Massachusetts · Nonprofit
Woodwell Climate Research Center Inc
Woodwell Climate Research Center Inc (Massachusetts) receives grants from 177 organizations whose IRS filings report $77,158,616 to it, the largest being FOUNDATION FOR THE CAROLINAS ($14,120,000). 113 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 61% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $24M
- Funders on record
- 177
- Grants received
- $77M
- Net assets
- $53M
What Woodwell Climate Research Center Inc does
Mission
Woodwell Climate Research Center conducts science for solutions at the nexus of climate, people and nature. We partner with leaders and communities for just, meaningful impact to address the climate crisis.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Policy Relevant Research: Scientific excellence is the foundation for all of Woodwell Climate Research Center's activities, and distinguishes WCRC from other NGOs in the environmental sector. Through a holistic, multidisciplinary, applied, and team-focused approach, we seek to create breakthrough understanding of climate change impacts and solutions, for the purpose of informing sound environmental policies from the local to global scale. WCRC's research is focused on the land-climate connection - how changes in land use effect the climate system; how the changing climate is altering systems on land such as forests, ecosystems and agriculture; and what land-management strategies can harness the power of nature to slow climate change. Most of this research is conducted in the arctic and the tropics-critical regions where natural systems contain disproportionate shares of the planet's biodiversity and stored carbon, but where deforestation, agriculture, fire, and climatic warming place these assets at great risk.
$19,055,668 spentof which $6,183,333 as grants$2,022,832 earned by the program71% of program spendingCenter Funded Science: This category of expenditures represents Woodwell Climate Research Center's commitment to stimulating innovation, investing in future science leaders and investing in our scientific staff by funding projects of our own choosing. Center funded science aims to supplement/extend existing projects, or seed-fund projects that have the potential to have outsized impact in science and policy or which have good potential for return on investment by enabling external funding.
$5,209,583 spent$2,350,000 earned by the program20% of program spendingPolicy Engagement, Education & Communication: Woodwell Climate Research Center has a long and rich history of impacting climate policy processes at multiple levels, and sharing our scientific understanding of climate change with the world through cutting-edge communication and education programs. WCRC builds partnerships with local and national governments, non-governmental and private-sector organizations to implement and measure progress towards national commitments to the Paris agreement. To leave an educational legacy, WCRC offers hands-on experiential programs to train a new generation of climate science leaders. WCRC fosters immersive educational programs that encourage students to link field research with big-picture solutions in the challenging and fast-changing environments where we work.
$2,431,258 spent9% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $26,696,509.
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 $35M to $63M (+80%).
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: 2017 41% · 2018 35% · 2019 33% · 2021 19% · 2022 6% · 2023 13% · 2024 10% · 2025 23%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
78% of Woodwell Climate Research Center Inc’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (52% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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.
Board chair
C Gail Greenwald
Chair (7/1/24-6/6/25)
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 30 funders to 86 funders, grant income rose $2.4M → $16M.
39 of 177 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 61% 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 Woodwell Climate Research Center Inc’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 177 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
Woodwell Climate Research Center Inc has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 18% 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
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 Woodwell Climate Research Center Inc.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 41% · 2018 54% · 2019 25% · 2020 22% · 2021 31% · 2022 34% · 2023 32% — 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
47% of Woodwell Climate Research Center Inc's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 64% 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
61% of Woodwell Climate Research Center 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 $30M that is directly attributable, 87% of it comes from funders outside Massachusetts, across 28 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $47M arriving through sponsors registered in 20 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
Woodwell Climate Research Center Inc is better cushioned than half of the 85 science & tech nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 85 science & tech nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding Woodwell Climate Research Center Inc receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $31.8M on record — $31.2M federal, $603k state.
- National Science Foundation$23.1M
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration$5.9M
- Department of Agriculture$1.8M
- Department of Commerce$250k
- Department of Defense$180k
- Department of Justice$30k
- (NN) INFRASTRUCTURE:$372k
- (PP) STATE AID/POL SUB$144k
- (HH) CONSULTANT SVCS (TO DEPTS)$88k
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 Woodwell Climate Research Center 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 Massachusetts
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
76% 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 38 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Woodwell Climate Research Center 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 Woodwell Climate Research Center Inc?
- Woodwell Climate Research Center Inc (Massachusetts) receives grants from 177 organizations whose IRS filings report $77,158,616 to it, the largest being FOUNDATION FOR THE CAROLINAS ($14,120,000). 113 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 61% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Woodwell Climate Research Center Inc have?
- IRS filings report 177 organizations giving $77,158,616 in grants to Woodwell Climate Research Center Inc, 113 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Woodwell Climate Research Center Inc?
- FOUNDATION FOR THE CAROLINAS is the largest funder on record, with $14,120,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Woodwell Climate Research Center Inc find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Massachusetts. 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 177 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