Foundation Funding of the Environmental Movement. (November 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Jenkins, J. Craig; Carmichael, Jason T.; Brulle, Robert J.; Boughton, Heather
• Other Names: Corrigall-Brown Catherine guest-editor.; Ho Mabel guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: American behavioral scientist. Volume 61:Number 13(2017)
• Page Start: 1640
• Page End: 1657
• Publication Date: 2017-11
• Subjects: elite theory -- pluralism -- environmental philanthropy; Social sciences -- Periodicals; Political science -- Periodicals; United States -- Social conditions -- Periodicals; United States -- Politics and government -- Periodicals; 300
• DOI: 10.1177/0002764217744839
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0002-7642

Abstract

We address the long-standing debate between elite theorists and pluralists about the priorities and scale of foundation funding for social movements by examining systematic data on foundation grants to environmental movement organizations (EMOs) between 1961 and 2000. By combining these data with a comprehensive inventory of EMOs that operated in this period, we show that foundation giving favored conservative mainstream environmental discourses, EMOs that avoided protest, older EMOs, and those located in the northeastern seaboard. Despite major growth in the constant dollar value of foundation giving to EMOs, this remains a highly concentrated system of philanthropy with over half of all foundation grants going to the top 20 grant recipients, a third of which have been leading recipients for over five decades. Nonetheless, there is evidence of change in that alternative discourses, especially environmental justice, received over 5% of these grants in 2000.