Virginia · Nonprofit
SUSTAINABILITY MATTERS INC
SUSTAINABILITY MATTERS INC (Virginia) receives grants from 15 organizations whose IRS filings report $699,599 to it, the largest being FOUNDATION TO DECREASE WORLD SUCK ($145,109). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $359k
- Funders on record
- 15
- Grants received
- $700k
- Net assets
- $338k
What Sustainability Matters Inc does
Mission
Sustainability matters cultivates community through conservation. We make sustainability fun, realistic, and inclusive of all.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Environmental education: sustainability matters empowers everyday people to make a real difference for the earth. We provide environmental education both to committed environmentalists and to non-traditional environmental audiences. Our workshops, webinars, and social media education cover a range of environmental topics, including zero-waste practices, the recycling market, green farming practices, residential landscaping alternatives, and sustainable business practices. We grow the next generation through our environmental literacy programs, ecologigals and guardians of the green, at community centers and public schools.
$163,401 spent53% of program spendingConservation programs: through the installation of native meadows and other projects, we transform communities and landscapes, fostering an ecosystem that can support the health of native plants, native wildlife, and humans. Much of our conservation programming is held in partnership with city or county governments and state or federal agencies. Sustainability matters' flagship initiative, making trash bloom, plants native pollinator-friendly meadows at landfills, converting "dead" land into habitat and using it as a springboard for public engagement.
$144,407 spent47% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $307,808.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2021, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2021, 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 $233k to $427k (+83%).
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: 2021 18% · 2022 18% · 2023 14% · 2024 24% · 2025 22%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
94% of SUSTAINABILITY MATTERS INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 5 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.
Board chair
Rachel Lilly
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 9 funders, grant income rose $1k → $193k.
3 of 15 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 19% 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 SUSTAINABILITY MATTERS INC’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
SUSTAINABILITY MATTERS INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 21% 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
65% 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 SUSTAINABILITY MATTERS INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 97% · 2021 38% · 2022 21% · 2023 28% — 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
50% of SUSTAINABILITY MATTERS INC's funders are still giving 2 years after their first grant; 60% 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
SUSTAINABILITY MATTERS INC draws 78% of its grant income from funders outside Virginia, across 9 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $131k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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
SUSTAINABILITY MATTERS INC is better cushioned than half of the 2,433 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,433 environment nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like SUSTAINABILITY MATTERS INC
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 Virginia
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
86% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for SUSTAINABILITY MATTERS INC: 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 SUSTAINABILITY MATTERS INC?
- SUSTAINABILITY MATTERS INC (Virginia) receives grants from 15 organizations whose IRS filings report $699,599 to it, the largest being FOUNDATION TO DECREASE WORLD SUCK ($145,109). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does SUSTAINABILITY MATTERS INC have?
- IRS filings report 15 organizations giving $699,599 in grants to SUSTAINABILITY MATTERS INC, 9 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SUSTAINABILITY MATTERS INC?
- FOUNDATION TO DECREASE WORLD SUCK is the largest funder on record, with $145,109 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SUSTAINABILITY MATTERS INC 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.
Play a game about who funds Sustainability Matters →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2021–2025), and the filings of 15 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