The National Environmental Education Foundation Receives Millions of Taxpayer Dollars Each Year
The federal government is pouring millions of dollars each year into an environmental activist group that teaches children the United States exists on “occupied/unceded/seized territory” and offers tips on how to deal with “climate change emotions,” according to public spending records.
The National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF), a congressionally chartered nonprofit organization, receives annual government funding and has its board of directors appointed by the Environmental Protection Agency. It is also tasked with organizing National Public Lands Day, a celebration the president proclaims each year.
NEEF published “A Guide to Indigenous Land Acknowledgement” for participants to use during those National Public Lands Day events, recommending that hosts begin with a statement declaring that “local Native groups” are the “traditional inhabitants of the lands you’re on.”
Organizers should consider their “own place in the story of colonization and of undoing its legacy,” the guide says, and “make explicit mention of the occupied, unceded nature of the territory in which a gathering is taking place.”
NEEF included an example statement in its guide: “We would like to begin by acknowledging that the land on which we gather is the occupied/unceded/seized territory of the _________ People.”
The group coauthored the land acknowledgment guide with the Department of Arts and Culture, a nonprofit organization that recently published a comic book calling President Donald Trump a “fascist” and promoting a boycott against Elon Musk.
Another NEEF education program teaches middle school teachers how to “address climate change emotions in the classroom.” The organization claims that climate “anxiety” is widespread in U.S. schools and affects students’ daily lives, providing “guidance for channeling student anxiety into action” and “tactics to integrate climate emotions lessons into instruction.”
One lesson plan asks students to fill out a “Climate Emotions Wheel” in which they draw or write down their feelings. Proposed emotions include “outrage,” “despair,” “panic,” and “shame.”
News of NEEF’s activism comes after the first year of a presidential term in which the Trump administration and its Department of Government Efficiency sought to cut government funding for left-wing activist organizations. Unlike many that did see their taxpayer money run dry, NEEF maintains extensive financial and operational ties to the federal government.
While congressional charters for nonprofit organizations are largely symbolic—denoting a government endorsement—NEEF received over $2 million from the government in 2024, a number that makes up half its total funding. The group gets an annual appropriation from Congress through the EPA under the National Environmental Education Act of 1990, receiving $948,300 in congressionally appropriated money in 2024. That same year, NEEF raked in $1.2 million in federal grants from agencies like the Department of War, the Department of the Interior, and the Bureau of Land Management. Some of these grants are in effect through at least 2027, federal spending records show.
Permanently ending NEEF’s funding would require that Congress amend the 1990 law, but the Trump administration has used other tools to prevent taxpayer dollars from ending up in the hands of left-wing activist groups since January of last year. Trump has signed executive orders to halt funding issued through different pieces of legislation, and the administration has repeatedly argued in favor of its ability to impound money appropriated by Congress.
The EPA appoints NEEF’s board of directors, with the most recent appointments made during the Biden administration and including several Democratic donors and left-wing activists. Board member Kim Bailey also leads Justice Outside, a left-wing activist group that claims U.S. immigration raids and Israel’s intervention in Gaza are threats to “environmental justice.”
“Every child torn from nature by immigration terror is a future environmental champion we lose,” Bailey said in a recent statement.
Other board members include Arturo Garcia-Costas, a Kamala Harris donor and former EPA official under the Clinton administration; Sally Cole, a donor to former president Joe Biden; and Arielle King, described on NEEF’s website as an “intersectional environmentalist.”
In addition to the land acknowledgments and help with “climate change emotion,” one of NEEF’s lesson plans involves students watching a cartoon rap song promoting climate change activism.
“Climate change is real. We can see it in the fire, man,” raps one character. “Some don’t believe it. I just don’t understand it, fam. For those who understand, make a community plan. Shout out to you for lending a helping hand.”
The characters repeatedly chant “Love mother earth, One mother earth,” as the cartoon displays messages such as “Ride Bikes Not Cars.” NEEF encourages students to sign a climate “pledge” in which they agree to ask their parents to buy electric vehicles, switch to “ENERGY STAR® certified appliances,” and persuade their parents’ employers to join the “ENERGY STAR® Building program.”
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