Grantmakers › District of Columbia
Friends of the Earth
Washington, DC · EIN 23-7420660. Reported 56 grants totalling $2,444,850 to 40 organizations across tax years 2020-2023, 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 Friends of the Earth, by its IRS classification it is an alliance or advocacy organization in environment (NTEE C01).
- How spread out its giving is. 40 distinct organizations, with 49% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is concentrated. Most of the money has a settled destination, and the remainder is what is realistically in play.
- How much its list changes. 44% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is below the 57% median for grantmaking charities, and well below the 67% private foundations manage. A list that turns over this much is one a newcomer can realistically join.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $17,500. Half of what it reported fell between $10,000 and $50,000; the smallest was $5,000 and the largest $300,000. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Friends of the Earth-Action-Inc | Washington, DC | $1,200,000 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| South Ward Environmental Alliance | Newark, NJ | $142,800 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives | Berkeley, CA | $100,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Ironbound Community Corporation | Newark, NJ | $100,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Media Matters for America | Washington, DC | $82,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| West Harlem Environmental Action Inc | New York, NY | $77,000 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors Inc | New York, NY | $75,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Greenlatinos | Boulder, CO | $70,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Namati Inc | Washington, DC | $55,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Environmental Defense Fund Incorporated | New York, NY | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Goodpower Education Fund Inc | Boston, MA | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Union of Concerned Scientists Inc | Cambridge, MA | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Coharie Intra Tribal Inc | Clinton, NC | $25,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Healthy Gulf | New Orleans, LA | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Socially Responsible Agriculture Project Inc | Claymont, DE | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| University of Pittsburgh | Pittsburgh, PA | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs Inc | Calabasas, CA | $22,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Democracy Initiative Education Fund | Washington, DC | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Environmental Advocates Ny Inc | Albany, NY | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Sustainable Markets Foundation | New York, NY | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Chilis on Wheels New York | Island Park, NY | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Delaware Community Benefits Agreement Coalition | New Castle, DE | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| International Accountability Project | Brooklyn, NY | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Nc Climate Justice Summit | Durham, NC | $13,250 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Haliwa-Saponi Indian Tribe | Hollister, NC | $13,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Indigenous Educational Network of Turtle Island | Bemidji, MN | $12,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Rainforest Action Network | San Francisco, CA | $12,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Louisiana Bucket Brigade | New Orleans, LA | $11,800 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Greenfaith | New York, NY | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Honor the Earth | Colstrip, MT | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Ideagarden Institute Incorporated | Healdsburg, CA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Lewis and Clark College | Portland, OR | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Lowcountry Alliance for Modelcommunities | N Charleston, SC | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Sanders Institute | Burlington, VT | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability | Fresno, CA | $8,500 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Maryland Pesticide Education Network | Annapolis, MD | $8,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Southern Vision Alliance | Durham, NC | $8,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Clean Water Fund | Washington, DC | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Meherrin Indian Tribe | Ahoskie, NC | $7,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| MN350 | Minneapolis, MN | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
10 of 40 (25%) received money in more than one year over the 4 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.
- Friends of the Earth (action) Inc
TO ADVANCE PROGRAMS CONSISTENT WITH FOE'S MISSION(RESTRICTED TO 501(C)(3) ALLOWED - Media Matters for America
CONTRIBUTION TO CONDUCT ANALYSIS FOR CLIMATE DISINFORMATION PROJECT - South Ward Environmental Alliance
CONTRIBUTION TO STUDY THE IMPACTS OF POLLUTION FROM THE NEWARK AIRPORT AND NY/NJ PORT IN NEWARK - Ironbound Community Corporation
TO SUPPORT THE WORK TO PREVENT INCERATION FROM RECEIVING TAX CREDITS UNDER THE IRA - Action for the Climate Emergency
TO COORDINATE EFFORTS TO STOP CLIMATE DISINFORMATION. - Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives
TO SUPPORT THE EFFORTS OF THE BUILDING GRASSROOTS POWER PROJECT.
What kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 33 of 40 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 | 9 | $462,850 | $13,250 |
| 2021 | 13 | $491,500 | $15,000 |
| 2022 | 14 | $668,000 | $20,000 |
| 2023 | 20 | $822,500 | $20,000 |
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
56% 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 $17,500 -- 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.
Related guides
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from Friends of the Earth's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2020-2023). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.
On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 19 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 1 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: 1101 15TH Street Nw 11TH Fl 1100, Washington, DC, 20005.
EIN 23-7420660 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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