OVERVIEW: The Greenbaum Foundation supports animal advocacy and efforts to shift food systems toward plant-based diets and away from factory farming. Its grantmaking includes animal advocacy, legal strategies, plant-based medical and nutrition advocacy, movement infrastructure and mission-aligned media. The foundation also maintains a smaller legacy portfolio supporting human rights and anti-trafficking organizations internationally.
IP TAKE: The Greenbaum Foundation is one of the nation’s leading funders working at the intersection of animal advocacy, plant-based food systems and efforts to end factory farming. Its portfolio spans advocacy, legal strategies, lifestyle medicine, movement infrastructure and strategic media, while a much smaller human rights portfolio continues to support a limited group of legacy organizations. The foundation makes roughly $6 million to $7 million in grants annually and is spending down during founder Jim Greenbaum’s lifetime.
This is a highly relationship-driven funder. Greenbaum does not accept unsolicited proposals, and its latest tax filing says it only supports preselected organizations. The foundation strongly favors ongoing partnerships, but recent IRS data show that it still adds selected new grantees. Grantseekers are most likely to get on Greenbaum’s radar by becoming visible within the animal advocacy and plant-based food-system networks it already supports, building relationships with existing grantees and intermediaries, and demonstrating measurable impact in a tightly aligned strategy area. International organizations may also want to watch Thrive Philanthropy, a Greenbaum grantee and food-systems funding intermediary, for open opportunities. Human rights seekers should note that Greenbaum now describes this work as a legacy portfolio rather than an active growth area.
Across all areas of support, Greenbaum commits to its grantees for the long haul, and, according to foundation director Meghan O’Brien Lowery, “It’s very rare that we give a one-off grant. If we’ve vetted you, we are partners.”
PROFILE: The Greenbaum Foundation is a West Hollywood, California-based private foundation created by entrepreneur and philanthropist Jim Greenbaum. The foundation says it became fully operational in 1999. Greenbaum founded telecommunications company Access Long Distance in 1985 and sold it in 1999, after which he began transferring a significant portion of his wealth to the foundation. He continues to serve as its managing director, working alongside Meghan O’Brien Lowery. Greenbaum has committed more than 85% of his assets to philanthropy during his lifetime, and the foundation says its assets will also be spent down during his lifetime.
The foundation says combined giving by Greenbaum and the foundation has exceeded $70 million, with annual grantmaking currently running between $6 million and $7 million. Its overarching goal is to reduce human and non-human suffering where it believes funding can have the greatest impact. Greenbaum’s giving originally centered more heavily on human rights, but the foundation now says it is concentrating on whole-food, plant-based diets and ending factory farming. Its grantees work in more than 85 countries.
Grants for Animal Advocacy and Plant-Based Food Systems
Animal advocacy and plant-based food systems form the central focus of Greenbaum’s current grantmaking. The foundation says it is working to move the world toward whole-food, plant-based diets, end factory farming and improve the treatment and protection of animals. Importantly for grantseekers, Greenbaum specifically says that it does not fund animal sanctuaries.
The foundation’s Animal Advocacy and Plant-Based Nutrition portfolio encompasses a broad range of approaches. These include public education, vegan and plant-based dietary adoption, institutional food change, corporate campaigns, research, movement building, journalism, advocacy and efforts to improve the treatment of farmed animals.
- Current grantees include Animal Charity Evaluators, Better Food Foundation, Compassion USA, Faunalytics, Food Empowerment Project, Greener by Default, New Roots Institute, Open Wing Alliance, Reducetarian Foundation, Sentient, Sinergia Animal, Veganuary and organizations operating throughout Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.
- Greenbaum appears especially interested in organizations that can shift systems or behavior at scale. Grantees work to change corporate food policies, reduce consumption of animal products, build stronger advocacy movements, influence institutions and consumers, conduct research and create public narratives around animals and food.
- Recent IRS records reinforce the prominence of this work. Major 2024 recipients included the Humane America Animal Foundation at $543,000, the Humane League at $300,000, Animal Charity Evaluators at $118,000, Greener by Default at $100,000 and Stop Animal Exploitation Now at $100,000.
Grants for Legal Animal Advocacy
Greenbaum treats legal approaches to animal advocacy as a distinct funding strategy. It supports organizations using litigation, legal research, enforcement, policy advocacy and legislation to challenge factory farming, animal experimentation and other practices affecting animals.
- Current grantees include Advancing Law for Animals, Animal Justice, Animal Law Foundation, Animal Outlook, Animal Partisan, FarmSTAND, Food Solutions Action, Representing Animals, SEED and Social Compassion in Legislation. Their work includes enforcing existing animal-protection and environmental laws, strategic litigation against industrial agriculture, challenging unlawful conduct at farms and laboratories and advancing animal-protection legislation.
- This is a relatively specialized niche. Animal-law organizations and groups combining legal strategies with farmed-animal, food-system or environmental advocacy appear especially well aligned.
