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Giving Green 2024 annual impact report
- Giving Green
- 5 days ago
- 10 min read
Table of contents
1.Introduction
In 2024, Giving Green’s research and recommendations influenced $17 million to high-impact climate nonprofits—our strongest year yet. But the numbers only tell part of the story.
As our research expertise and capacity grew, we uncovered new opportunities worldwide for high-impact climate giving. Today, the work of our Top Nonprofits spans the globe, driving impact on an international scale.
Meanwhile, the Giving Green Fund’s grantmaking capacity grew significantly in 2024, driven by a growing number of donors looking to maximize the impact of their giving, including two transformative gifts totaling $11 million. This expansion has enabled us to support a broader range of rigorously vetted, high-impact climate nonprofits, each advancing effective and diverse strategies for climate mitigation.
Helping more donors make evidence-based giving decisions has been another priority. Through enhanced communications, our research is now guiding climate-conscious giving at every level—from micro-donations of just $0.30 to transformational gifts of $10 million. We are here to make high-impact climate giving easier for everyone, no matter how much they can give.
This momentum would not be possible without the broader climate ecosystem. Our regional effective giving partners tailor our research to the needs of their audiences. Impact networks and communities connect us with like-minded allies and challenge us with fresh perspectives. And field-leading climate experts who provided feedback on our work keep us accountable to our organizational values: truth-seeking, humility, transparency, and collaboration.
As 2025 begins, shifting political landscapes present new challenges for climate action, particularly in the U.S. Yet, we remain confident in the relevance and resilience of our recommended philanthropic strategies. We will continue to identify scalable, feasible, and neglected opportunities that maximize climate impact, even in these uncertain times.
The road to net zero is long and unpredictable, but we are committed to the long haul. Thank you for being on this journey with us.
“I deeply appreciate your transparency and look forward to seeing how your organization and recommendations change over time.” — Giving Green donor
“Addressing climate change takes many solutions, so it’s hard to pick just one when I’ve been in a position to give. I’m grateful for the work you do to find, vet, and diversify projects that need support - it’s a smart strategy! Thank you for connecting the funding to the work.” — Giving Green Fund donor
2.2024 key impact metrics
Money moved (in USD)
In 2024, Giving Green influenced an estimated $17.0 million toward high-impact climate nonprofits, up from $10.9 million in 2023 and $5.5 million in 2022. One element that drove this growth was an anonymous $10 million donation in the spring.
Since our inception in 2020, we estimate that Giving Green has influenced a total of $37.2 million in evidence-based, high-impact climate giving.
See the appendix for details on how we calculated these metrics.
Impact multiplier
In 2024, we increased our “impact multiplier”—dollars we move to our recommendations, divided by our operating cost—to 21.7. This means that every dollar donated to Giving Green’s operations in 2024 yielded about $21.70 in additional funding for other high-impact climate organizations.
The vast majority of our expenses go to staff salaries and benefits. We have an overhead rate of 11% of expenditures that covers finance, legal, and administrative functions, provided by our fiscal sponsor, IDinsight. We do not charge an administrative overhead for the Giving Green Fund.
Full-time equivalent staff | GG operations cost | Money moved | Impact multiplier | |
2020 | 0.5 | $60,000 | $195,000 | 3.3x |
2021 | 1 | $151,000 | $2,076,000 | 13.7x |
2022 | 3.8 | $483,000 | $5,510,000 | 11.4x |
2023 | 4.4 | $645,000 | $10,893,000 | 16.9x |
2024 | 4.8 | $783,000 | $17,016,000 | 21.7x |
Total | $2,122,000 | $35,055,000 | 16.8x |
Table 1: Calculating Giving Green’s impact multipliers from operations cost and money moved
3.2024 highlights
Identified three new high-impact philanthropic strategies
In 2024, we prioritized eight philanthropic strategies, including three new ones (in bold):
Historically, Giving Green has focused exclusively on climate mitigation—reducing greenhouse gas emissions. With expanded research scope in 2024, we explored “climate interventions”—strategies that do not address the source of warming but, given the rapid rate of climate change, offer promising opportunities to supplement emissions reductions and protect human and ecological well-being. SRM governance and CDR fall into this category.
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Released new research on philanthropic opportunities in Australia
While the work of our Top Nonprofits spans globally, we acknowledge that each country has its own competitive edge in climate mitigation, determined by factors such as regulatory environment, research and development (R&D) infrastructure, geography, and access to natural resources.
In 2024, with funding from Australian Ethical, we updated our research on Australia’s competitive advantage in the green transition. We found that by focusing on industrial exports, Australian philanthropists have the potential to decrease global emissions by as much as 7%, a number that would be far more costly and difficult for almost any other nation to achieve.
