Nonprofit
GLOBAL WITNESS
GLOBAL WITNESS receives grants from 2 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,031,039 to it, the largest being THE JEREMY AND HANNELORE GRANTHAM ENVIRONMENTAL TRUST ($6,850,000). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $20M
- Funders on record
- 2
- Grants received
- $7.0M
- Net assets
- $13M
What Global Witness does
Mission
Our goal is a more sustainable, just and equal planet. We want forests and biodiversity to thrive, fossil fuels to stay in the ground and corporations to prioritize the interests of people and the planet.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
Global Witness works to hold companies and governments to account for their destruction of the environment, their disregard for the planet and their failure to protect human rights via campaigns to:curb the flow of finance enabling destruction of climate-critical tropical forests.challenge industry efforts to present fossil gas as climate-friendly.end corporate complicity in environmental and human rights abuses. Protect land and environmental defenders standing up to climate-wrecking industries.tackle the spread of division, hate and disinformation on digital platforms.end corporate corruption and ensure companies in the natural resource sector can no longer operate above the law.
$6,952,456 spentof which $563,701 as grants100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2023 Form 990. Program spending in total: $6,952,456.
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 2022 to 2023, from $10M to $13M (+26%).
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 15% · 2020 18% · 2021 7% · 2022 1% · 2023 7% · 2024 5%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
99% of GLOBAL WITNESS’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (96% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 6 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 Davis
Chief executive officer
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2018 → 2023: the base held at 1 funder, grant income rose $62k → $6.8M.
From the IRS filings of GLOBAL WITNESS’s funders (the co-funder graph). 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
GLOBAL WITNESS leans on a few funders — its largest provides 97% of grant income and the top three 100%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
100% 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 GLOBAL WITNESS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 100% · 2019 100% · 2020 100% · 2023 100% — 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.
Against its field
GLOBAL WITNESS runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 363 international nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 363 international nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
Organizations like GLOBAL WITNESS
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.
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
55% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
47%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Global Witness Inc · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for GLOBAL WITNESS: 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 GLOBAL WITNESS?
- GLOBAL WITNESS receives grants from 2 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,031,039 to it, the largest being THE JEREMY AND HANNELORE GRANTHAM ENVIRONMENTAL TRUST ($6,850,000). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does GLOBAL WITNESS have?
- IRS filings report 2 organizations giving $7,031,039 in grants to GLOBAL WITNESS, 1 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of GLOBAL WITNESS?
- THE JEREMY AND HANNELORE GRANTHAM ENVIRONMENTAL TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $6,850,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like GLOBAL WITNESS find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations. 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 FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 2 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