Publications

This second volume of “Tracking the Field” represents a major step forward in our understanding of environmental philanthropy. Building on the findings of the first (2007) volume, this year’s report analyses the grants made by members of the Environmental Grantmakers Association (EGA) with a new level of detail and rigor. It also examines significantly more grants. In so doing, it provides new insights into our collective priorities.

This primer updates a 2005 report by the National Center for Charitable Statistics at the Urban Institute, The Broader Movement: Nonprofit Environmental and Conservation Organizations, 1989–2005. The 2005 report provided the first quantitative investigation of the broader environmental and conservation movement, based on data from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax files. 

This new primer updates this broad analysis of environmental nonprofits to 2008, the latest year for which IRS data is complete.

With all the benefits of solar power and a growing market for renewable energy, why hasn’t there been a stronger push to take advantage of solar energy? Whatever the answer, plenty of opportunities exist for philanthropic initiatives that will advance the solar industry.

Environmental education (EE) aims to create an environmentally literate citizenry, poised and motivated to take action on pressing environmental issues—from climate change to habitat conservation and from endangered species to water scarcity. Environmental education is about engaging students, community members, policy makers, the young and the old. It is about empowerment, skills development, and providing opportunities for action. 

In 2008, EGA published “Confronting the Climate Challenge: Incorporating Climate Change into Your Funding Strategies” that looked at the impacts of climate change, and linkages to current investments in areas such as health care and education. This paper tries to encapsulate the key points discussed at a May 2009 Regional Salon focusing on mitigation and adaption strategies in the south, and aims to become a tool for EGA members interested in learning more about climate change, its impacts to their communities and ways that foundations can become involved. 

This report places U.S. foundation giving for ecotourism in the context of the broader tourism industry, details ecotourism’s promises and challenges, tracks its major sources of funding, and highlights needs and opportunities for interested foundations.

Situated at the intersection of water, energy, and agriculture issues in the Midwest is the rapidly growing field of biofuels. Interest in biofuels has surged along with the call for independence from Middle East oil. Depending on how biofuels are developed and which energy sources are used to manufacture them, growth in this area could bring environmental, economic, and community benefits—or it could place many systems, including freshwater ecosystems, at significant risk. Government policies, private-sector investment, and research priorities are already influencing the development of biofuel industries, and foundations are beginning to identify ways to foster this new energy industry in sustainable ways.

This eighth volume of EGA’s Tracking the Field report dives deeply into the environmental grantmaking landscape as reported in 2021. The report provides unparalleled insights on funding priority shifts between 2017 and 2021 and pandemic-related changes surfacing since 2019. The most notable change, this year, is the increase in environmental grantmaking from 2020 to 2021. Regardless of whether you account only for grantmaking by legacy funders or include for new entrants in the space, 2020 to 2021 showed the largest year-over-year increase in environmental giving in Tracking the Field history. This is a potent signal of what is to come and the reality that climate-scale challenges will require marked increase of resources in the form of capital, relationships and information, all at once.

Tracking the Field: Volume 7 builds on EGA’s ongoing grant research from 2007 to 2018, deepening our understanding of trends and gaps in environmental philanthropy. Tracking the Field: Volume 7 analyzes 128,236 grants totaling more than $14.9 billion between 2007 and 2018. The report breaks down detailed findings by WHERE, HOW and WHAT EGA members fund over the years, with a focus on grant year 2018. The report also includes special analysis on EGA members’ response to COVID-19 and the racial justice movement in 2020.