Earth Day 2025: How Data-Driven Nonprofits Are Powering Environmental Impact

Each year on April 22, Earth Day inspires individuals, governments, and organizations to reflect on their role in protecting the planet. But for many mission-driven nonprofits, Earth Day is a call to action with the support of one of the nonprofit sector’s most powerful tools – data.

To stand out and deliver impactful results, nonprofits need credible, trustworthy data to guide their strategies and measure their impact, especially against the backdrop of fast-spreading environmental misinformation and rising donor expectations for transparency.

This Earth Day, we’re highlighting how leading environmental nonprofits can use data and intelligence tools from Nexis® for Nonprofits to monitor climate narratives and trends, verify partnerships, and secure mission-aligned funding.

Tracking Environmental Narratives in Real Time

Public perception can shape policy, philanthropy, and grassroots momentum. That’s why media monitoring is essential for nonprofits working in sustainability and climate justice.

With Nexis Newsdesk® organizations can:

• Spot emerging nonprofit trends around key environmental issues (e.g., net-zero targets, deforestation, clean energy)
• Identify where public sentiment is shifting geographically or politically
• Monitor the reach and impact of their own advocacy campaigns

For example, an education-focused nonprofit used Nexis Newsdesk® to monitor media coverage and policy trends related to education reform around the world. These insights helped inform their messaging strategy and position the organization as a credible, data-driven voice among funders and policymakers.

Environmental nonprofits can take a similar approach by tracking media narratives around climate policy and sustainability issues to refine their advocacy and strengthen funding proposals.

Connect with the Right Donors to Secure Mission-Aligned Funding

As mission-driven organizations, it’s important for nonprofits to connect with donors that are the right fit and share core values. Donors who align with a nonprofit’s mission are more likely to become long term supporters, spread awareness to attract new donors, and engage beyond financial contributions – such as volunteering and attending events.

Nexis® for Development Professionals enables organizations to:

• Discover funders with a track record of investing in environmental causes through comprehensive Donor Profiles
• Search for donors and prospects based on location, income, education, and more to match your ideal target persona
• Access 86 billion Public Records from 10,000+ sources*, ESG data, and more

Build compelling funding proposals with verifiable, up-to-date data is crucial to success. For example, The Nature Conservancy has partnered with corporations like Dow and PepsiCo to advance biodiversity and sustainable water use goals. Using ESG data to identify shared priorities and assess long-term environmental impact has helped both parties build trust and drive measurable outcomes.

Nonprofits can follow a similar approach using Nexis® for Development Professionals to identify aligned sponsors and present data-backed proposals.

Spotting Greenwashing and Vetting Environmental Partners

The risk of “greenwashing” is real, especially when it comes to performative sustainability. Whether it’s a supplier overstating its carbon neutrality or a partner misrepresenting its climate commitments, unchecked claims can damage a nonprofit’s reputation and damage trust with donors.

Due diligence isn’t just for financial transactions – it’s a crucial part of building and maintaining ethical partnerships for nonprofits.

With Nexis Diligence+™, nonprofits can:

• Conduct Diligence Profiling: Assess risks, map relationships, and identify red flags
• Enhance Risk Management: Identify people and entities that may be engaged in unethical environmental activities
• Unlock Easy-to-Report Scorecards: Get an overview of ESG data for over 30,000 entities including public companies, private firms, universities, and more.

This level of transparency allows nonprofits to confidently partner with corporations and collaborators whose actions match their values.

Powering Grant Writing and Advocacy with Credible Sources

Whether applying for a major environmental grant or lobbying for local policy change, credibility is key. Funders and policymakers expect well-researched, data-backed arguments.

Nexis+ AI™ provides access to:

• The industry’s largest collection of genAI-approved news datasets*
• Millions of company profiles that include current and past company filings, analyst reports, earnings calls, global news, and more –all in one view, with a single click to download and share an editable summary of key information
• First-draft reports that allow you to transform collected snippets of insightful data into digestible reports with only a couple of clicks

By incorporating these tools and insights into their proposals, nonprofits can quickly strengthen their case for funding and build momentum behind their missions.

Earth Day Is Just the Start

Environmental nonprofits have never had a more important role to play or a more complex information environment to navigate. As Earth Day 2025 prompts global reflection, data-savvy organizations are seizing the opportunity to lead with clarity, transparency, and measurable impact.

For nonprofit professionals working behind the scenes to build relationships, secure funding, and demonstrate effectiveness, Nexis® for Nonprofits offers a critical edge. With access to global media coverage, ESG insights, and powerful due diligence and AI tools, they can make smarter decisions, faster and with confidence.

Learn more about how Nexis for Nonprofits can help your nonprofit track media, uncover insights, and verify your environmental impact today.

Happy Earth Day!

*Access to U.S. Public Records content is subject to credentialing. Due to the nature of the origin of public record information, the public records and commercially available data sources used in reports may contain errors.
*Based on reports December 2024