Environmental Funding by European Foundations – Volume 7

Overview

This report is the most comprehensive report to date on environmental philanthropy in Europe. The report is based on 2024 grants data from 169 of the largest environmental foundations in Europe. The mapping analyses the 9,488 environmental grants made in 2024 by these foundations, worth a combined €2.2 billion. This volume builds on the six earlier editions of this research, significantly increasing the number and value of grants being analysed.

The report builds a detailed picture of where environmental philanthropy is directed, which issues receive the most funding, how funding is distributed geographically and which approaches to change foundations are supporting. It also compares 2024 grantmaking with previous editions on a like-for-like basis, showing a 38.8% increase in the value of environmental grants between 2021 and 2024 among 108 foundations included in both datasets.

At a time when environmental challenges are intensifying, and the role of civil society is increasingly contested in some contexts, the report provides an important evidence base for understanding how European environmental philanthropy is evolving, where funding is growing and where gaps remain.

Key takeaways

• Looking at the total values of the environmental grants from 2021 and 2024 on a like-for-like basis (108 foundations), focusing only on grants of €25,000 or more, we see a very encouraging 38.8% increase, from €1.3 billion euros in 2021 to €1.9 billion in 2024.
• As in the last two editions of the research, the thematic issue category receiving the most funding from the 169 foundations was climate & atmosphere, accounting for 26.9% of grants by value, and for 949 of the 5,340 grants of €25,000 or larger.
• On a like-for-like basis there have been some significant changes to the distribution of the grants between thematic issue categories. Grants for work on terrestrial ecosystems jump from fifth place in 2021 to second in 2024, with an increase of 161.2% in the value of the grants. Like-for-like funding for work on transport, by contrast, fell by more than 50%, from €55.4 million down to €26.5 million, with funding in the energy category also falling by more than 17%.