The report, followed by a list of three recommended climate nonprofits in Australia, has influenced $775,000 AUD (about $488,000 USD) in donations to date. Additionally, our team member who oversaw the research was seconded to a major Australian foundation to help design its climate philanthropy strategy.
The report was picked up by media outlets such as The Australian, Inside Philanthropy, and Alliance Magazine. The report’s launch webinar attracted close to 100 people.
Giving Green Fund reached new heights
In Q4 of 2024, the Giving Green Fund announced disbursements to organizations beyond our Top Nonprofits for the first time, thanks to transformative donations from the Ray and Tye Noorda Foundation and an anonymous donor, as well as a growing number of donors who embrace the idea of a fund to maximize the impact of their giving.
In addition to supporting our six Top Nonprofits, the disbursements supported 20 climate nonprofits worldwide that are advancing Giving Green’s prioritized philanthropic strategies. Specifically, we developed two types of grants:
Growth grants support emerging organizations, established organizations looking to expand in specific areas, as well as specific research projects, analyses and convenings.
Ecosystem grants seek to strengthen the ecosystem of our prioritized philanthropic strategies by supporting a wider range of organizations that advance these strategies.
Deepened our thinking on systems change
When Giving Green started, we focused on looking for evidence-based climate solutions. Over time, we concluded that to maximize our impact, we have to encourage donors to embrace giving strategies that take bolder bets to change systems.
Reflecting on this journey, we released a report in 2024 on how we think about systemic change as a climate research organization and a climate funder. It covered how we define systems change, why climate philanthropy should support systems change, and how to measure the impact of systems-changing giving opportunities when faced with high uncertainty.
The report acts as an anchor to our flagship research and recommendations, clarifying our approach to maximizing impact, and encouraging donors to explore higher-impact philanthropic strategies that truly change the rules of the game.
Press mentions
We knew from day one that producing climate philanthropy research alone is not enough; we must make our research accessible to donors of all sizes. Expanding our media presence has been a key part of this communications strategy.
In 2024, Giving Green was featured in the press 31 times, including coverage in 16 major outlets with global reach, feature stories in Heatmap and TriplePundit, and an op-ed in Alliance Magazine.
A notable highlight was an Associated Press story about the Giving Green Fund that was picked up by 600+ outlets, including The Washington Post, ABC, Fast Company, and more, significantly expanding our reach.
Ramped up event appearances to increase reach
With a bigger and more geographically dispersed team, we deepened our engagement with donors and partnered through three booked-out in-person events and two webinars.
Kicking off 2024 in London, we hosted a workshop with a select group of funders and advisors on how philanthropy could make “the next big thing” happen by funding systems change.
In San Francisco, we held our first SF Climate Week event which attracted 53 attendees. The room was filled with a variety of folks from allies and partners steeped in climate action, to climate-curious donors.
Later that fall, we made our New York Climate Week debut and gathered 100+ climate actors to discuss high-impact climate philanthropy, including leaders from three of our Top Nonprofits. As one of the attendees put it, the panel discussion effectively “acknowledged both the need for really powerful technical solutions combined with the need for systemic change”.
Following the webinar during the Australian giving season in April, our year-end webinar announcing our Top Nonprofits drew over 240 live attendees.
In addition to organizing our own events, we also ramped up our appearances at partner events, such as:
Speaking to climate leaders in government, investment, and science about high-impact climate action at the British Consulate-General’s event in San Francisco during SF Climate Week.
Exchanging learnings on evidence-based giving at the Effective Giving Summit in Oxford.
4.Plans for 2025
Maximize money moved to our recommendations
Building on the momentum in 2024, we hope to raise even more money for our Top Nonprofits and Giving Green Fund grantees.
Level up disbursement strategies for the Giving Green Fund
As the Giving Green Fund grows, we will continue to experiment with dynamic disbursement strategies that maximize its impact.
Despite headwinds in U.S. federal policy, we believe that the philanthropic strategies that we have chosen continue to be relevant on a global scale. Additionally, we will prioritize making strategic, rapid response grants throughout 2025 to meet this unique political moment in the U.S.
For example, we will be identifying grant opportunities that defend federal support for energy innovation, such as in nuclear and geothermal energy, which has traditionally garnered bipartisan support.
Update research on sustainable investment
Since our initial assessment of climate impact investing in 2021, we have observed increasing demand for evidence-based guidance on sustainable investment. In 2025, we hope to create the first portfolio-level climate impact evaluation of venture capital (VC).
