Grants for environmental organizations

Name: Top 25 grants made to environmental organizations
Creator: Cause IQ
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

5,769 environmental organizations received at least $653.9 million in grants for the most recent fiscal year. This includes 13,802 grants made from 5,618 grantmaking organizations, with a median grant amount of $1,000. Of these 5,618 foundations, 57% made just a single grant to environmental orgs, and 13% made grants to four or more environmental orgs. This analysis is based on grantmakers that e-file their Form 990s, and likely is an undercount of grants.

$653,862,978

Total grant dollars given to environmental organizations

13,802

Number of grants made annually to environmental organizations

5,618

Number of grantmakers funding environmental organizations

$1,000

Median grant size to environmental organizations

Foundations that support environmental organizations

Out of all grants made to environmental organizations, 81% came from small foundations with less than $10 million in assets. The top 10 grantmakers accounted for 70% of the dollar-value of grants to environmental orgs. Foundations funding environmental orgs also made grants to land conservation groups, water and wetland protection organizations, animal shelters, natural resource conservation nonprofits, and environmental education programs.

Foundation size

Foundation size	Number of grantmakers
Small	4,604
Medium	645
Large	369

Small foundations have <$10M in assets. Medium foundations have $10M to $50M in assets. Large foundations have >$50M in assets.

Foundation type

Foundation type	Number of grantmakers
Community	105
Private	4,989
Corporate	225
Other	299

Grants made

Grants made to environmental orgs	Number of grantmakers
1	3,258
2-3	1,585
4-10	670
11+	105

Top 10 foundations supporting environmental organizations

Grantmaker	State	Geographic focus	Percent of grant dollars to environmental orgs	Number of grants made to environmental orgs	Median grant size
Seattle Foundation	WA	State	0.5%	280	$1,000
Shell Oil Company Foundation	TX	National	0.7%	155	$400
JP Morgan Chase Foundation	NY	National	1.3%	142	$311
Clif Bar Family Foundation	CA	National	14.9%	130	$4,000
Abbvie Foundation	IL	National	0.2%	127	$200
Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines	IA	State	0.3%	120	$1,000
The Rhode Island Foundation	RI	Metro	0.4%	110	$1,000
Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee (CFMT)	TN	Metro	0.3%	107	$1,000
Salesforce Com Foundation	CA	National	0.3%	98	$100
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF)	NJ	National	0.0%	77	$500

See all grantmaking to environmental organizations

Environmental organizations grantees

Environmental organizations with more than $5 million in total revenues received 93% of all grant dollars. These larger organizations accounted for 41% of all environmental orgs.

Grant amounts

Size of grant	Number of grants
<$10k	13,727
$10k-$25k	0
$25k-$100k	0
$100k+	75

Grant amount by grantee size

Grantee annual revenue	Median grant size
<$100k	$1,000
$100k-$500k	$1,000
$500k-$1M	$1,500
$1M-$5M	$1,000
>$5M	$1,000

Grantee states

State of grantee	Number of grants
California	1,659
New York	1,465
District of Columbia	1,449
Virginia	804
Other	8,425

Grantee metros

Metro area of grantee	Number of grants
Washington DC	2,126
New York City	1,310
San Francisco	789
Boston	402
Other	7,332

Top 25 grants made to environmental organizations

Grantee	Grant size	Purpose	Grantmaker
Sierra Club	$79,006,516	Environmental Education	Sierra Club Foundation
Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)	$56,250,000	Agricultural Development	Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Walker Basin Conservancy	$47,985,925	FMV	National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF)
The Nature Conservancy	$42,482,096	Various Conservation	National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF)
Sixteen Thirty Fund	$33,013,025	Capacity Building	New Venture Fund
Sixteen Thirty Fund	$33,013,025	Capacity Building	New Venture Fund
The Energy Foundation	$17,000,000	For Energy Foundation Us Program Support	William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)	$15,000,000	Toward the Costs of Implementing Its New Strategic Approach To Inclusive and Integrated Agricultural Transformation in Africa	Rockefeller Foundation
Walker Basin Conservancy	$12,544,151	Cash	National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF)
Walker Basin Conservancy	$12,544,151	Various Conservation	National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF)
The Energy Foundation	$9,780,000	Conservation and Science	David and Lucile Packard Foundation
The Energy Foundation	$8,260,000	For Energy Foundation China	William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
Natural Resources Defense Council	$7,516,450	Daf - Environment	Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston
Sixteen Thirty Fund	$7,342,000	Clean Slate Reform	Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Advocacy
National Audubon Society	$7,100,224	Various Conservation	National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF)
Environmental Defense Fund (EDF)	$7,009,315	Daf - Environment	Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston
The Conservation Fund	$6,664,480	Various Conservation	National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF)
Resources Legacy Fund	$6,655,000	Conservation and Science	David and Lucile Packard Foundation
The Nature Conservancy	$6,378,340	Civil Rights, Social Action, Advocacy	Hopewell Fund
New York Botanical Garden (NYBG)	$6,187,500	Support for Scientific Research, Horticulture and Living Collections, Audience Development, and Visitor Services and To Add To the Recovery and Restoration Fund.	LuEsther T Mertz Charitable Trust
Food and Water Watch	$6,176,750	Environment	Silicon Valley Community Foundation (SVCF)
The Trust for Public Land	$6,012,250	Environment	Silicon Valley Community Foundation (SVCF)
Open Space Institute (OSI)	$5,681,501	Conservation Activities	The Nature Conservancy
Windward Fund	$5,550,000	For the Women and Climate Fund	William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
Sierra Club Foundation	$5,005,010	Daf - Environment	Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston

See all grants to environmental organizations

Methodology: To determine grants and grantees, Cause IQ analyzes electronically-filed Form 990, Form 990-EZ, and Form 990-PF financial disclosure documents, matching grantees to specific organizations using EINs and fuzzy matching logic. The "Environmental organizations" category for this page is determined by the "C00: Environment: General" National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE) code. Cause IQ determines NTEEs for organizations by its own internally-developed secret-sauce algorithms.