About
NRDC (the Natural Resources Defense Council) is a New York-based environmental nonprofit that combines the power of more than 3 million members and online activists with the expertise of some 700 scientists, lawyers, and other environmental specialists to confront the climate crisis, protect the planet's wildlife and wild places, and ensure the rights of all people to clean air, clean water, and healthy communities.
Mission
NRDC works to safeguard the earth — its people, its plants and animals, and the natural systems on which all life depends.
What they do
- Litigation: NRDC attorneys litigate across a broad range of environmental and public health issues, and may also represent other nonprofits, community groups, and individuals. During the first Trump administration, NRDC sued 163 times and prevailed in nearly 90 percent of the cases resolved.
- Advocacy: from mayors' offices to Congress to international negotiating tables, NRDC works to persuade decision makers to adopt lasting environmental solutions, mobilizing coalitions and millions of grassroots activists.
- Science: its Science Office harnesses science to support an environmental movement that centers communities most harmed by environmental and climate impacts.
- Issue areas include climate change, renewable energy, fossil fuels, transportation, clean air, drinking water, toxics, forests and lands, fresh water, oceans, and wildlife.
- Where they work: across the United States (including regional programs in the East, Midwest, West, Arctic and Alaska, and Puerto Rico) and internationally in Canada, China, India, and Latin America.
History
On January 1, 1970, New York-based lawyer John H. Adams came together with other like-minded litigators to found the Natural Resources Defense Council, the first national environmental advocacy group to focus on legal action. Milestones NRDC cites include helping pass the Clean Water Act (1972) and Clean Air Act amendments (1977), litigation that contributed to the 1987 Montreal Protocol on ozone-depleting chemicals, forcing ARCO to pay for water-polluting activities in Alaska (1993), saving Mexico's Laguna San Ignacio from a planned salt factory (2000), fighting alongside residents of Flint, Michigan over lead-contaminated water (2016), helping block the Keystone XL pipeline, and pushing for climate provisions in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. In 2025, NRDC became secretariat for a coalition of countries working to create fully protected high seas marine protected areas under the new global high seas treaty.
Scale and impact
NRDC counts over 3 million members and online activists and roughly 700 scientists, lawyers, and other environmental specialists. It also maintains a 501(c)(4) affiliate, the NRDC Action Fund, and partners with E2, a nonpartisan group advocating policies good for the economy and environment.
Financials
NRDC is a 501(c)(3) incorporated under the laws of the State of New York in 1970, with a four-star rating on Charity Navigator and an A- grade from CharityWatch, per its website. According to its Form 990 data on ProPublica, for the fiscal year ending June 2025 NRDC reported total revenue of $248.9 million, total expenses of $212.0 million, and net assets of $539.0 million, with contributions providing about 90.6 percent of revenue.
Governance
NRDC is led by President and CEO Manish Bapna, with a Board of Trustees overseeing the organization.
