The Spring Street Climate Fund

Advocacy

NY Heat

The Spring Street Climate Fund’s “NY Heat” campaign supports the NY Heat Act to decrease the use of natural gas within New York State. In 2024, the Fund launched targeted ads against 30 state legislators who opposed the Act. ^{1 3}

Local Law 97

The Fund has advocated New York City’s Local Law 97, which sets carbon caps on New York City’s largest buildings. The Fund also founded the Green Co-op Council to ensure building owners in the city comply with the law. ¹

Bucks for Boilers

The group’s “Bucks for Boilers” campaign was launched to advocate support to 2024 legislation intending to remove fossil fuel-related heat sources such as boilers from New York City buildings. ¹

Clean Rides

The Fund’s “Clean Rides” campaign supports New York state legislation intended to reduce the state’s annual vehicle miles by 20 percent by 2050 through moving state funding from highway expansion projects and be used for expanding low-pollution travel methods such as biking and hiking paths. ¹

Leadership Training

The Fund manages a leadership training program to train the leaders of similar grantmaking nonprofits and advocacy groups. As of May 2025, the Fund claims to have trained roughly 100 activists. ¹

Grants

In 2023, the Spring Street Climate Fund spent $380,000 on contributions and grants. The Fund donated $50,000 to the New York Communities Organizing Fund Inc.; $40,000 to the Alliance for a Green Economy; $30,000 each to the New York Public Interest Research Group Fund Inc., the NYC Environmental Justice Alliance, the Tri State Transportation Campaign, and the Waterfront Alliance; $25,000 each to the Environmental Defense Fund and Catskill Mountainkeeper; $20,000 each to the Tides Foundation, West Harlem Environmental Action Inc., Environmental Advocates NY, Food and Water Watch Inc., and the Coney Island Beautification Project Inc.;, and $15,000 to Multiplier. ⁴

Funding

In 2024, the Fund received two grants worth a total of $50,000 from the Park Foundation. In 2023, the Fund received a $75,000 grant from the Foundation. ²

The Fund has received two grants from the Seed Fund, $20,000 for “Clean Transportation” advocacy in 2024, and $15,000 for “Zero Emission School Buses” in 2023. ⁵

The Fund has received funding from the Lily Auchincloss Foundation. ⁶

Leadership

John Raskin has worked as the president and a board member of the Spring Street Climate Fund since its founding in 2021. From 2012 to 2020, he worked as the executive director of the Riders Alliance, a left-of-center New York City-based transit advocacy group. From 2008 to 2011, Raskin was the chief of staff to then-New York State Senator Daniel Squadron (D-Brooklyn). In 2023, Raskin received $54,291 in compensation from the Fund. ^{4 7}

Sonia Isard has worked as the managing director of the Fund since 2021. From 2014 to 2021, Isard was a deputy director of the Riders Alliance. ⁸

Elizabeth Oh has worked as a campaign manager of the Fund since October 2023. She also works as a campaign consultant for the Green New Deal Network. From 2022 to 2023, she was a coalition organizer at Public Power NJ. From 2021 to 2022, Oh worked as an organizing director at Citizen Action of New York. Earlier, Oh worked at the Legal Aid Society of New York and FWD.us. ⁹

Shay O’Reilly previously worked as a campaign manager of the Fund from 2023 to 2025 until he left to work as a senior international campaigner for Beyond Fossil Fuels. From 2016 to 2023, O’Reilly was a senior organizing representative of the Sierra Club. Prior to joining the Sierra Club, he worked at the Center for Earth Ethics. ¹⁰

Tabitha Decker has chaired the Spring Street Climate Fund board since 2021 and has worked as the deputy executive director of Next100, a left-of-center activist training think tank, since 2024. From 2015 to 2023, Decker worked in several roles at New York City advocacy group TransitCenter. ¹¹