Breakthrough Energy Action Inc
Kirkland, WA · EIN 85-3694865. Reported 120 grants totalling $113.6M to 50 organizations across tax years 2020-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.
Does this grantmaker accept applications?
Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.
Three things in the filing do bear on it:
- What kind of organization it is. For Breakthrough Energy Action Inc, by its IRS classification it is an alliance or advocacy organization in environment (NTEE C01).
- How spread out its giving is. 50 distinct organizations, with 23% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
- How much its list changes. 72% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is well above the 57% median for grantmaking charities, and above the 67% private foundations manage. This list is close to settled, so a newcomer has to displace someone rather than fill a gap.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $400,000. Half of what it reported fell between $200,000 and $950,000; the smallest was $15,000 and the largest $11.0M. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.
Every organization it funded
This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.
| Organization | Location | Total received | Grants | Years funded | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| League of Conservation Voters Inc | Washington, DC | $25.9M | 7 | 4 | 2024 |
| Fund for a Better Future Inc | Sacramento, CA | $16.9M | 5 | 2 | 2022 |
| Clearpath Action for Conservative Clean Energy Inc | Charlotte, NC | $6,730,549 | 4 | 3 | 2024 |
| Future Forward USA Action | Washington, DC | $6,500,000 | 3 | 2 | 2024 |
| Bbt Inc | Washington, DC | $5,250,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Climate Power | Washington, DC | $4,850,000 | 3 | 2 | 2024 |
| Catf Action Inc | Boston, MA | $4,540,231 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Bluegreen Alliance Inc | Minneapolis, MN | $4,042,607 | 5 | 4 | 2024 |
| Third Way | Washington, DC | $3,664,546 | 6 | 4 | 2024 |
| Environmental Defense Action Fund | New York, NY | $3,625,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Clean Energy Buyers Association | Washington, DC | $2,600,275 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| American Council on Renewable Energy-Acore | Washington, DC | $2,585,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions Inc | Washington, DC | $2,258,660 | 6 | 4 | 2023 |
| Nrdc Action Fund Inc | New York, NY | $2,060,275 | 5 | 4 | 2024 |
| Climate Jobs National Resource Center Inc | New York, NY | $2,000,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Bipartisan Policy Center Action Inc | Washington, DC | $1,967,884 | 4 | 3 | 2024 |
| Rainey Center Freedom Project Inc | Washington, DC | $1,870,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Clean Energy for America Inc | Washington, DC | $1,816,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Evergreen Action | Washington, DC | $1,550,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Center for Climate and Energy Solutions Inc | Washington, DC | $1,383,080 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Counterspark Inc | Washington, DC | $1,250,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Nature Conservancy | Arlington, VA | $1,000,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Sierra Club | Oakland, CA | $950,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| National Wildlife Federation Action Fund | Washington, DC | $899,999 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Conservatives for a Clean Energy Future | Lansing, MI | $777,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Potential Energy Action Network Inc | New York, NY | $750,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Clean Energy Grid Action | Washington, DC | $550,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| National Audubon Society Action Fund | Washington, DC | $510,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Clean Power Campaign | Sacramento, CA | $499,066 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Clean Energy Business Network | Washington, DC | $400,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Energy Action Fund | San Francisco, CA | $400,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Low Carbon Fuels Coalition | Bel Tiburon, CA | $314,500 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Research America | Arlington, VA | $303,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Carbon Removal Alliance | Washington, DC | $300,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Center for American Progress Action Fund | Washington, DC | $300,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| In Union USA Action | Washington, DC | $250,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Pew Charitable Trusts | Washington, DC | $250,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Beyond Impact | W Hollywood, CA | $219,500 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Renewable Hydrogen Alliance | Portland, OR | $206,700 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| American Concrete Pavement Association | Rosemont, IL | $200,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Conservative Coalition for Climate Solutions Action Inc | Falls Church, VA | $200,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Electricity Consumers Resource Council | Washington, DC | $175,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Texas Transmission Project | Hudson, WI | $150,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| The Advanced Power Alliance | Austin, TX | $150,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Gen-Z for Change Inc | Washington, DC | $100,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Securing Americas Future Energy Foundation | Washington, DC | $100,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Joseph Rainey Center for Public Policy Incorporated | Washington, DC | $75,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Ohio Environmental Council Action Fund Inc | Columbus, OH | $75,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Texas Geothermal Energy Alliance | Austin, TX | $75,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Alliance for Climate Transition Inc | Somerville, MA | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
27 of 50 (54%) received money in more than one year over the 5 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.
What the money was for
Taken verbatim from the purpose column of its filings, largest first. This is the closest thing to a statement of what it funds, in its own words.
- Fund for a Better Future Dba Climate Power
Federal Clean Energy Investments - American Council on Renewable Energy
SUPPORT FOR MACRO GRID INITIATIVE (MGI) - Climate Power
Climate policy support comms - Clean Air Task Force Action Inc
US CLEAN ENERGY INNOVATION POLICIES - Bluegreen Allliance Inc
Federal Buy Clean/Communications - Bpc Action
Bipartisan Infrastructure/Tax Credits
What kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 31 of 50 recipients we could match to a registered organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants reported | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 1 | $471,528 | $471,528 |
| 2021 | 25 | $33.4M | $475,000 |
| 2022 | 32 | $32.3M | $735,000 |
| 2023 | 29 | $18.0M | $257,341 |
| 2024 | 33 | $29.5M | $250,000 |
Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.
Where its money goes
59% of its giving went to organizations in District of Columbia. Community foundations and federated funds are usually the most geographically bounded funders there are -- being outside the footprint is normally disqualifying in a way that a weak programme fit is not.
Down to the city
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Funders that support the same organizations
These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are the strongest signal available that two funders have overlapping priorities -- and a funder already backing your peers is a far warmer prospect than one that merely lists your cause.
How to approach this grantmaker
- Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
- Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $400,000 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
- Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in District of Columbia.
- Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.
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Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from Breakthrough Energy Action Inc's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 5 returns (tax years 2020-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.
On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 4 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 25 other organizations. That is the filer's own count for one year; the totals above cover every year we hold.
Address of record on the latest return: Po Box 563, Kirkland, WA, 98083.
EIN 85-3694865 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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