Grantmakers › Massachusetts

Woodwell Climate Research Center Inc

Falmouth, MA · EIN 04-3005094. Reported 97 grants totalling $14.6M to 41 organizations across tax years 2020-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.

41organizations funded
$48,505median reported grant
$14.6Mgranted, 2020-2024
70%of grantees funded again the next year
30%of dollars to its largest recipient

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:

  1. What kind of organization it is. For Woodwell Climate Research Center Inc, the IRS classifies it under science & technology rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE U300) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
  2. How spread out its giving is. 41 distinct organizations, with 30% 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.
  3. How much its list changes. 70% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 4 year-to-year transitions. That is about the 56% median for grantmaking charities -- lower than 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 $48,505. Half of what it reported fell between $20,104 and $153,316; the smallest was $5,602 and the largest $1,554,963. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.

Schedule I only reports grants over $5,000. Form 990 requires a charity to list recipients it paid more than that and lets it omit the rest, so every grant-size figure on this page describes the grants it reported, not all of them. Its real median is lower and its real recipient count is higher. This is also why these numbers cannot be compared with the private-foundation figures elsewhere on this site -- Form 990-PF has no reporting floor, so the two are different populations rather than two samples of one.
$5,000 - $10,000
10 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
18 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
21 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
18 grants
$100,000 - $250,000
13 grants
$250,000 Or More
17 grants

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.

OrganizationLocationTotal receivedGrantsYears fundedLast
Alaska Institute for JusticeAnchorage, AK$4,430,618442024
University of AlaskaFairbanks, AK$1,933,041542024
President and Fellows of Harvard CollegeCambridge, MA$1,720,047442024
University of California Santa BarbaraSanta Barbara, CA$716,925222024
University of ConnecticutStorrs, CT$628,741112024
Arizona State UniversityTempe, AZ$552,664222024
The Board of Trustees of the University of IllinoisUrbana, IL$485,582222024
University of MarylandCollege Park, MD$387,677332024
Buzzards Bay Coalition IncNew Bedford, MA$324,940442024
Colorado State UniversityFort Collins, CO$306,322552024
Northeastern UniversityBoston, MA$293,854542023
Trustees of Columbia UniversityNew York, NY$238,179322024
University of ConnecticutStorrs, CT$213,138112023
Yale UniversityNew Haven, CT$203,703222024
Resources Legacy FundSacramento, CA$200,000112024
Woods Hole Oceanographic InstitutionWoods Hole, MA$179,023222024
World Wildlife Fund IncWashington, DC$150,478112024
Bryn Mawr CollegeBryn Mawr, PA$145,711442023
University of FloridaGainesville, FL$141,559442024
Council on Strategic RisksWashington, DC$138,180442023
University of Massachusetts AmherstAmherst, MA$134,227222024
Trustees of Tufts CollegeMedford, MA$114,984332023
Regents of the University of California at IrvineIrvine, CA$108,078332024
The College of William & MaryWilliamsburg, VA$107,097332023
Rainforest Foundation IncBrooklyn, NY$100,000112024
International Cryosphere Climate InitiativePawlet, VT$89,000222023
Kachemak Bay Conservation SocietyHomer, AK$72,716332022
Battelle Memorial InstituteColumbus, OH$71,386112021
Alaska Pacific UniversityAnchorage, AK$67,588332024
Geohazards InternationalPleasanton, CA$64,703332023
Regents of the University of MichiganAnn Arbor, MI$59,562112020
National Institute of Aerospace AssociatesHampton, VA$54,400332022
Montana State UniversityBozeman, MT$48,559222021
Board of the University of AlabamaTuscaloosa, AL$33,543112024
Alaska Native Tribal Health ConsortiumAnchorage, AK$31,466112023
Orutsararmiut Native Council (onc)Bethel, AK$24,999112024
Cornell UniversityIthaca, NY$20,104112020
Mass General Brigham IncorporatedSomerville, MA$16,227112020
Macalester CollegeSaint Paul, MN$13,650112024
Dept of the Interior UsgsReston, VA$11,890112022
Northern Arizona University Fdn IncFlagstaff, AZ$6,288112022

26 of 41 (63%) 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 kind of organizations it funds

By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 25 of 41 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.

Education
11 orgs
Environment
4 orgs
Science & Technology
4 orgs
Health Care
3 orgs
Human Services
1 org
Public & Societal Benefit
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
202014$472,052$25,914
202115$995,076$36,308
202219$2,674,422$37,982
202324$4,803,536$56,414
202425$5,695,763$150,478

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

45% of its giving went to organizations in Alaska. 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.

Alaska
$6.6M
Massachusetts
$2.8M
California
$1.1M
Connecticut
$1.0M
Arizona
$559K
Illinois
$486K
Maryland
$388K
New York
$358K

Down to the city

Anchorage, AK
$4.5M
Fairbanks, AK
$1.9M
Cambridge, MA
$1.7M
Storrs, CT
$842K
Santa Barbara, CA
$717K
Tempe, AZ
$553K

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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.

Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund12 shared recipientsDonor Advised Charitable Giving Inc11 shared recipientsNational Philanthropic Trust10 shared recipientsNational Fish and Wildlife Foundation10 shared recipientsJohns Hopkins University10 shared recipientsVanguard Charitable Endowment Program10 shared recipients

How to approach this grantmaker

  1. 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.
  2. Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $48,505 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
  3. Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Alaska.
  4. 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

Foundations funding education in MassachusettsEvery funder in this group

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from Woodwell Climate Research Center 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 25 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 0 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: 149 Woods Hole Road, Falmouth, MA, 02540.

EIN 04-3005094 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

This is history, not an open call. Form 990 is published about a year after the tax year it covers. Nothing on this page is a deadline. It is a record of who this organization has actually funded.

Is something here wrong about your organization? Email [email protected] and we will correct it.