Grants for land conservation groups

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

1,044 land conservation organizations received at least $136.5 million in grants for the most recent fiscal year. This includes 3,647 grants made from 2,184 grantmaking organizations, with a median grant amount of $1,000. Of these 2,184 foundations, 72% made just a single grant to land protection orgs, and 5% made grants to four or more land protection orgs. This analysis is based on grantmakers that e-file their Form 990s, and likely is an undercount of grants.

$136,506,568

Total grant dollars given to land conservation groups

3,647

Number of grants made annually to land conservation groups

2,184

Number of grantmakers funding land conservation groups

$1,000

Median grant size to land conservation groups

Foundations that support land conservation organizations

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

Foundation size

Foundation size	Number of grantmakers
Small	1,772
Medium	258
Large	154

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	51
Private	1,995
Corporate	81
Other	57

Grants made

Grants made to land protection orgs	Number of grantmakers
1	1,591
2-3	480
4-10	97
11+	16

Top 10 foundations supporting land conservation organizations

Grantmaker	State	Geographic focus	Percent of grant dollars to land protection orgs	Number of grants made to land protection orgs	Median grant size
Seattle Foundation	WA	State	0.1%	92	$1,000
Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines	IA	State	0.1%	51	$559
Shell Oil Company Foundation	TX	National	0.2%	48	$400
The Rhode Island Foundation	RI	Metro	0.2%	43	$1,024
Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee (CFMT)	TN	Metro	0.1%	42	$1,000
Abbvie Foundation	IL	National	0.1%	36	$160
JP Morgan Chase Foundation	NY	National	0.0%	27	$500
Clif Bar Family Foundation	CA	National	2.5%	21	$4,000
Salesforce Com Foundation	CA	National	0.0%	18	$100
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF)	NJ	National	0.0%	15	$1,125

See all grantmaking to land conservation groups

Land conservation organizations grantees

Land conservation groups with more than $5 million in total revenues received 87% of all grant dollars. These larger organizations accounted for 45% of all land protection orgs.

Grant amounts

Size of grant	Number of grants
<$10k	3,626
$10k-$25k	0
$25k-$100k	0
$100k+	21

Grant amount by grantee size

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

Grantee states

State of grantee	Number of grants
Virginia	495
California	329
Massachusetts	318
District of Columbia	284
Other	2,221

Grantee metros

Metro area of grantee	Number of grants
Washington DC	811
New York City	178
Boston	162
San Francisco	137
Other	1,629

Top 25 grants made to land conservation groups

Grantee	Grant size	Purpose	Grantmaker
The Nature Conservancy	$42,482,096	Various Conservation	National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF)
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
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
Stowe Land Trust	$5,002,000	Gen. Purpose	Vermont Community Foundation
The Nature Conservancy	$5,000,000	In Support of A Strategic Alliance With Environmental Defense Fund To Advance Climate Solutions.	John D & Catherine T Macarthur Foundation
The Trust for Public Land	$4,000,000	Delivering the 10-minute Walk Through Campaign Implementation	The JPB Foundation
Windward Fund	$4,000,000	The Fund To Build Grassroots Power	The JPB Foundation
The Nature Conservancy	$3,997,777	To Implement the Agriculture Collaboration for the Forests and Agricultural Markets Initiative.	Gordon E and Betty I Moore Foundation
The Nature Conservancy	$3,650,000	Project Contribution/support	The Trust for Public Land
Save the Redwoods League	$3,566,500	Multi-Region HCP Conserva	National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF)
Maine Farmland Trust	$3,534,278	Farmland Preservation	Maine Community Foundation
The Nature Conservancy	$3,366,400	$1,000,000 To Support the Launch of the Great Green Cities Chicago Plan, $500,000 To Highest Priority Projects, $1,000,000 To Acquire 34 Acres at Point Betsie on Lake Michigan, $500,000 To Support Wetland and Floodplain Work in Il, and Other General Operating Support	The Chicago Community Trust
The Trustees of Reservations	$3,200,000	Public Spaces and Art	Fidelity Non-Profit Management Foundation
Truckee Donner Land Trust	$3,063,178	Conservation Activities	The Nature Conservancy
The Nature Conservancy	$3,000,000	Growing Healthy Cities Across North America	The JPB Foundation
D&R Greenway Land Trust	$2,621,700	General Support	Princeton Area Community Foundation (PACF)
Moab Area Community Land Trust	$2,500,164	Land Preservation	Palladium Foundation
The Walthour - Moss Foundation	$5,000	Unrestricted General	Peter and Nancy Doubleday Foundation
The Walden Woods Project	$5,000	General Exempt Purpose	Rick and Susan Goings Foundation
The Nature Conservancy	$5,000	Land Preservation	Wayne Swanson Charitable Fund
Colorado West Land Trust	$5,000	General Program	Alchemy Charitable Foundation

See all grants to land conservation groups

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 "Land conservation groups" category for this page is determined by the "C34: Land Resources Conservation" National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE) code. Cause IQ determines NTEEs for organizations by its own internally-developed secret-sauce algorithms.