It’s not that easy being green–unless you’re a nonprofit looking for donations. A new Axios analysis of tax filings from 18 of the most influential environmental groups found significant increases in donations between 2015 and 2017. Comparing 2015, the last full year before Trump’s election to 2017, the first full year after, Axios found donations to well-known environmental groups increased by 20 to 149 percent.
The increased donations came as green groups reinvented themselves as the in the face of a White House opposed to their agenda. All but two groups, Conservation Fund and Environmental Working Group, saw increased donations. All in all, median donations to environmental groups increased 30 percent in two years.
Axios’s research shows that the same green groups taking Rockefeller money to go after ExxonMobil are raking in millions of dollars in donations. Both the League of Conservation Voters and Earthjustice play key roles in the broader #ExxonKnew campaign.
Starting in 2017, the League of Conservation Voters, Earthjustice, and 350.org, which all strongly oppose energy development, were top beneficiaries of donor largesse. Earthjustice saw fundraising surge from $50 million to $76 million, an increase of 51 percent, while the League of Conservation Voters saw donations increase from $22 million to $33 million over the same period. The League of Conservation Voters and Earthjustice are both funded by the Rockefellers and closely tied to lawsuits against ExxonMobil.
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