Between 2020 to 2023, 142 billion VC dollars were invested in climate tech. A landscape evaluation of climate VC will enhance investment decision-making processes and drive capital towards the highest-impact climate solutions.
We plan to conduct the research in 2025 and release the findings publicly in 2026. However, this work is funding-dependent. If you are interested in supporting this work, please reach out.
Take on at least two new consulting projects
While our flagship climate nonprofit recommendations help many donors maximize their climate impact, we know that one size does not fit all. That is why we take on special consulting projects to address unique donor constraints and opportunities, broaden our impact, and diversify our revenue streams.
In 2025, we are excited to launch at least two new initiatives in partnership with aligned funders:
Identifying evidence-based ways philanthropy can protect biodiversity.
Mapping out high-impact climate giving opportunities in Puerto Rico.
While these projects are funded by individual philanthropists, the results will be released publicly as part of our mission to make high-impact climate giving easier for everyone.
If you would like to explore consulting projects with us, please reach out.
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Giving Green
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5.Appendix
Who we are
Giving Green guides individuals, foundations, and businesses to make more effective climate giving decisions. We find evidence-based, cost-effective, and high-leverage organizations that maximize the climate impact of your money.
Our organization
Our organization consists of three main functions:
Research: conduct climate giving research and produce recommendations.
Communications: disseminate findings to diverse audiences.
Fundraising and grantmaking: we support a wide range of nonprofits through the Giving Green Fund, a climate grantmaking fund.
Our products and functions are guided by our organizational values: truth-seeking, humility, transparency, and collaboration.
Theory of change
How we calculate impact metrics
1. Data sources
To calculate money moved, we first ask each recommended organization for its best estimate of money directed from sources we have influenced. Example sources include:
Donors who clicked on a recommended organization’s site from Giving Green’s site
Donors who proactively mentioned hearing about a recommended organization from a media piece informed by Giving Green
Foundations that made a gift after considering several sources of evidence, including Giving Green’s research
It is worth noting that different organizations have different tracking methods and capabilities. We cross-reference data from recommended organizations with other sources, such as our internal tracking, conversations with large donors or business purchasers, and regranters facilitating donations to our recommendations.
2. Impact attribution
Once we have this data, we multiply each dollar amount by a percentage that represents our estimate of the share of influence we had over that amount. This subjective assessment encompasses questions like: Were these donors influenced by multiple sources, and if so, does Giving Green only deserve “partial credit”? How certain are we that these donors were influenced by Giving Green versus another source?
For example, if a recommended organization raised $50,000 from a donor who used Giving Green as one of many resources in their decision making, we might assign ourselves 20%, or $10,000, of impact. However, if a donor says they used Giving Green as their primary information source, we might assign ourselves 100% of the impact.
We assign three such percentages:
A “certain” percentage: what share of this money are we completely certain is attributable to Giving Green?
A “best guess” percentage: taking into account the above factors
An “optimistic” percentage: taking an optimistic view of the above factors
By adding all “best guess” amounts together, we reach a total “best guess” for money moved. Similarly, adding the “certain” amounts together and “optimistic” amounts together gives us an estimated range of money moved.
Our certainty | Estimate of money moved in 2024 |
Certain | $15.2M |
Best guess | $17.0M |
Optimistic | $30.6M |
Table 2: Range of estimates of our money moved.
In 2024, our “best guess” number is $17.0M. This is relatively close to our “Certain” number because a large share of this money went through the Giving Green Fund. Our “Optimistic” number is much higher primarily (but not entirely) because of a large donation directly given to one of our recommendations. We suspect this gift is due to the influence of Giving Green, but we do not have solid evidence; our “best guess” estimate includes an attribution of 10% on this gift to reflect that uncertainty, while our “optimistic” guess includes an attribution of 100%.
3. Uncertainties
We are uncertain whether the “money moved” metric adequately accounts for the counterfactual impact of the money. If, for instance, a donor would have otherwise given to a nonprofit that is 50% as effective, should we credit ourselves with 50% of this money moved? Our current assumption, based on limited customer research, is that most donors would have given to significantly less effective nonprofits or not at all, but we recognize that this is a major uncertainty.
We are also uncertain whether our data is capturing all of our donor audience, and therefore our impact numbers may be a significant underestimate. For instance, it is relatively easy for us to assess our impact on mass-market online donors whose online gifts can be tracked. However, it is difficult to assess our influence with larger donors or business purchasers, who may give via check or wire transfer and not proactively mention Giving Green as an inspiration. For example, in several cases, we have heard that we influenced large gifts many months after the fact.
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