Resources Legacy Fund

RLF was founded in 2000 through funding from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. ¹ It has received donations from other major grantmaking organizations such as the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and Walton Family Foundation. ^{3 4}

As of 2026, RLF claims to have generated $30 billion in government funding for public lands and to have protected over five million acres of land. ⁵

Background

In the 1990s, Jeanne Sedgwick, the conservation program director at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, asked Michael Mantell, the undersecretary of the California Natural Resources Agency, to increase support for coastal California land protection. Mantell soon left the agency and began working with Sedgwick. In 1998, with financial support from David Packard, they launched the Conserving California Landscapes Initiative, a five-year program designed to protect 250,000 acres of coastline. ¹

In 2000, Sedgwick and Mantell consolidated their effort into two independent but linked organizations: the Resources Legacy Fund and the Resources Law Group. ¹

Partner Organizations

The Resources Legacy Fund lists three partner organizations. The Resources Law Group is an environmentalist law group established as an offshoot of RLF. The Fund for a Better Future is a left-of-center 501(c)(4) lobbying and advocacy grantmaker that funds advocacy groups and lobbyists that promote environmentalism and oppose Republicans. The Shared Ascent Fund is a left-wing grantmaking group primarily focused on “advancing economic, racial, and gender equity.” ⁶ The Shared Ascent Fund, Fund for a Better Future, and the RLF are all led by Avi Garbow. ^{7 8}

Activities

Strategy

In 2025, the RLF’s leadership published a report advocating that the State of California to shift its climate policy from being “regulation-based” to “an integrated economic strategy.” RLF argues that though the state’s current climate policy has successfully fought climate change, it has been too moderate and therefore permitted rising energy costs and other forms of pollution. The RLF also contends that the second Trump administration is undermining California’s current climate policy. RLF supports the complete transformation of the state’s economy around climate change, including raising new taxes, enacting state funding for regional climate policies, investing in weather-dependent energy projects, and focusing on reducing consumer energy prices. ⁹

DEI

The Resources Legacy Fund explicitly prioritizes diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) principles in its grantmaking process “by directing funds to those who have been marginalized” historically. ¹⁰ The RLF’s website states that “Modern society is built, in part, on a foundation of elitism, racism, sexism, ageism, and other forms of oppression” and therefore, “Advancing DEI is a moral imperative and essential to our mission.” ¹¹

In 2019, RLF launched an initiative to increase its commitment to DEI. Since then, its staff and board have gone through “trainings covering topics such as implicit bias, anti-racism, cultural humility, and the history of the conservation movement, which has been marred by exclusion and racism.” ¹²

Grants

According to research from the Pelican Institute for Public Policy, the RLF contributed over $3 million to members of Louisiana Against False Solution (FAFS), a coalition of left-of-center environmentalist groups advocating against the use of fossil fuels and in favor of weather-dependent energy sources. The foundation is one of the 30 largest donors to FAFS. ¹³

In 2024, RLF gave $1.3 million to the Environmental Integrity Project, $1.1 million to the Center for International Environmental Law, $750,000 to the Clean Air Council, $658,000 to Taxpayers for Common Sense, $600,000 to the Stockholm Environment Institute, $586,000 to the Nature Conservancy, $576,609 to the RAND Corporation, $558,898 to the Earth Island Institute, and $295,000 to the Natural Resources Defense Council. ¹⁴

In 2023, RLF gave a $4.3 million grant to the Climate Power Education Fund, $2.5 million to Earthjustice, $1.4 million to the Hip Hop Caucus Education Fund, $1.1 million to the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, $970,000 to Earthworks, and $736,000 to the Watershed Research and Training Center. ¹⁵

In 2020, the RLF made a $100,000 grant to the Voter Registration Project.  ¹⁶

From 2018 to 2024, the RLF donated five grants worth a total of $243,250 to the left-of-center environmentalist group South Yuba River Citizens League.  ¹⁷

In 2015 and 2016, the RLF gave $170,000 to the activist group Union of Concerned Scientists. ¹⁸

The RLF gave a $25,000 grant to the Student Conservation Association.  ¹⁹

Fiscal Sponsorships

As of April 2026, the RLF is in the process of launching the Tribal Steward and Sovereignty Network to fiscally sponsor indigenous advocacy groups. ²⁰

The RLF fiscally sponsors the National Ocean Protection Coalition to oversee organizations that advocate for ocean conservation. ²¹

The RLF fiscally sponsors Beyond Petrochemicals, a coalition of anti-pollution advocacy groups launched in 2022 by Bloomberg Philanthropies. ²²

The RLF fiscally sponsors Climate Mayors, a network of over 350 mayors founded in 2014. ²³

The RLF fiscally sponsors the Center for Western Priorities, an environmentalist think tank. ²⁴

