We’ve been waiting a long time to share this milestone: Giving Green has officially spun out of our parent organization and incubator, IDinsight, and is now an independent nonprofit—Giving Green Research Group, Inc.

This is more than just a change in structure. It’s the start of an exciting new chapter—one that will let us serve our donors, partners, and the climate philanthropy ecosystem with more speed, clarity, and impact.

From a Side Project to Our Own Nonprofit

Giving Green started as a side project while our founder, Dan Stein, Ph.D., was working as Chief Economist at IDinsight. Dan had spent about a decade building evidence-based strategies in global development and philanthropy, and he noticed that many people cared deeply about climate change. Still, the scale and complexity left them paralyzed to take action. This paralysis extended to the donor community, meaning money was left on the sidelines. Too often, good intentions stalled before reaching effective action.

With the support and faith of our incubator, IDinsight, Giving Green was born to cut through the noise and make climate giving easier, clearer, and more impactful for everyone.

Fast forward five years, and Giving Green has grown into a dedicated team of 10 researchers and communicators. 

Together, we’ve influenced tens of millions of dollars toward effective climate action. In 2024 alone, we influenced $17 million in funds to climate impact—a 70% jump from the year before. Plus, thanks to the trust of our supporters, the Giving Green Fund is now powering an expanded portfolio of rigorously vetted, high-impact nonprofits, beyond just our Top Climate Nonprofits.

We could never have reached this point without the support of IDinsight, and we’ll always carry its DNA. However, with our team nearly doubling in size, our influence growing rapidly, and donor needs expanding, we knew it was time to spread our wings.

A Fresh Look for a New Chapter

As we enter this next chapter, we felt it was time to give the Giving Green brand and website a refresh—something that better reflects our evolution, values, and identity.

To bring this vision to life, we partnered with DG+ Design on a comprehensive rebrand and website redesign. The result is a look and feel that aligns with who we are today: rigorous, accessible, transparent, trustworthy, and relentlessly focused on impact.

When designing our new logo, we set out to create a mark that reflects Giving Green's dedication to building a better future. The final product is a logo that evokes the rising sun, emphasizing our optimism and positive action in the face of climate change.

The sleek and modern lines are intended to reflect the innovative climate solutions that we research, and the deep green color is, of course, meant to reflect our commitment to slowing warming and protecting life on Earth. 

Why This Matters for You

This spinout isn’t just about Giving Green growing up. It’s about how we can serve you better. 

Below, we outline what this change means for you and how it will make for a better user experience and functionality that ladders up to strengthening the climate impact of our work. 

Faster, more flexible grantmaking.

Making grants effectively and quickly has always been core to our mission. While we’ve always done our best to avoid sitting on Giving Green Fund donations for too long, there have been unavoidable hurdles that come with operating as part of a larger organization and hosting our fund under a separate entity. 

One of the biggest drivers of our decision to spin out was the promise of more flexibility in our grantmaking. Now that we are an independent organization and we host our own fund, we will be able to move money faster and more flexibly to meet needs as they arise.

A simpler, smoother donation process.

We’ve always said our mission is to make climate giving easier for everyone. But we’ll admit—our old donation process sometimes got in the way.

We heard from many of you that it wasn’t always clear who to make checks out to (IDinsight? Giving Green?) and that the rerouting to a third-party platform involved in online donation flow felt confusing and clunky. We recognized this as one of the biggest blockers in fulfilling our mission.

Now, thanks to our independence and redesigned website, those blockers are gone. Donating is simple and seamless:

• If you’re giving by check, just make it out to Giving Green Research Group, Inc. No more guessing games.
• If you’re giving online, you’ll never have to leave our site. With the help of DG+ Design, we’ve streamlined the donation flow so you can give directly through our new Give page, whether you’re supporting the Giving Green Fund or our research and operations.

We are still a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and U.S. donors can take advantage of tax-deductible gifts to the fullest extent allowed by law.

A clearer, more intuitive user experience.

On our old website, visitors were greeted with the tagline on our homepage, “Climate change is complex. Giving doesn’t have to be.” As an organization, we have always been dedicated to simplifying and demystifying climate philanthropy for anyone who has the capacity to give. 

A major part of doing this for our audience is disseminating complex information about the challenges and opportunities that exist in climate mitigation, and presenting them in a way that is digestible, clear, and not just easy to understand, but easy to find.

Over time, our research grew, but our old site made it harder than it should have been to find what you needed. 

This is why we felt it was time to redesign our website—to make the language and messaging clearer, the user experience more intuitive, and the organization of our resources and recommendations a tool rather than a blocker. 

Questions? Feedback? We Want to Hear from You

This is a big change, and we know our work is strongest when it’s guided by our community. We welcome you to reach out with any thoughts and questions about the spinout and new website.

We’re still learning, listening, and improving—and your feedback helps us do better. 

Please don’t hesitate to reach out via our contact page and share what’s working (or not).

Looking Ahead

We have ambitious goals for the rest of 2025 and beyond—new strategy reports, expanded grantmaking, and even more ways to make climate giving accessible to everyone. But more than anything, this spinout is about impact. We’re building the systems, tools, and brand we need to move more money, more effectively, into the fight against climate change.

And we want you to be part of it.

If you’re excited about where we’re headed, here are two simple ways to take action today:

• Donate to the Giving Green Fund. Every dollar goes to rigorously vetted, high-impact climate nonprofits.
  
  
• Support Giving Green’s research. Every $1 given to our operations has historically converted into $21 of additional donations to high-impact climate charities. Support our work to be a climate impact multiplier.
  
  

We’re so grateful to be on this journey with you. Thank you for helping us grow from a tiny side project into an independent organization ready to tackle climate change at scale.

‍