California · Nonprofit
The Climate Center
The Climate Center (California) receives grants from 72 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,314,449 to it, the largest being WALLACE RESEARCH FOUNDATION ($1,200,000). 45 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.7M
- Funders on record
- 72
- Grants received
- $8.3M
- Net assets
- $1.3M
What The Climate Center does
Mission
The Climate Center is a climate and energy policy nonprofit working to rapidly reduce climate pollution at scale, starting in California.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Policy Development & ImplementationThis year, The Climate Center pursued climate policy in California in five main areas: natural carbon sequestration, carbon dioxide removal, defending funding for existing climate priorities in the state budget, divesting state employee pension funds from oil and gas companies, and using the batteries in electric vehicles to provide power to our homes, businesses and the grid when needed.In 2022, The Climate Center co-led a coalition of over 80 organizations to pass a historic natural carbon sequestration law, AB 1757, requiring the state to set ambitious targets for 2030, 2038 and 2045 and to develop other natural climate solutions. We organized a group of environmental and conservation nonprofit organizations to give input into an extensive process led by California Natural Resources Agency, California Air Resources Board and California Department of Food & Agriculture that culminated in setting the actual scientific targets for carbon sequestration across six land types. As a result the state is positioned to over the next 20 years to transform over 50 million acres into healthier, climate-resilient landscapes, spanning farms, ranches,…
$980,337 spent41% of program spendingClimate-Safe California Partnership BuildingFounded in 2001, The Climate Center is a climate and energy policy nonprofit working to rapidly reduce climate pollution at scale, starting in California. We believe in thriving, healthy communities. We envision a future where everyone in California enjoys clean air and water, renewable and reliable energy, healthy food, thriving nature, and more. We believe that as goes California, so goes the world.Our signature campaign, Climate-Safe California, offers a roadmap for climate action in the worlds fifth-largest economy. Climate-Safe California is a set of policies that would enable California to remove more climate pollution from the atmosphere than we emit as soon as possible while creating thousands of jobs and repairing environmental injustices. Climate-Safe California and all of The Climate Centers work is guided by three core principles: follow the latest science, prioritize climate justice, and secure a just transition for workers. Currently, we have over 2,469 total endorsements from nonprofits, businesses, elected officials, cities, counties and other governmental bodies, and individuals. We have also built and engage with…
$743,844 spentof which $59,431 as grants31% of program spendingPublic Outreach & CommunicationThe Climate Center has pursued multiple outreach strategies to educate decision makers and the public about the urgency of the climate crisis and an array of accelerated, equitable solutions that the state can pursue now to address it. The Climate Center hosted the 2024 California Climate Policy Summit on March 19 in Sacramento. We had over 400 people registered with featured speakers including Lauren Sanchez, the Governors Senior Climate Advisor, who spoke about the impact of oil and gas production on frontline communities, and numerous senators and assembly members from the California legislature. This event was followed by The Climate Centers Advocacy Day, during which participants met with 48 legislative offices and discussed critical climate policies. This year we produced nine webinars with more than 2,600 registrants. The webinars covered the science of the climate crisis, the impacts of the fossil fuel economy on local communities, a recap of the accomplishments and unfinished business of the 2023 CA legislative session, the impact of Californias budget deficit on state climate programs, and key climate policy solutions for consideration by…
$681,435 spent$48,369 earned by the program28% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,405,616.
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 2024 to 2025, from $1.1M to $1.6M (+40%).
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 13% · 2022 1% · 2023 4% · 2025 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
98% of The Climate Center’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 8 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
Ellie Cohen
CEO
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 6 funders to 36 funders, grant income rose $101k → $1.5M.
17 of 72 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 35% 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 The Climate Center’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 72 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
The Climate Center has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 14% of grant income, and it takes 6 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 6 funders to its left
52% 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 The Climate Center.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 36% · 2018 32% · 2019 33% · 2020 31% · 2021 32% · 2022 23% · 2023 20% — 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
64% of The Climate Center's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 63% 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
The Climate Center draws 51% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 15 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.9M arriving through sponsors registered in 11 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
The Climate Center has grown faster than three-quarters of the 9,615 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,615 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like The Climate Center
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
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
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for The Climate 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. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds The Climate Center?
- The Climate Center (California) receives grants from 72 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,314,449 to it, the largest being WALLACE RESEARCH FOUNDATION ($1,200,000). 45 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does The Climate Center have?
- IRS filings report 72 organizations giving $8,314,449 in grants to The Climate Center, 45 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of The Climate Center?
- WALLACE RESEARCH FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,200,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like The Climate Center 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 72 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