Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs (SEE) is a left-of-center fiscal sponsor of start-up organizations which promote climate-change alarmism and radical-left views of America’s justice system and culture. Its mission is to provide back-office support for groups that it funds. As of February 6, 2020, it had provided financial and logistical assistance to about 120 groups. ¹

Despite its significant left-leaning positions and funding decisions, SEE’s largest outside contributions in 2017 and 2016 were to the pro-Israel Jewish group, Simon Wiesenthal Center; the grant was listed as a “donor-advised fund grant” on SEE’s 2016 tax return. ^{2 3} SEE has taken substantial funding from left-of-center institutional grantmakers including the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Sierra Club Foundation, and the California Endowment. ⁴

Mission

Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs was founded in the late 1990s. ⁵ Its funding goes to groups which promote animal rights, left-wing views on race and gender, and environmentalist alarmism. It provides three distinct types of logistical support with its grants:⁶

• Fiscal sponsorship to get groups officially recognized as non-profits to avoid taxes, apply for grants, and raise donor money more easily. ^{7 8}
• Organizational compliance to assist with filing IRS forms, procuring an annual audit, and providing legal and tax consultation in other areas of need.
• Administrative support such as insurance management, handling tax receipts, and providing internal policies on matters such as sexual conduct.

Fiscal sponsorship is SEE’s major form of getting involved with its start-ups. ⁹

Grant Samples

Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs’ donations went to a variety of groups in 2017, such as¹⁰

• Female to Male International, a group supporting sex-reassignment procedures. SEE donated $30,000.
• New Orleans Workers Center for Racial Justice is a political labor advocacy group which received $70,000 from SEE. One of the Center’s core assertions is that Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in 2005, was “man made.” ¹¹
• SEE’s largest donation in 2017 was $250,000 to the prominent pro-Israel Jewish non-profit, Simon Wiesenthal Center. ^{12 13}

One of many groups on SEE’s website which has its backing is We Re-Member. The group’s mission is to tie slavery to modern America’s racial challenges, and it describes America as a place of “transparent white supremacy and rising fascism.” ¹⁴

Another group on SEE’s website is the California Environmental Justice Coalition. The group is described as being “in resistance against environmental racism and injustice.” ¹⁵

Transforming Communities Initiative

One of Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs’ projects is its Transforming Communities Initiative. Launched in 2018, the Initiative had ground funding from a number of left-of-center organizations including George Soros’s Open Society Foundations. Its premise is that most criminal justice reform is aimed at jails, prisons, courts, and police. While the Initiative largely puts the blame for criminalization on police and the justice system, as opposed to lawbreakers, its purpose is to bring together individuals who want to help criminals and those impacted by criminals recover from the effects of violence and illegal behavior. ¹⁶

Funding

Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs had significant gains in its annual revenues in the last decade. Revenues have gone from $3.3 million in 2010 to nearly $11.5 million in 2016 and over $16 million in 2017. Its expenses in 2016 were nine million dollars compared to $13.4 million in 2017. Its assets in 2016 totaled eight million dollars compared to $10.6 million in 2017. ¹⁷

Leadership

Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs’ Board of Directors have significant activist backgrounds focused on environmentalism and left-progressive social policy. ¹⁸ SEE founder and president Andrew Beath also founded EarthWays Foundation and other groups. After time as a real estate developer, Beath developed his activist network. He serves on a number of Boards of Directors for apolitical and partisan groups. ¹⁹

SEE senior staff have significant backgrounds in professional and corporate work. ²⁰ Executive director Jennifer Hoffman has been in her position for 15 years as of February 2020 and sits on a number of boards and advisory committees. She is the cosponsor of a quarterly gathering of regional non-profit sponsors in California. ²¹

Trevis Bird spent 12 years in operations, events, and marketing at CBS Radio and other companies. He is SEE’s managing director. ²²

1. Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs, Mission & Purpose, Accessed February 06, 2020. http://saveourplanet.org/about-see/mission-purpose/
2. ProPublica, Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs, 2016 990. Accessed February 06, 2020. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/954116679/12_2017_prefixes_94-99%2F954116679_201612_990_2017122215045766
3. ProPublica, Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs, 2017 990. Accessed February 06, 2020. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/954116679/12_2018_prefixes_94-95%2F954116679_201712_990_2018121816014760
4. Data compiled by FoundationSearch.com subscription service, a project of Metasoft Systems, Inc., from forms filed with the IRS. Queries conducted February 25, 2020.
5. Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs, About SEE, Accessed February 06, 2020. http://saveourplanet.org/about-see/
6. Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs, Core Services, Accessed February 06, 2020. http://saveourplanet.org/about-see/core-services/
7. Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs, What is fiscal sponsorship?, Accessed February 06, 2020. http://saveourplanet.org/about-see/what-is-fiscal-sponsorship/
8. National Network of Fiscal Sponsors, “10 questions potential projects should ask a fiscal sponsor,” Accessed February 06, 2020. http://www.fiscalsponsors.org/pages/10-questions-potential-projects-should-ask-fiscal-sponsor
9. Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs, Core Services, Accessed February 06, 2020. http://saveourplanet.org/about-see/core-services/
10. Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs, 2017 990, Accessed February 06, 2020. http://saveourplanet.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/SEE-Form-990-FY-2017.pdf
11. New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice, About NOWCRJ, Accessed February 06, 2020. http://nowcrj.org/about-nowcrj/
12. Simon Wiesenthal Center, Understand Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Mission, Accessed February 06, 2020. http://www.wiesenthal.com/about/about-the-simon-wiesenthal-center/
13. New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice, About NOWCRJ, Accessed February 06, 2020.
14. Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs, We Re-Member, Accessed February 06, 2020. http://saveourplanet.org/projects/we-re-member/
15. Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs, California Environmental Justice Coalition (CEJC), Accessed February 06, 2020. http://saveourplanet.org/projects/california-environmental-justice-coalition-cejc/
16. Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs, The Transformative Communities Initiative, Accessed February 06, 2020. http://saveourplanet.org/p2pfund/
17. ProPublica, Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs, 2010-2017 990s, Accessed February 06, 2020. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/954116679
18. Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs, “Our Board,” Accessed February 06, 2020. http://saveourplanet.org/about-see/our-team/our-board/
19. Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs, “Our Board,” Accessed February 06, 2020. http://saveourplanet.org/about-see/our-team/our-board/
20. Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs, “Our Staff,” Accessed February 06, 2020. http://saveourplanet.org/about-see/our-team/our-staff/
21. Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs, “Our Staff,” Accessed February 06, 2020. http://saveourplanet.org/about-see/our-team/our-staff/
22. Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs, “Our Staff,” Accessed February 06, 2020. http://saveourplanet.org/about-see/our-team/our-staff/