Illinois · Nonprofit
GREENER BY DEFAULT
GREENER BY DEFAULT (Illinois) receives grants from 17 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,746,507 to it, the largest being WINDWARD FUND ($700,000). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 62% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $1.7M
- Funders on record
- 17
- Grants received
- $2.7M
- Net assets
- $1.4M
What Greener by Default does
Mission
Greener by Default's mission is to consult with institutions to apply behavioral science to food policy, nudging diners toward sustainable plant-based food while preserving freedom of choice.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
In 2025, we shifted an estimated 6 million meals from meat to plant-based options across our partnerships. We expanded our team to 18 staff members and grew our expertise. One of our key accomplishments was expanding plant-based patient defaults to 400 u.s. Hospitals through our partnership with sodexo. We also launched eight pilot programs at colleges & universities throughout the country and our work expanded into new sectors, including our first partnerships with a financial institution, a convention center, and a professional sports venue. Additionally, we joined billie eilishs hit me hard and soft tour, providing menu support and culinary training at 11 major arenas. During the year, we shared our expertise with over 25,000 professionals through forums such as the aspen ideas summit and the world bank.
$1,626,514 spent$18,025 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,626,514.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2023, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2023, 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 2023 to 2024, from $668k to $1.5M (+119%).
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.
96% of GREENER BY DEFAULT’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (94% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 2 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
Katherine Cantrell
CEO
Board chair
Wei Tai Kwok
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
Grant support over time, funder by funder — shade shows the grant size each year.
7 of 17 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 62% 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 GREENER BY DEFAULT’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
GREENER BY DEFAULT has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 25% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
86% 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 GREENER BY DEFAULT.
“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.
Where its funders are
62% of GREENER BY DEFAULT'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 $1.0M that is directly attributable, 94% of it comes from funders outside Illinois, across 8 states.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.7M arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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
GREENER BY DEFAULT runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 1,130 food & nutrition nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,130 food & nutrition nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like GREENER BY DEFAULT
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 Illinois
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
82% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 8 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for GREENER BY DEFAULT: 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 GREENER BY DEFAULT?
- GREENER BY DEFAULT (Illinois) receives grants from 17 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,746,507 to it, the largest being WINDWARD FUND ($700,000). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 62% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does GREENER BY DEFAULT have?
- IRS filings report 17 organizations giving $2,746,507 in grants to GREENER BY DEFAULT, 5 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of GREENER BY DEFAULT?
- WINDWARD FUND is the largest funder on record, with $700,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like GREENER BY DEFAULT find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Illinois. 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 Greener by Default →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2023–2024), and the filings of 17 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