America’s Largest Environment Non-Profits, led by some familiar names

The role of grants and donations to environmental groups cannot be overstated. Groups like The Nature Conservancy, World Wildlife Fund (WWF), and the Sierra Club could not operate without them.

Interestingly, many of the non-profits that fund these groups are foundations created by individuals or their families. We focused solely on organizations that give primarily to environmental causes. However, some of the world’s largest grantmakers include environmental giving as just part of a much broader portfolio of projects.

At or near the top of this list are Jeff Bezos, the founders of the tech company Hewlett-Packard, and the charitable foundation of Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google. This illustrates how family foundations play an outsized role in non-profit giving across the entire sector.

We based our selections on annual gifts. This data came primarily from Inside Philanthropy, Influence Watch, ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer, and Candid/Foundation Directory Online. In most cases, we have linked to each organization’s Form 990. The data reflects the most recent year available; since some of this information isn’t publicly collected until a full year after annual filings, some figures are from 2024.