New York · Nonprofit
The Sustainability Laboratory Inc
The Sustainability Laboratory Inc (New York) receives grants from 17 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,343,776 to it, the largest being JEWISH COMMUNAL FUND ($2,241,000). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 82% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $547k
- Funders on record
- 17
- Grants received
- $3.3M
- Net assets
- $248k
What The Sustainability Laboratory Inc does
Mission
To act as a catalyst for accelerating the transition of worlds society and its economy to a sustainable basis by researching, developing, demonstrating and facilitating adoption of breakthrough sustainability practices, thereby expanding prospects, and producing positive, life-affirming impacts on people and ecosystems in all parts of the world.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Project Wadi Attir is a groundbreaking initiative of a Bedouin community in the Negev desert, establishing a model sustainable farm that leverages Bedouin traditional values, know-how and experience with The Sustainability Laboratorys signature approach to development.
$688,371 spent100% of program spendingGSF (Global Sustainability Fellows) inspires, informs, and mobilizes future generations of leaders and integrates a rigorous theorectical orientation with experience-based learning, international exposure, and cross-discipline work. The program imparts the core competencies required to effectively tackle urgent sustainability challenges on a local, regional, and planetary scale.
The 2 programs described on its FY2022 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $688,371.
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 $260k to $387k (+49%).
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.
100% of The Sustainability Laboratory Inc’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base held at 6 funders, grant income rose $555k → $655k.
6 of 17 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 82% 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 Sustainability Laboratory 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
The Sustainability Laboratory Inc leans on a few funders — its largest provides 67% of grant income and the top three 82%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
82% 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 Sustainability Laboratory Inc.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 50% · 2018 89% · 2019 43% · 2020 27% · 2021 79% · 2022 74% · 2023 83% — 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
47% of The Sustainability Laboratory Inc's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 71% 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
82% of The Sustainability Laboratory Inc'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 $608k that is directly attributable, 79% of it comes from funders outside New York, across 4 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.7M arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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 Sustainability Laboratory Inc's revenue fell 56% between 2017 and 2024.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 4,264 environment nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like The Sustainability Laboratory 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 New York
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
92% 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 The Sustainability Laboratory 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 The Sustainability Laboratory Inc?
- The Sustainability Laboratory Inc (New York) receives grants from 17 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,343,776 to it, the largest being JEWISH COMMUNAL FUND ($2,241,000). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 82% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does The Sustainability Laboratory Inc have?
- IRS filings report 17 organizations giving $3,343,776 in grants to The Sustainability Laboratory Inc, 12 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of The Sustainability Laboratory Inc?
- JEWISH COMMUNAL FUND is the largest funder on record, with $2,241,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like The Sustainability Laboratory Inc find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New York. 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 Laboratory →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 17 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