Grants for Medical Advocacy and Plant-Based Diets
The foundation’s Medical Advocacy for Plant Based Diets portfolio supports organizations promoting plant-based nutrition through medicine, research, professional education and public-health outreach. The foundation’s interest here is considerably narrower than general public health. Its grantees generally work at the intersection of nutrition, lifestyle medicine, chronic-disease prevention and plant-based eating.
- Strategies include educating doctors and healthcare professionals, conducting research, influencing medical practice and educating the public about the relationship between diet and health.
- The portfolio includes the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, Physicians Association for Nutrition, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, Plant-Based Health Professionals UK and Preventive Medicine Research Institute.
- Recent grants indicate that this can be a significant area of support. In 2024, the foundation awarded $350,000 to the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, $218,200 to Physicians Association for Nutrition, $100,000 to Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and $100,000 to Preventive Medicine Research Institute.
Grants for Animal Advocacy Movement Infrastructure and Capacity Building
Greenbaum also makes grants for Support Services for Animal Advocacy Charities, reflecting an interest in strengthening the infrastructure of the broader animal-advocacy movement.
- Current grantees include Animal Defense Partnership, which provides free legal services to animal and plant-based nonprofits; Animal Advocacy Careers, which addresses talent and career bottlenecks in the movement; Clockwork Operations and Logistically, which provide back-office and administrative support; Scarlet Spark, which provides leadership and organizational consulting; and Vegan Hacktivists, which offers technology, design and data services to animal advocates.
- This funding makes Greenbaum relevant not only to frontline campaign organizations, but also to nonprofits providing capacity building, leadership development, strategic planning, legal assistance, talent development, technology and operational infrastructure for animal advocacy organizations.
Grants for Women, Gender-Based Violence Prevention, Human Rights and Anti-Trafficking
Human rights once represented a much larger share of Greenbaum’s philanthropy. The foundation now describes this work as supporting a limited number of legacy organizations focused on modern slavery, child marriage, female genital cutting, gender-based violence and barriers preventing women from achieving equal rights.
Its current Human Rights and Anti-Trafficking grantees include La Conscience in Togo, Rescue Foundation in India, STOP, Tostan and Voice of the Free in the Philippines. These organizations work on trafficking prevention, survivor services, community development, women’s and girls’ rights, ending child marriage and female genital cutting and related forms of exploitation.
- Recent tax records confirm that Greenbaum continues to support longstanding human-rights partners, including Tostan and La Conscience. However, prospective grantees should view this as a legacy portfolio rather than a broadly open human-rights funding program. The foundation does not currently state that it is actively seeking new human-rights organizations.
Other Grantmaking Opportunities
Greenbaum also uses documentary films and other media to advance issues connected to its philanthropic priorities. Jim Greenbaum has served as an executive producer of documentaries, and the foundation has supported films addressing plant-based eating, factory farming, animal issues and human rights.
- Projects associated with Greenbaum funding include The Game Changers, What the Health, Cowspiracy, Seaspiracy and other mission-aligned productions. Greenbaum should therefore be understood as a potential funder of strategic documentary and media projects that directly advance its animal, food-system or human-rights goals, rather than as a general arts or film funder. The foundation does not advertise an open film application process.
- The foundation also says that, with the help of funding partners, it provides small grants to more than 65 grassroots individuals and entities around the world, including people and organizations working in countries where relatively few groups address these issues. It cautions that some organizations listed on its website receive funding directly from Jim Greenbaum rather than from the foundation itself.
Important Grant Details:
According to its latest available 2024 IRS filing data, the foundation held about $55.9 million in assets and made approximately $6.1 million in grants through 57 awards. The median grant was $50,000, with grants ranging from about $3,300 to $1.1 million.
Other important details for grantseekers:
- Greenbaum does not accept unsolicited proposals. Its contact page explicitly states that neither the foundation nor Jim Greenbaum accepts unsolicited funding requests. Its latest 990-PF independently identifies its grantmaking as “preselected only.”
- The foundation does not publish a formal application, LOI process or application calendar.
- Greenbaum strongly favors established relationships and repeat funding, although recent IRS records show that selected new organizations continue to enter the portfolio. Across 2020 through 2024, the foundation awarded about $24.7 million through 284 grants to 122 organizations; repeat grantees received a median award of $50,000.
- Grantseekers are likely to have the strongest prospects if they are already active in the networks Greenbaum funds. Connections to existing animal-advocacy, plant-based food-system, animal-law, lifestyle-medicine or movement-infrastructure grantees may provide useful opportunities for introductions.
- Thrive Philanthropy is particularly worth knowing for organizations working internationally on vegan and just food systems. Greenbaum lists Thrive among its grantees, and the foundation awarded Free to Thrive–Thrive Philanthropy $404,225 in 2024.
- The foundation supports both established organizations and selected newer or smaller organizations. Recent first-time recipients in the IRS data include Allied Scholars for Animal Protection and Global Food Partners, among others.
- Greenbaum’s funding is international. The foundation says its grantees operate in more than 85 countries.
- Animal sanctuaries are specifically outside the foundation’s current funding strategy.
- General inquiries may be directed to info@GreenbaumFoundation.org, but grantseekers should not use the address to submit unsolicited proposals.
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