ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND
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Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Our Mandate: Create a vital Earth. For everyone. People and communities everywhere are facing the very real environmental, economic and health impacts of climate change. Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) is laser-focused on addressing the climate crisis and achieving our vision of a vital Earth for everyone. Thanks to your generous support and leadership, EDF is working with a wide array of partners and allies worldwide to spark innovative solutions that: • Stabilize the climate • Strengthen the ability of people and nature to thrive • Support people’s health Where we make an impact: We deliver bold, game-changing climate solutions in China, India, Europe and the United States, which together produce about half of the world’s climate pollution. Altogether, we’re working in more than 30 countries, benefiting communities across the globe.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
AGRICULTURE, WATER AND FOOD
Bringing AGRICULTURE, WATER AND FOOD under one umbrella lets us take a system-wide approach to balance the needs of farmers, communities and nature.
CLEAN ENERGY
CLEAN ENERGY focuses on the electric power sector and how to ramp up zero-carbon electricity fast.
CLEAN TRANSPORTATION
CLEAN TRANSPORTATION includes defending the U.S. EPA’s new rules for cars and trucks and helping set international standards for ships and planes.
FISHERIES AND OCEANS
FISHERIES AND OCEANS brings together fisheries management and new opportunities like the potential for ocean carbon dioxide removal.
FORESTS
Our FORESTS work will scale the market for high-integrity forest credits to bring billions of dollars to support forest conservation.
FUELS AND FEEDSTOCKS
Alternative FUELS AND FEEDSTOCKS are needed to replace petroleum products for heavy-duty uses where electricity can’t do it all, and as raw materials or “feedstocks” for industry.
HEALTHY COMMUNITIES
HEALTHY COMMUNITIES will help more people breathe cleaner air and reduce exposure to hazardous pollution, particularly in frontline communities.
METHANE
In 2024, EDF because the first environmental nonprofit to launch a satelite to track global METHANE pollution. MethaneSAT unleashes huge opportunities to leverage our advocacy with companies and government regulators to cut methane.
Where we work
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Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Evaluation documents
Download evaluation reportsNumber of first-time donors
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Input - describing resources we use
Direction of Success
Decreasing
Context Notes
This metric includes the number of people who donated to EDF for the first time.
Number of overall donors
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Input - describing resources we use
Direction of Success
Decreasing
Context Notes
This metric includes all of EDF's donors.
Cost to raise $100
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Input - describing resources we use
Direction of Success
Decreasing
Context Notes
This metric reflects how much it cost EDF to bring in each $100 of donations.
Percent of total budget spent on programs
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Input - describing resources we use
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
This metric reflects the percent of total expenses EDF spent on its programs each year.
Average number of dollars given by new donors
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Input - describing resources we use
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
This metric reflect the average amount given by first-time donors.
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Reports and documents
Download strategic planLearn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Highlights of our top goals
In this critical decade for the climate, it’s now or never. Our goals reflect this urgency, as we prioritize action in communities that are most burdened by pollution. By 2030, we aim to:
1. Slow global warming by cutting methane pollution 40%-45% from big global sources, including oil and gas and livestock.
2. Slash carbon dioxide pollution by making 80% of the CO2 cuts the world needs to limit climate change’s worst impacts.
3. Make sure hydrogen is a safe alternative fuel by creating guardrails for using it, benefiting the climate and communities.
4. Help the land and oceans feed us , so 2.5 billion people benefit from climate-resilient, equitable food systems globally.
5. Build resilient water supplies, so over 40 million people in the Western U.S. have sustainable access to clean water.
6. Drive down air and climate pollution, so 1 billion people in some of the world’s most polluted cities breathe cleaner air.
7. Move the world toward safer chemicals, reducing people’s exposure to the highest-risk chemicals by 30% in the U.S.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
EDF’s core capacities of corporate engagement, economics, justice and equity, and science help ensure that all our work is impactful, durable and socially sustainable — and help us see over the horizon to explore new and emerging issues.
MethaneSAT was successfully launched and will soon be producing public data to motivate and enable urgent action to reduce global methane emissions. Our strength in corporate engagement enabled us to expand a single partnership with Danone into the sector-wide Dairy Methane Action Alliance. The Frontline Resource Institute we helped create has delivered more than $130 million for climate work in frontline communities. In addition, our strength in economics has made EDF a trusted partner in China’s and India’s carbon market planning. Such advances show the importance of our core capacities across all our work.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Just as communities depend on their roads, bridges and public utilities, EDF depends on its infrastructure of information technology, facilities, financial and legal expertise, and — most of all — people to maximize our donor resources and achieve our environmental goals.
Today's difficult environmental challenges — and the increasingly global program goals of this ambitious new strategic plan — underscore the need to strengthen EDF to perform on a new scale that reaches around the world.
Human resources: Our strength as an organization depends on a highly skilled staff, board and network of partners. We aim to recruit and train an international workforce composed of top-flight talent and build a robust pipeline of leaders and experts to carry our mission forward. When our work takes us into new geographies, we will rely on strong local leadership, forge partnerships with effective local stakeholder organizations and ensure that our internal managerial capacity keeps pace with our growth.
Diversity: EDF envisions a world in which people from all backgrounds and experiences feel connected to the environmental challenges we face and are engaged in creating durable, equitable solutions. We will realize this vision by continually increasing the diversity of our staff, growing our cultural competency and partnering with diverse communities on environmental justice activities. We are among the first green groups to create a senior position on diversity: 63% of our workforce are women, 26% self-identify as people of color, and 25% of senior leadership self-identify as people of color.
