Unlike many philanthropies that fund already-existing green groups, the Pew Charitable Trusts, one of the country’s largest environmental grant makers, has launched major new campaigns and even begun its own organizations, like the National Environmental Trust and the Heritage Forest Campaign. Pew focuses on three issues — global warming, marine conservation, and forest protection. It was a big force behind the campaign that produced more than a million public comments last year in favor of former President Clinton’s plan to ban road-building on nearly 60 million acres of public land. The foundation will spend $52 million on the environment this year, almost five times what it spent in 1990.
