Vermont · Nonprofit
INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES
INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES (Vermont) receives grants from 53 organizations whose IRS filings report $33,851,615 to it, the largest being FREEDOM TOGETHER FOUNDATION ($13,400,000). 31 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $6.5M
- Funders on record
- 53
- Grants received
- $34M
- Net assets
- $2.8M
What Institute for Sustainable Communities does
Mission
The Institute for Sustainable Communities (isc) is an international, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that brings partners, expertise, and funding to communities that are most vulnerable to climate change and the effect it has on the lives of people in the u.s. And abroad.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
On its FY2024 return the organization reported starting a significant new program.
Jsi research and training institute: rajkot scoping study; greater new orleans foundation: green futures challenge; chanel foundation: resilient communities leadership accelerator; climate adaptation and development; energy foundation: case studies for subnational climate just transitions; epa: environmental justice grant making program ii
Its own explanation, from Schedule O of that return (Part III, line 2).
Isc became one of three national partners for the u.s. Environmental protections agency's (epa) environmental justice thriving communities technical assistance centers (ej tctac) program in the fall of 2023. Ej tctac will increase knowledge, improve operational capacity and assist in the identification of and access to funds for quality of life enhancements through direct engagement with local communities, needs assessment, technical assistance and capacity building, grants, and platforms for community leaders. Program activities include building a technical assistance repository, provision of guidance and notification of funding sources to underserved and under-resourced communities nationwide, and delivering tailored technical assistance workshops.
$1,108,757 spentof which $394,430 as grants$6,500 earned by the program22% of program spendingThe partnership for resilient communities (prc), originally launched in 2019 with financial support from the jpb foundation, is helping to transform the national urban climate resilience field. Prc is building the capacity of 14 black and brown-led community-based organizations (cbos) to develop green infrastructure using clean and renewable energy (like solar) to strengthen their community's capability to be less impacted by and recover from extreme weather events and natural disasters exacerbated by climate change. Isc is providing infrastructure to each participating organization in this intensive capacity-building program in the form of technical assistance and grant funding. The program has created a nationwide network that builds influence for people of color-led cbos while improving the design and the dismantling energy insecurity in communities of color (deicc) began in 2022.
$623,395 spentof which $52,792 as grants$34,000 earned by the program12% of program spendingIsc was named as the eastern national grantmaker, as part of a bifurcated award for passthrough grantmaking activities authorized by caa 138(b). Award grant funds will enable the grantmaker to perform the tasks needed to establish and carry out the proposed participatory governance, outreach, and system mobilization efforts for establishing the collection, review, selection, and distribution of the ej thriving communities subgrants. Through the isc team's extensive experience in grantmaking and providing technical support for equity-centered approaches that build environmental justice outcomes, they will ensure that epa funds under the thriving community grantmaker program are channeled to communities that are most in need to address the health and environmental challenges.
$966,335 spentof which $135,657 as grants19% of program spendingJsi research and training institute: rajkot scoping study; greater new orleans foundation: green futures challenge; chanel foundation: resilient communities leadership accelerator; climate adaptation and development; energy foundation: case studies for subnational climate just transitions, advancing equitable building decarbonization; sustainable supply chain hub
$2,451,887 spentof which $795,064 as grants$554,883 earned by the program48% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $5,150,374.
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 $13M to $7.2M (−46%).
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 55% · 2018 46% · 2019 29% · 2020 33% · 2021 28% · 2022 16% · 2023 49% · 2024 57% · 2025 53%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
89% of INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (97% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 7 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 14 funders to 18 funders, grant income fell $3.1M → $2.8M.
12 of 53 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 16% 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 INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 53 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
INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES leans on a few funders — its largest provides 40% of grant income and the top three 61%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
31% 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 INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 33% · 2018 44% · 2019 56% · 2020 55% · 2021 27% · 2022 48% · 2023 59% — growing more concentrated.
“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 INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 58% 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
INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES draws 99% of its grant income from funders outside Vermont, across 16 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $5.6M arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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
INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES's revenue grew 31% between 2017 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 798 international nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $78.5M on record — $78.5M federal, $50 state.
- Environmental Protection Agency$68.0M
- Agency for International Development$10.5M
- Registration for Meetings&Conf$50
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 INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES
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 Vermont
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
72% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
81%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 3 related entities
- Isc Enterprises L3c · disregarded
- Organization for Sustainable Communities · exempt
- Sustainable Communities India Private Limited · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES: 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 INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES?
- INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES (Vermont) receives grants from 53 organizations whose IRS filings report $33,851,615 to it, the largest being FREEDOM TOGETHER FOUNDATION ($13,400,000). 31 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES have?
- IRS filings report 53 organizations giving $33,851,615 in grants to INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES, 31 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES?
- FREEDOM TOGETHER FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $13,400,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Vermont. 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 53 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