Rocky Mountain Institute
Boulder, CO · EIN 74-2244146. Reported 77 grants totalling $19.6M to 54 organizations across tax years 2020-2023, 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. The IRS has no activity classification on file for this one, so we cannot tell you whether it is a community foundation or a single-institution support fund. The recipient list below is the better guide.
- How spread out its giving is. 54 distinct organizations, with 21% 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. 41% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is below the 57% median for grantmaking charities, and well below the 67% private foundations manage. A list that turns over this much is one a newcomer can realistically join.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $100,000. Half of what it reported fell between $44,004 and $215,283; the smallest was $5,000 and the largest $3,937,867. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canary Media Inc | Asheville, NC | $4,187,867 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Mission Possible Partnership USA Inc | Washington, DC | $3,000,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| We Mean Business Coalition Inc | New York, NY | $1,778,687 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Adl Ventures LLC | San Francisco, CA | $1,025,949 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Gistearth LLC | Washington, DC | $815,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Resources Legacy Fund | Sacramento, CA | $800,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Preservation of Affordable Housing Inc | Boston, MA | $750,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| World Resources Institute | Washington, DC | $725,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Association for Energy Affordability Inc | Bronx, NY | $606,343 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Building Decarbonization Coalition | Lewes, DE | $500,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Action for Boston Community Development | Boston, MA | $400,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Spark Northwest | Seattle, WA | $400,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| New Buildings Institute Inc | Portland, OR | $395,375 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| International Council on Clean Transportation | Washington, DC | $350,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| David Baker Architects | San Francisco, CA | $334,558 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Trustees of Columbia University | New York, NY | $330,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Gistearth LLC | Washington, DC | $300,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| American Lung Association | Chicago, IL | $298,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| United States Public Interest Research Group Education Fund | Denver, CO | $298,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Solutions Project Inc | Los Angeles, CA | $200,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Carbon Mapper Inc | Pasadena, CA | $199,895 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Tk Fabricate LLC | Manluis, NY | $146,372 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Vermont Energy Investment Corp | Winooski, VT | $116,158 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| American Council for An Energy Efficient Economy | Washington, DC | $108,333 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| National Housing Trust | Washington, DC | $108,333 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Transaera Inc | Somerville, MA | $100,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| United Nations Foundation Inc | Washington, DC | $100,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| The Regents of the University of California | Davis, CA | $94,228 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Passive House Institute US Inc | Chicago, IL | $93,390 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Community Development Corporation of Php Nfp | Hopkins Park, IL | $90,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Integral Group Inc | Oakland, CA | $89,132 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Community Initiatives | Oakland, CA | $75,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Colorado School of Mines | Golden, CO | $75,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| St Paul Transportation Management Organization | Saint Paul, MN | $75,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| NAACP Co Mt Wy State Conference | Aurora, CO | $70,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Southern Environmental Law Center | Charlottesville, VA | $60,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Brookings Institution | Washington, DC | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Energy Efficiency Business Coalition | Denver, CO | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Georgetown University | Washington, DC | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Patillas Farmacia Jomari | Rivera, PA | $49,800 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Open Market Esco LLC | Boston, MA | $44,004 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Signetron Inc | Berkeley, CA | $40,419 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Strong Towns | Brainerd, MN | $40,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Rdh Building Science Inc | Seattle, WA | $36,264 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Philadelphia Green Capital Corp | Philadelphia, PA | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Hua Nani Partners LLC | Kailua, HI | $18,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| American Thoracic Society Inc | New York, NY | $15,800 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Main South Community Development Corporation | Worcester, MA | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| American National Red Cross | Washington, DC | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Eco Infinity Nation LLC | Seattle, WA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| People for Community Recovery | Chicago, IL | $8,600 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Environmental Leadership Program | Washington, DC | $5,500 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Americans for a Clean Energy Grid | Washington, DC | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Give Foundation Inc | Dublin, CA | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
21 of 54 (39%) received money in more than one year over the 4 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.
- Mission Possible Partnership
SUPPORT FORMER RELATED ENTITY - Gistearth LLC
TO COMPLETE THREE STUDIES INVOLVING CARBON INTELLIGENT CITIES, F-GAS AND LANDFILLS - Canary Media
ASSISTANCE TO HELP CANARY MEDIA BEGIN OPERATIONS - International Council on Clean Transportation
SUPPORT THE ACCELERATION OF TRANSPORT DECARBONISATION IN INDIA - Transaera Inc
INCENTIVIZE THE DEVELOPMENT OF A RESIDENTIAL COOLING SOLUTION THAT WILL HAVE AT LEAST FIVE TIMES LOWER CLIMATE IMPACT THAN THE STANDARD ROOM AC UNITS SOLD ON THE MARKET TODAY - Community Development Corporation of Pembroke Hopkins Park
ESTABLISH A BENEFICIAL ELECTRIFICATION DEMONSTRATION PROJECT WITH BUILDING DECARBONIZATION IMPROVEMENTS TO BE INSTALLED IN APPROXIMATELY FIVE HOMES IN PEMBROKE TOWNSHIP, ILLINOIS
What kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 35 of 54 recipients we could match to a registered organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses -- 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 | 8 | $1,445,500 | $77,500 |
| 2021 | 17 | $3,325,462 | $49,800 |
| 2022 | 25 | $4,965,957 | $108,333 |
| 2023 | 27 | $9,837,088 | $93,512 |
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
29% of its giving went to organizations in District of Columbia. 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 the strongest signal available that two funders have overlapping priorities -- and a funder already backing your peers is a far warmer prospect than one that merely lists your cause.
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 $100,000 -- 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 District of Columbia.
- 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.
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Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from Rocky Mountain Institute's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2020-2023). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.
On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 20 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 8 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: 2490 Junction Place 200, Boulder, CO, 80301.
EIN 74-2244146 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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