Virginia · Nonprofit
SOUTHERN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW CENTER
SOUTHERN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW CENTER (Virginia) receives grants from 316 organizations whose IRS filings report $301,151,428 to it, the largest being FOUNDATION FOR THE CAROLINAS ($221,683,800). 221 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 83% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
Three funders worth looking at
Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.
- Climateworks Foundationshared funders
- Deer Creek Foundationportfolio match
- Arlene & Arnold Goldstein Charitable Trustportfolio match
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.
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.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 64 funders to 176 funders, grant income rose $34M → $42M.
58 of 316 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 83% 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 SOUTHERN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW CENTER’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 316 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
SOUTHERN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW CENTER leans on a few funders — its largest provides 74% of grant income and the top three 78%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder 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 SOUTHERN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW CENTER.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 91% · 2018 85% · 2019 77% · 2020 67% · 2021 80% · 2022 66% · 2023 70% — 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
65% of SOUTHERN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW CENTER's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 70% 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
83% of SOUTHERN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW CENTER'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 $52M that is directly attributable, 91% of it comes from funders outside Virginia, across 35 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $249M arriving through sponsors registered in 24 statesis 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.
Funders to approach
Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 316 funders put you typical among the 400 organizations that share them.
- Climateworks Foundationshared fundersCA · backs 79 organizations that share your funders
- Deer Creek Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Arlene & Arnold Goldstein Charitable Trustportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Artistic Resources in Action Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Clean Air Task Force Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- 444s Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Cosman Family Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Park Foundation Incshared fundersNY · backs 94 organizations that share your funders
- Environmental Defense Fund Incorporatedshared fundersNY · backs 80 organizations that share your funders
- American Council of Learned Societiesshared fundersNY · backs 65 organizations that share your funders
- Tisbest Philanthropyshared fundersWA · backs 110 organizations that share your funders
- The Heising-Simons Foundationshared fundersCA · backs 95 organizations that share your funders
From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.
Organizations like SOUTHERN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW CENTER
Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Virginia
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
83% 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 26 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for SOUTHERN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW CENTER: 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. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds SOUTHERN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW CENTER?
- SOUTHERN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW CENTER (Virginia) receives grants from 316 organizations whose IRS filings report $301,151,428 to it, the largest being FOUNDATION FOR THE CAROLINAS ($221,683,800). 221 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 83% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does SOUTHERN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW CENTER have?
- IRS filings report 316 organizations giving $301,151,428 in grants to SOUTHERN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW CENTER, 221 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SOUTHERN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW CENTER?
- FOUNDATION FOR THE CAROLINAS is the largest funder on record, with $221,683,800 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SOUTHERN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW CENTER find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Virginia. 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 316funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing