Rivian has revealed the first $10 million worth of grants from the Rivian Foundation, three years after the EV maker vowed the philanthropy would receive 1% of its equity to make the “natural world” a “stakeholder in our success.”
The company launched Monday a website for the foundation that details 41 grantees who will collectively receive just north of $10 million in funding. The recipients are mostly in the United States, with a few falling outside the EV startup’s home country.
The website lifts the hood on one of the more closely guarded promises made by Rivian around the time of its blockbuster IPO. And it comes at a time when Rivian’s stock price has cratered from its post-IPO highs, meaning the hypothetical value of the 1% of equity the company contributed to the foundation has shrunk from $643 million to just $98 million.
Until now, it was unclear what the Rivian Foundation — and an adjacent entity called Forever by Rivian — would prioritize, where it would invest, and how its strategy might be affected by a diminished pool of capital.
The list of grantees begins to answer some of those questions, and shows a company focused on land preservation and conservation, agriculture, indigenous and urban communities, and renewable energy.
The largest grant of $2 million was made to The Nature Conservancy in August this year. Rivian says the gift will “help foster the collaborative efforts needed to ensure that critical California landscapes remain places where wildlife thrives, cultural resources are protected, and people are inspired for generations to come.”
Rivian also gave $1 million to the Ocean Resilience Climate Alliance (ORCA). ORCA previously announced Rivian Foundation was involved in a collective commitment of $250 million to the the alliance in late 2023, but did not detail the size of the gift. The majority of the other 39 grants range between $100,000 to $400,000.
Rivian revealed in October 2021, just one month before its IPO, an aspirational plan to create what it called Forever By Rivian. Founder and CEO RJ Scaringe, a vegan who is known to talk about climate change and renewable energy, announced his company was placing more than 8 million shares into Forever — 1% of its total equity, worth $643 million at the time — along with $20 million in cash.
Soon after, the company went silent on Forever. Rivian actually set up two entities to tackle the company’s lofty goal: Forever by Rivian, Inc., a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization, and the Rivian Foundation, a “non-operating” private 501(c)(3).
Tax filings show that Forever by Rivian moved nearly $25 million into the Rivian Foundation in 2023, but that the company distributed $123,250 that year – below the 5% of assets that U.S. tax law requires private foundations to distribute annually. The foundation was cagey as to where that money went, specifically, saying only that it gave $60,000 to “Natural Climate Solutions,” which is not a specific entity, but a concept promoted by groups like The Nature Conservancy and the World Economic Forum. It also paid $91,500 in consulting fees to Building Impact Partners, a New York-based philanthropy advisement firm.
It’s even less clear what Forever by Rivian has been up to since that October 2021 announcement. There are no publicly-available filings for the 501(c)(4), and in May of this year, its tax-exempt status was automatically revoked because it had not submitted annual returns, according to the IRS’ website. TechCrunch has reached out for comment and will update the article if we receive a response.