Legal and corporate services: As EDF's global presence expands, we will ensure that our infrastructure is working as effectively and efficiently as possible, that we are adhering to local and national laws in diverse geographies, and that we have proactive plans to keep staff members and their assets safe and protected everywhere they work or travel.
Information technology and facilities: Powering a complex global organization requires top-notch systems, including a best-in-class information technology infrastructure that integrates data and users across the globe while safeguarding their privacy and security. When it comes to facilities, our goal is to find the most innovative and cost-effective solutions while also reducing our environmental footprint, as in a recent reconfiguration of our New York headquarters that accommodates 20% more staff comfortably in the same space, with more efficient design for lighting and heating to save energy and costs.
Finance: Our finance team acts as a trusted adviser and business partner to organizational leaders, identifying opportunities for better allocating scarce resources, improving processes and reducing business risk. We are also examining all of our expenditures to ensure that we are maximizing cost savings and leveraging EDF's buying power.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Stablize the Climate: Methane
* Launched MethaneSAT, ushering in a new era of accountability for global methane emissions. MethaneSAT data
is publicly available, and policy- and market-relevant data products are pushed to investors, customers
and regulators.
* Secured adoption of the Oil and Gas Decarbonization Charter, which has been signed by over 50 companies (comprising 42% of global oil production and including over 30 national oil companies), including commitments to end routine flaring and achieve near-zero upstream emissions by 2030.
Strenghten People's and Nature's Ability to Thrive: Resilent Food
* Raised awareness of agricultural methane and aquatic foods in global food policy and security commitments, and used COP28 momentum to drive climate-resilient food policies.
* Ensure full $850 million of Inflation Reduction Act investments in climate-smart agricultural practices, on track toward $20 billion.
* Added seven global dairy companies (representing $230 billion in annual sales) to the Dairy Methane Action Alliance to reduce methane emissions.
Strenghten People's and Nature's Ability to Thrive: Resilent Water Systems
* The Groundwater Accounting Platform, co-developed by EDF to track water use and availability in near
real-time, is being scaled statewide in California and piloted in Oregon’s Deschutes Basin, and OpenET data is being utilized across the western U.S.
Support People's Health: Clean Air
* After EDF provided technical support and analysis, the U.S. EPA lowered limits for fine particle pollution, which will protect the health of millions of Americans and save thousands of lives each year.
Support People's Health: Safer Chemicals
* U.S. EPA took steps EDF has long championed, finalizing asbestos and methylene chloride bans, limiting PFAS in drinking water, limiting toxic pollution from more than 200 petrochemical plants and strengthening community
protection from chemical accidents.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, The people we serve tell us they find data collection burdensome, It is difficult to find the ongoing funding to support feedback collection, It is difficult to get honest feedback from the people we serve, It is difficult to identify actionable feedback
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND
Board of directorsas of 10/25/2024
Mr. Mark Heising
Managing Director, Medley Partners
Term: 2020 -
Carl W. Ferenbach
High Meadows Foundation
G. Leonard Baker, Jr.
Managing Director, Sutter Hill Ventures
Stanley Druckenmiller
Investor
Kirsten J. Feldman
Retired Managing Director, Morgan Stanley; Chair, Steep Rock Association
Charles J. Hamilton, Jr
Senior Counsel, Windels Marx Lane & Mittendorf, LLP
The Honorable Thomas H. Kean
Chairman, Carnegie Corporation of New York
Frank Loy
Former Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs
Susan Mandel
Zoom Foundation
Stephen W. Pacala, Ph.D.
Frederick D. Petrie Professor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Sarah Robertson
Peggy M. Shepard
Co-Founder and Executive Director, WE ACT for Environmental Justice
Charles F. Wurster, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus of Environmental Sciences, Marine Sciences Research Center, State University of New York at Stony Brook
Ruth DeFries, Ph.D.
Denning Family Professor of Sustainable Development, Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology, Columbia University
Shelby Bonnie
Co-founder, CNET Networks
Chris Cole
Former Chairman, Investment Banking, Goldman Sachs
Christopher Costello
Professor of Natural Resources Economics, Bren School UCSB; Research Associate, National Bureau of Economic Research
Susan Ford Dorsey
President, Sand Hill Foundation
Mark W. Heising
Managing Director, Medley Partners
Richard J. Lazarus
Howard J. and Katherine W. Aibel Professor of Law, Harvard University
Abby Leigh
Artist
Katherine Lorenz
President, Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation
Kathryn Murdoch
President, Quadrivium Foundation
Lise Strickler
Environmental Advocate
Lynn R Goldman
Pediatrician; Dean, George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services
David S Vogel
CEO & Chief Scientist, Voloridge Investment Management
Secretary Ray Mabus
Former Secretary of the Navy
Georges C Benjamin, MD
Executive Director, American Public Health Association
Susan Oberndorf
President, Susan and William Oberndorf Foundation
Leslie Dach
Strategic Consultant
Matt Cohler
General Partner, Benchmark
Nikki Eslami
Founder and CEO, New Theory Ventures
Marie Lynn Miranda, Ph.D.
Professor, University of Notre Dame
Bruce V. Rauner
Former Governor, State of Illinois
Virginia Sall
Co-founder, Sall Family Foundation
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? No
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
The organization's co-leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data
Equity strategies
Last updated: 10/30/2023GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
- We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
- We use a vetting process to identify vendors and partners that share our commitment to race equity.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We measure and then disaggregate job satisfaction and retention data by race, function, level, and/or team.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.