California · Nonprofit
SIERRA CLUB FOUNDATION
SIERRA CLUB FOUNDATION (California) receives grants from 968 organizations whose IRS filings report $467,483,003 to it, the largest being CLIMATE IMPERATIVE FOUNDATION ($67,762,000). 592 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $32M
- Funders on record
- 968
- Grants received
- $467M
- Net assets
- $165M
What Sierra Club Foundation does
Mission
See schedule o.the Sierra Club Foundation promotes efforts to educate and empower people to protect and improve the natural and human environment.goals: - solve the climate crisis primarily through a successful transition to a resource-efficient clean energy economy that better serves people and nature;- secure protections for public lands and waters, promote healthy ecosystems and communities, and fight for clean air and water;- expand opportunities for more people to explore, enjoy, and protect the planet by supporting programs and policies that reach across economic, cultural, and community lines to get people outdoors; and- build a diverse, inclusive environmental movement that reflects and represents today's american public, and prioritizes important connections between environmental health and social justice.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Chapter and group education project - this project supports the state and local chapters and groups of the sierra club in their work to advance all of the sierra club's strategic framework goals through public education, organizing, administrative advocacy, communications, litigation, and other charitable activities. The specific goals are to enable local grassroots activists across the country to actively engage in their own communities; design and implement conservation campaigns to protect the natural and human environment; inform the public and members and supporters about environmental issues of local interest; engage in public interest lawsuits; and grow a broader base of volunteers and leaders contributing to community-inspired and-led programming, including to increase opportunities for youth, children, and families to develop and enhance personal connections to nature.
$11,621,706 spentof which $11,621,706 as grants26% of program spendingBeyond coal - the long-term goal of this program is to reverse the social, economic, and environmental damage caused by global climate change by decarbonizing the electric grid by 80 percent by 2030. The program's specific goals - working in partnership with allied organizations - are to help transition aging and uneconomic coal plants towards cleaner altenatives that also benefit the local community.
$8,614,895 spentof which $8,614,895 as grants19% of program spendingNational education project - this project educates, engages, and mobilizes the public in administrative advocacy about a range of environmental issues to advance the sierra club's strategic framework; provides program, operations, and management support to implement the charitable projects of the sierra club; and works in coalition and in partnership with local communities and groups to advance outcomes at the intersection of climate, social, and racial justice. It is a project through which the Sierra Club Foundation works to achieve its mission to educate and empower people to protect and improve the natural and human environment.
$5,212,368 spentof which $5,212,368 as grants12% of program spendingThe Sierra Club Foundation provides a broad range of additional grants to support charitable, education, scientific, literary and legal endeavors that further its charitable mission.
$19,170,632 spentof which $18,933,423 as grants43% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $44,619,601.
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 $273M to $208M (−24%).
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.
92% of SIERRA CLUB FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (87% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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.
Chief executive
Dan Chu
Executive director
Board chair
Robin Mann
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 266 funders to 368 funders, grant income rose $44M → $63M.
154 of 968 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 38% 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 SIERRA CLUB FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 968 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
SIERRA CLUB FOUNDATION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 14% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
61% 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 SIERRA CLUB FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 34% · 2018 24% · 2019 11% · 2020 35% · 2021 26% · 2022 21% · 2023 40% — 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
44% of SIERRA CLUB FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 61% 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
51% of SIERRA CLUB FOUNDATION's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $177M arriving through sponsors registered in 38 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
SIERRA CLUB FOUNDATION's funding base is broadening — from 266 funders to 368 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 210 environment nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding SIERRA CLUB FOUNDATION receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $10k on record.
- Pass thru Grant Non-State$10k
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 SIERRA CLUB FOUNDATION
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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
84% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
92%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 31 states
Part of a family of 3 related entities
- Charitable Remainder Trusts (33) · corp_trust
- Pooled Income Funds (2) · corp_trust
- Gift Annuity Pools (1) · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for SIERRA CLUB FOUNDATION: 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 SIERRA CLUB FOUNDATION?
- SIERRA CLUB FOUNDATION (California) receives grants from 968 organizations whose IRS filings report $467,483,003 to it, the largest being CLIMATE IMPERATIVE FOUNDATION ($67,762,000). 592 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does SIERRA CLUB FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 968 organizations giving $467,483,003 in grants to SIERRA CLUB FOUNDATION, 592 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SIERRA CLUB FOUNDATION?
- CLIMATE IMPERATIVE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $67,762,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SIERRA CLUB FOUNDATION find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. 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 968 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