Grants for water and wetland protection organizations

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

1,004 water quality and wetland conservation organizations received at least $123.7 million in grants for the most recent fiscal year. This includes 3,009 grants made from 1,828 grantmaking organizations, with a median grant amount of $1,000. Of these 1,828 foundations, 73% made just a single grant to water nonprofits, and 4% made grants to four or more water nonprofits. This analysis is based on grantmakers that e-file their Form 990s, and likely is an undercount of grants.

$123,735,851

Total grant dollars given to water and wetland protection organizations

3,009

Number of grants made annually to water and wetland protection organizations

1,828

Number of grantmakers funding water and wetland protection organizations

$1,000

Median grant size to water and wetland protection organizations

Foundations that support water quality and wetland conservation organizations

Out of all grants made to water and wetland protection organizations, 81% came from small foundations with less than $10 million in assets. The top 10 grantmakers accounted for 95% of the dollar-value of grants to water nonprofits. Foundations funding water nonprofits also made grants to environmental education programs, natural resource conservation nonprofits, land conservation groups, animal shelters, and international humanitarian organizations.

Foundation size

Foundation size	Number of grantmakers
Small	1,493
Medium	203
Large	132

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	39
Private	1,634
Corporate	96
Other	59

Grants made

Grants made to water nonprofits	Number of grantmakers
1	1,348
2-3	399
4-10	63
11+	18

Top 10 foundations supporting water quality and wetland conservation organizations

Grantmaker	State	Geographic focus	Percent of grant dollars to water nonprofits	Number of grants made to water nonprofits	Median grant size
The Rhode Island Foundation	RI	Metro	0.2%	53	$1,000
Seattle Foundation	WA	State	0.1%	44	$1,750
Clif Bar Family Foundation	CA	National	4.4%	39	$3,500
Shell Oil Company Foundation	TX	National	0.2%	37	$400
Salesforce Com Foundation	CA	National	0.1%	33	$50
JP Morgan Chase Foundation	NY	National	0.0%	33	$225
Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee (CFMT)	TN	Metro	0.1%	30	$1,000
Abbvie Foundation	IL	National	0.0%	28	$250
Westrock Foundation	GA	National	0.0%	26	$36
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF)	NJ	National	0.0%	21	$250

See all grantmaking to water and wetland protection organizations

Water quality and wetland conservation organizations grantees

Water and wetland protection organizations with more than $5 million in total revenues received 93% of all grant dollars. These larger organizations accounted for 43% of all water nonprofits.

Grant amounts

Size of grant	Number of grants
<$10k	2,994
$10k-$25k	0
$25k-$100k	0
$100k+	15

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
District of Columbia	571
California	358
New York	331
Maryland	154
Other	1,595

Grantee metros

Metro area of grantee	Number of grants
Washington DC	596
New York City	277
San Francisco	142
Baltimore	135
Other	1,486

Top 25 grants made to water and wetland protection organizations

Grantee	Grant size	Purpose	Grantmaker
Walker Basin Conservancy	$47,985,925	FMV	National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF)
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)
Environmental Defense Fund (EDF)	$7,009,315	Daf - Environment	Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston
Renew Oceans	$5,000,000	Project Grants	Alliance To End Plastic Waste
World Wildlife Fund (WWF)	$4,962,640	Project Support	Tides Foundation
Environmental Defense Fund (EDF)	$4,221,250	Environment - Clean Energy	Catena Foundation
Ocean Conservancy	$3,649,531	To Protect the Ecological Gems of the U.s. Bering and Chukchi Seas and Secure An Ecosystem-Based Management Regime From the Aleutian Islands To the Central Arctic Ocean That Prevents Unsustainable Impacts of Increased Shipping and Fishing.	Gordon E and Betty I Moore Foundation
World Wildlife Fund (WWF)	$3,591,885	To Achieve the Financial Sustainability of 16.7 Million Hectares of National-Level Amazon Protected Areas in Peru.	Gordon E and Betty I Moore Foundation
World Wildlife Fund (WWF)	$3,235,475	To Implement the Agriculture Collaboration for the Forests and Agricultural Markets Initiative.	Gordon E and Betty I Moore Foundation
Environmental Defense Fund (EDF)	$2,884,500	To Provide Policymakers With Thoughtful Educational Resources and Opportunities for Dialogue in Support of Solutions To Address Climate and Clean Energy Development and Other Public Policies That Will Accelerate Energy Innovation in America.	Clean Future Forum
Coastal Bend Bays & Estuaries Program (CBBEP)	$2,828,784	Various Conservation	National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF)
Dauphin Island Sea Lab (DISL)	$2,769,479	Various Conservation	National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF)
Environmental Defense Fund (EDF)	$2,587,800	To Support Methanesat	The Chicago Community Trust
World Wildlife Fund (WWF)	$2,500,000	Conserving the Amazon: Arpa for Life	Margaret A Cargill Philanthropies (MACP)
Urban Rivers	$5,000	Wild Mile Stem Educational	The A Montgomery Ward Foundation
Wilderness Watch	$5,000	Charitable Donation	Liatis Foundation
Surfrider Foundation	$5,000	Environmental Support	Laurence C Gaebe Family Foundation Incorporated
The Peregrine Fund	$5,000	Community	The Kayser Family Foundation
Safe Water Network	$5,000	General Use	The Ryan Family Foundation
Chesapeake Bay Foundation	$5,000	Oyster Restoration Project	Joshua P. and Elizabeth D. Darden Foundation
Friends of the River Foundation	$5,000	Unrestricted	Peter M and Barbara A Macdonald Charitable Foundation
Idaho Rivers United	$5,000	Unrestricted	Christensen Family Foundation / Christensen Douglas M & Ann L Ttees
The Henrys Fork Foundation	$5,000	Education Donation	Voigt Foundation
Friends of Casco Bay	$5,000	$3,000 Is for General Operating Support and $2,000 Is A Contribution To the Current Capital Campaign	Robert W and Gladys S Meserve Char Trust Hemenway and Barnes LLP

See all grants to water and wetland protection 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 "Water and wetland protection organizations" category for this page is determined by the "C32: Water Resource, Wetlands Conservation and Management" National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE) code. Cause IQ determines NTEEs for organizations by its own internally-developed secret-sauce algorithms.