENTAL WORKING GROUP
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 Washington, D.C.
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
80% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
95%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 37 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ENVIRONMENTAL WORKING GROUP: 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 WORKING GROUP?
- ENVIRONMENTAL WORKING GROUP (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 295 organizations whose IRS filings report $60,088,604 to it, the largest being FOUNDATION FOR THE CAROLINAS ($20,300,000). 162 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 63% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does ENVIRONMENTAL WORKING GROUP have?
- IRS filings report 295 organizations giving $60,088,604 in grants to ENVIRONMENTAL WORKING GROUP, 162 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ENVIRONMENTAL WORKING GROUP?
- FOUNDATION FOR THE CAROLINAS is the largest funder on record, with $20,300,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ENVIRONMENTAL WORKING GROUP find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington, D.C.. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
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 295 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