Conservation Law Foundation Inc
Boston, MA · EIN 04-6149986. Reported 46 grants totalling $1,645,167 to 34 organizations across tax years 2020-2024, 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 Conservation Law Foundation Inc, by its IRS classification it is an alliance or advocacy organization in environment (NTEE C013).
- How spread out its giving is. 34 distinct organizations, with 20% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
- How much its list changes. 28% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 4 year-to-year transitions. That is below the 56% median for grantmaking charities, and well below the 67% median for private foundations. It describes the organizations it already funds, not whether it would consider a new one.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $21,625. Half of what it reported fell between $12,000 and $50,000; the smallest was $7,500 and the largest $225,000. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Natural Resources Defense Council Inc | New York, NY | $332,261 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| New Hampshire Rivers Council | Concord, NH | $225,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Alternatives for Community and Enviroment Inc | Roxbury, MA | $116,750 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Earthjustice | San Francisco, CA | $111,580 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Racial Environmental Justice Committee | Providence, RI | $69,310 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Groundwork Lawrence Inc | Lawrence, MA | $63,500 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Partners for a Healthier Community Inc | Springfield, MA | $58,750 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Greenroots Inc | Chelsea, MA | $56,250 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Hilltown Community Development | Chesterfield, MA | $51,250 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Act Lawrence Inc | Lawrence, MA | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Coalition for Social Justice Education Fund Inc | New Bedford, MA | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Neighbor to Neighbor Massachusetts Education Fund Inc | Worcester, MA | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Cambridge, MA | $49,976 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Transitmatters Inc | Boston, MA | $34,500 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| New England Community Project Inc | Boston, MA | $30,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois | Urbana, IL | $24,640 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Livable Streets Transportation Alliance of Boston Inc | Cambridge, MA | $23,750 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Environmental Business Council Inc | Needham Hgts, MA | $22,500 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Boston Center for Independent Living Inc | Boston, MA | $22,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts Inc | Chicopee, MA | $21,250 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Preservation Trust of Vermont Inc | Montpelier, VT | $20,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Third Sector New England Inc | Boston, MA | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Massachusetts Public Health Association | Boston, MA | $17,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| City of Holyoke | Holytoke, MA | $13,500 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Slingshot | Boston, MA | $12,850 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Knox Inc | Hartford, CT | $12,500 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Re Green Springfield Inc | Springfield, MA | $12,500 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Walkboston Inc | Boston, MA | $12,250 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Keney Park Sustainability Project Inc | Windsor, CT | $12,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition Incorporated | Boston, MA | $11,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| City of Burlington | Burlington, VT | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| City of New Haven | New Haven, CT | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Partnership for a Healthier Community Inc | Fall River, MA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Hr&a Advisors Inc | New York, NY | $7,800 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
8 of 34 (24%) received money in more than one year over the 5 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.
- Natural Resources Defense Council Inc
NORTHEAST CANYONS AND SEAMOUNTS MARINE NATIONAL MONUMENT AND ANTIQUITIES ACT DEFENSE INITIATIVE AWARD - Alternatives for Community and Environment
IMPACT GRANT & LEADERSHIP SUPPORT - Natural Resources Defense Council
MARINE MONUMENT CONSERVATION - Public Health Institute of Western Ma
IMPACT GRANT, LEADERSHIP SUPPORT & POLICY DEVELOPMENT - Green Roots Inc
IMPACT GRANT, POLICY DEVELOPMENT & LEADERSHIP SUPPORT - Racial Environmental Justice Committee
BREATHE PROVIDENCE PROJECT
What kind of organizations it funds
By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 26 of 34 recipients we could match to a registered organization. The categories are the IRS's, not ours -- 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 | 3 | $100,000 | $27,500 |
| 2021 | 5 | $109,800 | $10,000 |
| 2022 | 12 | $347,236 | $12,500 |
| 2023 | 9 | $473,131 | $17,712 |
| 2024 | 17 | $615,000 | $30,000 |
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
49% of its giving went to organizations in Massachusetts. 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.
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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 a sign of overlapping priorities and nothing more: they do not show that any of these funders would consider a new organization. Each page says what its filings show.
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 $21,625 -- 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 Massachusetts.
- 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 Conservation Law Foundation Inc's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 5 returns (tax years 2020-2024). Grant figures are from its returns. Recipient classifications, the concentration and retention figures and the funders that support the same organizations are our own calculations from them, described in how we build this.
On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 17 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: 62 Summer Street, Boston, MA, 02110.
EIN 04-6149986 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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