Earth Island Institute Inc.

Earth Island Institute Inc., a Berkeley-based tax-exempt nonprofit organization, acts as a prime recipient and sub-recipient in federal environmental grant programs, delivering technical assistance, training, and community engagement services focused on environmental sustainability, water quality, waste management, and natural resource conservation across rural and coastal regions.

Earth Island Institute operates exclusively in the federal grant space, with no contract prime or subcontract work in its award footprint. The organization holds 24 prime federal grant awards and participates as a sub-recipient on 11 additional federal grants across 15 distinct customer agencies. Its customer concentration splits across two funding mechanisms. By award count, the Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service leads with 8 awards, followed by the Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (7 awards), the Environmental Protection Agency's Office for Water (4 awards), and the Department of the Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service (3 awards), accounting for 69% of recent awards. The combined dollars obligated across all awards total $13.8 million against a combined potential value of $23 thousand — a 60,167% obligation rate indicating nearly all potential value has been drawn down and the portfolio snapshot captures mature, heavily invoiced grants rather than fresh procurements.

Representative prime grant work includes a $3,073,914 Inflation Reduction Act project grant from EPA Region 9 awarded January 1, 2025 (ultimate completion July 24, 2025) for environmental sustainability and community well-being programming in Wai'anae, Hawaii, integrating traditional knowledge with environmental monitoring and intergenerational learning, with Kingdom Pathways as a sub-recipient managing community engagement and local hiring; a cooperative agreement from the National Resources Conservation Service awarded September 30, 2024 (running through September 30, 2027) to accelerate program delivery and technical assistance to small-scale and historically underserved organic producers in the Midwest; and multiple Solid Waste Management Grants and Water and Waste Technical Assistance and Training Grants from the Rural Utilities Service (awarded August 30, 2024 and August 28, 2023) supporting technical assistance, training, and research on solid waste disposal and water infrastructure in rural communities.

In its sub-recipient capacity, Earth Island Institute operates the Capacity Collaborative and EFCWest (Environmental Finance Center West) units. Recent sub-awards include training and technical assistance for small public water systems under EPA-funded agreements with the University of New Mexico (February 10, 2026 and December 9, 2024) addressing compliance with Safe Drinking Water Act requirements; fish passage restoration design and permitting work under California Department of Fish and Wildlife sub-awards (May 6, 2025, duplicate listing; April 18, 2023) for steelhead passage at Maria Ygnacio Creek and Patterson Avenue Bridge barriers; schoolyard forest implementation and technical assistance under California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and Energy Minerals and Natural Resources Department sub-awards (January 22, 2025; July 16, 2024); and wastewater system training and compliance assistance under EPA Clean Water Act funding through University of New Mexico (December 20, 2023; February 17, 2024).

Activity has fluctuated moderately over the past five years — two awards in 2021 to a peak of seven in 2024, with six awards in 2025 and one in early 2026 — and only two awards face ultimate completion inside the next twenty-four months, indicating low near-term recompete exposure. The organization's grant portfolio centers on environmental education, community-driven science, water quality and waste infrastructure support, and habitat restoration in underserved and rural communities, often with emphasis on indigenous knowledge, local hiring, and multistate or regional coordination with state agencies, tribal entities, and university partners.