Follow the Money: Deep-Pocketed Foundations Funnel Big Money to Radical Special Interest Group Honor the Earth
Honor the Earth is an extreme Callaway, Minnesota-based special interest group that opposes the carbon capture and storage projects that are revolutionizing American agriculture.
Winona LaDuke, HTE’s executive director, has attacked carbon capture as a “crazy idea,” despite broad bipartisan support for this groundbreaking technology.
Since 2013, HTE has received grants totaling more than $5.74 million from organizations giving at least $25,000.
The JPB Foundation, a foundation created by Barbara Picower, provided $800,000 in grants to HTE. In 2014, Forbes described her as “the widow of the biggest beneficiary of the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme.”
A leader in the radical fossil fuel divestment movement, the McKnight Foundation has poured $350,000 into HTE’s coffers. The McKnight Foundation is also a major funder of the anti-ethanol Sierra Club and the far-left Tides Foundation & Tides Center.
In 2021, Minnesota’s ethanol industry generated an estimated $6.1 billion of economic activity, produced 22,810 jobs, and contributed $2.1 billion to the state’s gross domestic product (GDP), according to the University of Minnesota.
| Amount | Grantmaker | Grantmaker Location |
| $850,000 | Taitanchi Foundation Inc. | Atlanta, Georgia |
| $800,000 | The JPB Foundation | New York, New York |
| $670,000 | The Poss Family Foundation | Brookline, Massachusetts |
| $500,000 | Kataly Foundation | San Francisco, California |
| $352,500 | The Schmidt Family Foundation | Palo Alto, California |
| $300,000 | Kalliopeia Foundation | San Rafael, California |
| $300,000 | McKnight Foundation | Minneapolis, Minnesota |
| $276,000 | RSF Social Finance | San Francisco, California |
| $225,000 | Northwest Area Foundation | St. Paul, Minnesota |
| $204,000 | Park Foundation | Ithaca, New York |
| $198,334 | Tides Foundation | San Francisco, California |
| $150,000 | Novo Foundation | Brooklyn, New York |
| $115,000 | Patagonia Org | Los Angeles, California |
| $96,000 | National Philanthropic Trust | Jenkintown, Pennsylvania |
| $80,000 | Seattle Foundation | Seattle, Washington |
| $75,000 | Mize Family Foundation | Seattle, Washington |
| $59,050 | Minneapolis Foundation | Minneapolis, Minnesota |
| $52,000 | East Bay Community Foundation | Oakland, California |
| $50,000 | Cloud Mountain Foundation | New York, New York |
| $46,500 | New Hampshire Charitable Foundation | Concord, New Hampshire |
| $45,000 | The Overbrook Foundation | New York, New York |
| $40,000 | Otto Bremer Trust | St. Paul, Minnesota |
| $37,000 | Maine Community Foundation | Ellsworth, Maine |
| $36,000 | HRK Foundation | St. Paul, Minnesota |
| $35,835 | Plusoneplusone | San Francisco, California |
| $35,000 | The Boston Foundation | Boston, Massachusetts |
| $32,400 | La Crosse Community Foundation | La Crosse, Wisconsin |
| $32,000 | Rose Foundation for Communities and the Environment | Oakland, California |
| $25,000 | The Frances Fund, Inc. | Northampton, Massachusetts |
| $25,000 | Women’s Foundation of Minneapolis | Minneapolis, Minnesota |
| TOTAL: $5,742,619 |