Sea Grape Foundation is a private grantmaking foundation that supports organizations advocating for left-of-center positions on issues including environmentalism, healthcare, immigration, and voting access. ¹

The organization is partnered with several left-of-center organizations including Partners in Health, The Nature Conservancy, Carbon180, the World Health Organization Foundation, and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Foundation. ^{2 3}

Background

Sea Grape Foundation is a private grantmaking foundation that provides grants to organizations focused on left-of-center solutions to issues including environmentalism, healthcare, immigration, and voting rights. ⁴

The organization has partnered with various environmentalist organizations including Drive Electric, a campaign that aims to ensure all public buses are powered by electricity by 2030, all new passenger vehicles are electric by 2035, all new freight trucks electric by 2040, and all road transportation being “zero emission” by 2050. ⁵

Sea Grape Foundation also partnered with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Foundation, the charitable-organization arm of the left-leaning activist organization the American Civil Liberties Union, to assist illegal immigrants on the United States border. ⁶

Partner Organizations

Although there is little information on the Sea Grape Foundation’s grantmaking, the organization lists its partners on its website, which also states that the organization researches “prospective partners” and does not accept grant requests. ⁷

Partners for the Sea Grape Foundation include Harvard Medical School, Johns Hopkins University, Collins Lab, World Health Organization Foundation, and Drive Electric. ⁸

Other organizations include Partners in Health, a charity that provides health care services, training, and systems management to low-income communities in the United States and around the world; The Nature Conservancy, the world’s largest nongovernmental conservation organization; Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, an environmental research and education institution located in Israel; RIP Medical Debt, a private organization that allows donors to buy debt portfolios at pennies on the dollar, then forgive that debt on behalf of individuals; Carbon180, a left-of-center environmentalist group that advocates and lobbies for reducing carbon emissions with the ultimate goal of achieving “negative” carbon emissions; and Code for America, a nonprofit organization that works to develop digital and technological solutions for the expansion and more efficient delivery of federal, state, and local government benefits and services. ^{9 10 11}

Sea Grape Foundation is also listed as a partner of the Audacious Project, a project of the TED Foundation which funds organizations intended to catalyze positive large-scale social impacts. Many of the groups it funds have left-of-center policy goals, particularly related to environmentalism and social policy. ¹²

Lever of Change, a grant making organization affiliated with the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and ICONIQ Impact, announced that the organizations’ joint Larsen Lam ICONIQ Impact Award raised $24.25 million in 2021, which would be distributed between five organizations that focus on issues regarding refugees. ¹³ Sea Grape Foundation, which was an initial pledge sponsor of the award, chose to provide DREAMS for Refugees with a $2 million grant out of the $24.25 million. Other sponsors of the award, Chris Larsen and Lyna Lam, chose to grant $10 million to the Resourcing Refugee Leadership Initiative. ¹⁴

1. “Sea Grape Foundation.” Accessed May 10, 2023. https://www.seagrapefoundation.org/.
2. “Partners.” SEA GRAPE FOUNDATION. Accessed May 10, 2023. https://www.seagrapefoundation.org/partners.html.
3. “Just.” Accessed May 10, 2023. https://www.seagrapefoundation.org/just.html.
4. “Sea Grape Foundation.” Accessed May 10, 2023. https://www.seagrapefoundation.org/.
5. “Sustainable.” Accessed May 10, 2023. https://www.seagrapefoundation.org/sustainable.html.
6. “Just.” Accessed May 10, 2023. https://www.seagrapefoundation.org/just.html.
7. “Partners.” SEA GRAPE FOUNDATION. Accessed May 10, 2023. https://www.seagrapefoundation.org/partners.html.
8. “Partners.” SEA GRAPE FOUNDATION. Accessed May 10, 2023. https://www.seagrapefoundation.org/partners.html.
9. “Partners.” SEA GRAPE FOUNDATION. Accessed May 10, 2023. https://www.seagrapefoundation.org/partners.html.
10. Stevens, Mike. “Who We Are.” The Nature Conservancy in Washington. April 9, 2022. Accessed May 10, 2023. https://www.washingtonnature.org/ourteam.
11. “Carbon180.” RC Forward. Accessed May 10, 2023. https://rcforward.org/charity/carbon180/.
12. “About.” The Audacious Project. Accessed May 10, 2023. https://www.audaciousproject.org/about.
13. “Larsen Lam ICONIQ Impact Award.” Larsen Lam ICONIQ Impact Award. Accessed May 10, 2023. https://www.larsenlamiconiqimpactaward.org/news/press-release-over-24m-awarded-to-create-long-term-transformational-change-for-refugees-34
14. “Larsen Lam ICONIQ Impact Award.” Larsen Lam ICONIQ Impact Award. Accessed May 10, 2023. https://www.larsenlamiconiqimpactaward.org/news/press-release-over-24m-awarded-to-create-long-term-transformational-change-for-refugees-34.