Washington · Nonprofit
Zero Waste Washington
Zero Waste Washington (Washington) receives grants from 30 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,995,281 to it, the largest being LIBERTY HILL FOUNDATION ($650,000). 18 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 52% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $1.3M
- Funders on record
- 30
- Grants received
- $3.0M
- Net assets
- $1.9M
What Zero Waste Washington does
Mission
Zero Waste Washington drives policy change for a healthy and waste free world. We envision a just, equitable, and sustainable future where we all produce, consume, and reuse responsibly. We are the publics voice for zero waste. We educate the public and decision makers about waste prevention, recycling, toxic pollution and producer responsibility.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Building the Movement, Community programs and Communications Zero Waste Washington partners with many community organizations to provide programming to encourage recycling, reduce waste and support a circular economy, and to support reuse of items . Our Furniture Repair Bank project began to process to spin off into a new nonprofit In this innovative program, damaged furniture that is on the path to the landfill, is rescued. Volunteers repair and restore the furniture which is delivered to families in need, free of charge. In partnership with Seattle Good Business Network, we hosted a series of PreCycle materials exchange forums around the state, where local business and organizations connected to learn about waste and byproduct materials that can be exchanged. This is the classic situation of one persons trash is anothers treasure. Statewide, we delivered presentations to bolster the growing zero waste movement both through individual and collective actions, as well as policy solutions. We regularly communicated with our members and others through newsletters and social media.
$370,362 spent47% of program spendingState and Local Policy In 2024, Zero Waste Washington worked with partners and hundreds of Washington residents to support more than 15 zero waste-related bills. Six passed into law. A second major food and yard waste bill the 1st one passed in 2022 mandates that single-family residents in urbanized areas of Washington must put their food and yard waste in curbside compost bins or do their own composting by 2030. The bill also establishes grant programs to facilitate recovery of surplus food so that food is getting to hungry people, rather than being landfilled or composted. The new law helps Washington achieve its goals to divert organic material from landfills so that we can reduce the generation of methane gas at landfills. Other bills banned mercury-containing lightbulbs, allowed for composting of cannabis waste rather than sending to the landfill, banned lead in cookware, addressed toxic 6PPD in tires, and reduced illegal dumping impacts. We served on the WA Solid Waste Advisory Committee and other committees and provided important environmental policy recommendations.
$202,994 spent26% of program spendingPlastic Pollution and Toxic Chemical Reduction Zero Waste Washington works to prevent plastic pollution, strengthen recycling, and reduce toxic chemicals, while providing research and policy recommendations to local communities and state legislators. In 2024, we launched a project to help farmers reduce their plastic waste burden. Managing plastic waste presents substantial challenges for farmers because of limited recycling options and the lack of sustainable disposal methods. We interviewed 59 farmers across 14 counties to inform four pilot projects planned for 2025 to test ways to reduce plastic waste. In addition, we concluded our project providing mini-grants to King County restaurants and coffee shops to fund their switch from single-use disposables to durable, reusables plates, cups, glasses and cutlery. In collaboration with the Duwamish River Community Coalition, we launched a project to bring water refill stations to Mt Rainier National Park. And we started a project to provide bulk milk dispensers at King Co schools to replace milk cartons which are not recyclable.
$170,294 spent21% of program spendingProgram Service Expenses 50,426, Grants and allocations 0, Revenue 0 Research to Support Zero Waste Zero Waste Washington conducts scientific and technical research on waste to support important policy decisions. In 2024, we collaborated with community groups to assess the types and weight of plastic and other litter making its way from land to our waterways, ultimately creating microplastics. We documented that plastic items make up most of the litter found. These studies will enable us to provide evidence to the EPA regarding the need for designating plastics as a pollutant under the Clean Water Act. We worked to support Duwamish Valley Youth Corps cadets as they built their job skills and conducted research related to messaging about toxic chemicals in household products. This messaging will help our effort, working with local jurisdictions and other partners, to conduct swap-out events providing replacement items for specific household products containing flame retardants, lead, cadmium, PFAS, or phthalate plasticizers in 2025-27. We worked on toxic chemical reduction policies in partnership with New Americans Alliance for Policy and Research.
$50,426 spent6% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $794,076.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2020 to 2021, from $498k to $990k (+99%).
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: 2020 32% · 2021 21% · 2022 49% · 2023 31% · 2024 39%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
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
Kyle Loring
Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 12 funders, grant income rose $75k → $367k.
11 of 30 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 52% 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 Zero Waste Washington’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
Zero Waste Washington has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 22% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
81% 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 Zero Waste Washington.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 47% · 2018 54% · 2019 43% · 2020 29% · 2021 48% · 2022 33% · 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
37% of Zero Waste Washington's funders are still giving 3 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
52% of Zero Waste Washington'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 $1.4M that is directly attributable, 50% of it comes from Washington funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.6M arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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.
Government funding Zero Waste Washington receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $98k on record.
- Department of Commerce$98k
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 Zero Waste Washington
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 Washington
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
90% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
78%
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 Zero Waste Washington: 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 Zero Waste Washington?
- Zero Waste Washington (Washington) receives grants from 30 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,995,281 to it, the largest being LIBERTY HILL FOUNDATION ($650,000). 18 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 52% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Zero Waste Washington have?
- IRS filings report 30 organizations giving $2,995,281 in grants to Zero Waste Washington, 18 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Zero Waste Washington?
- LIBERTY HILL FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $650,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Zero Waste Washington find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington. 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 Zero Waste Washington →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2020–2024), and the filings of 30 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