Sierra Club Foundation
Grassroots advocacy and litigation protecting wild places and clean energy transition
Our editorial assessment
The Sierra Club Foundation's claim to impact rests largely on one extraordinary achievement: the Beyond Coal campaign, which has contributed to the retirement of over 350 coal-fired power plants in the United States. This campaign has done more to reduce US greenhouse gas emissions than any other single advocacy effort in history. The Foundation also supports litigation, grassroots organising, and state-level clean energy policy work. Their programme spending ratio of 82% is adequate but not exceptional, and their impact outside the coal campaign is harder to quantify. For donors who believe in the power of grassroots advocacy to drive policy change, the Sierra Club Foundation has a proven track record — but one centred on a specific campaign that is nearing completion.
The problem they're solving
The transition from coal to cleaner energy sources is the single largest driver of US emissions reductions over the past decade. The Beyond Coal campaign accelerated this transition by years, preventing thousands of premature deaths from air pollution in addition to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
About Sierra Club Foundation
The Sierra Club Foundation supports the Beyond Coal campaign — the most significant emissions reduction campaign in US history.
Where your dollar goes
How this score was produced
The GiveWise score is our own editorial assessment, produced with a weighted rubric covering program spending, transparency and governance, evidence of impact, cost-effectiveness, and leadership. It draws on publicly available reports from independent evaluators such as GiveWell, Charity Navigator, and CharityWatch, but it is not a rating issued or endorsed by any of those organisations. Read the full methodology →