Public Health Alliance Project

Resources Legacy Fund has financed a project by the Public Health Alliance of Southern California to develop a “Green Infrastructure, Climate Resilience, and Health Equity Policy Agenda” at the local, state, and federal levels. The agenda primarily consists of promoting environmentalist infrastructure projects (like rainwater collection) with an emphasis on supporting minority communities, particularly indigenous groups. ^{25 26}

Open River Fund

The RLF runs the Open River Fund, a project launched in 2016 with a 10-year, $50 million grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. The fund claims to help fund and oversee the removal of dams and similar energy projects while increasing previous riverway access.  ²⁷

Resources for All

The RLF and the Better World Group helped craft the State of California’s Outdoors for All initiative, a program launched in 2023 to promote parks and open spaces in the state. ²⁸

Funding

In 2024, the Resources Legacy Fund earned $79,596,936 in revenues, $67,883,962 of which came from grants, with over $10 million coming from investment income. ¹⁴

The RLF has received funding from left-of-center organizations including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, ³ Arnold Ventures, ²⁹ the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, ¹ the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, ³⁰ and the Walton Family Foundation. ⁴

Leadership

In September 2025, it was announced that Phil Ginsburg, the general manager for the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department, would step down from his role with the Department to take the job of president of the Resources Legacy Fund as well as its partner groups Fund for a Better Future and the Shared Ascent Fund. He began the new role in January 2026. ³¹ Prior to joining the RLF, Ginsburg served in several roles within the San Fransico city and county governments, including as chief of staff to six mayors including future California Governor Gavin Newsom (D). ³²

Matt Armsby was the interim president for RLF, holding the role until Ginsburg took over in January 2026. Prior to the RLF, Armsby was an environmental law and policy fellow as well as clinical attorney for Stanford Law School’s Environmental Law Clinic as well as an Early Career Legal Fellow at the Center for Ocean Solutions. ^{31 33} As of 2026, Armsby works as the RLF’s executive vice president. ³⁴

Avi Garbow was the former president of the RLF, as well as its partner groups Fund for a Better Future and the Shared Ascent Fund. Garbow became president in 2021, succeeding Michael Mantell, the co-founder of RLF, who had run the group since 2000. ³⁵ Garbow stepped down from his position in November 2024 with Armsby taking over the role as interim president. ³⁶ Garbow had previously worked as an environmental advocate for clothing company Patagonia. Prior to this, Garbow served as senior counselor to the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) during the Biden administration, as general counsel of the EPA under then-President Barack Obama, and as a federal environmental crimes prosecutor at the U.S. Department of Justice. ⁷

Michael Scott is the vice president of programs at the RLF. Scott previously worked as a program officer of western conservation at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, as conservation director and then executive director and the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, and for the Wilderness Society. ³⁷

Jessica Goad has worked as the chief of staff of the RLF since January 2026, and previously served as the director of policy and communications since 2024. Goad formerly worked at Conservation Colorado as the vice president of programs and communications director. Earlier, she worked as the advocacy director of the Center for Western Priorities, a group that is fiscally sponsored by the RLF. Earlier in her career, Goad worked at the Center for American Progress and the Wilderness Society. ³⁸

Controversy

Marine Life Protection Act

In an op-ed at the left-wing Daily Kos, Dan Bacher criticized the Resources Legacy Fund for successfully backing the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA), a bill in California that supposedly put a significant portion of the California coastline under environmental protection. According to Bacher, the protected areas only prohibit fishing, and do not prohibit “offshore oil and gas drilling, environmentally destructive energy projects, military testing, pollution by corporations and cities.” Bacher attributes the passage of the MLPA to Nancy Vogel, the communications director of the RLF, who has a long history with the California government, including serving as deputy secretary for communications at the California Natural Resources Agency from 2015 through 2017, and assistant director for communications at the Department of Water Resources from 2012 through 2015. ³⁹

The David and Lucile Packard Foundation gave more than $8 million to the RLF to support its efforts to push the passage of the MLPA. ³⁰

California State Protocol Foundation

In 2025, the RLF made a $100,000 contribution to the California State Protocol Foundation, a private foundation that funds most of the international travel of Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) and is run by a board appointed by Gov. Newsom. According to a report from the Los Angeles Times, the Foundation is primarily funded by corporate donations, and since 2019, Newsom has received $72,000 in travel support from the Foundation. The RFL’s $100,000 donation to the group came shortly after the RLF hired Phil Ginsburg as its new president; Ginsburg previously served as Gov. Newsom’s chief of staff. ⁴⁰

Alleged Support for Lawfare against Energy Industry

According to a 2024 investigation by the Republican-led U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Accountability, the RLF and the New Venture Fund gave almost $11 million to law firm Sher Edling from 2017 to 2022 to fund lawsuits against fuel-energy businesses. According to the report, the for-profit Sher Edling “is leading left-wing lawfare to cripple the fossil fuel industry.” ⁴¹