Organizations Filed Purposes:
Climate Defense Project is a nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation and is not organized for the private gain of any person. It is organized under the Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation Law for public purposes. The Specific purpose of this corporation is to further climate justice through creative advocacy.
Climate Defense Project provides legal and intellectual support to the climate movement through legal representation, public education, and rights training. Its main activities are supporting criminal cases involving climate protesters, research, and publication of educational materials.
"Support for Developing the Legal Component of the Climate Movement." Climate Defense Project assisted approximately 20 attorneys and 25 activists engaged in litigation or legal campaigns related to climate change policy reform. This assistance took the form of legal research, scientific and policy education, drafting of memoranda and briefs, networking with experts, and acting as co-counsel at criminal trials and in appeals for climate change protestors. Half of staff attorneys' time was devoted to this service, for an expense of $37,237. Payroll taxes for this salary totaled $13,162. Travel costs to and from trials and from protest sites totaled $4,949. Bar fees, registration fees, and other entity fees for staff attorneys totaled $1,821. Information technology costs totaled $576. Office expenses totaled $138. Occupancy totaled $3,023. Other program services totaled $1,128. No revenue was derived from this activity.
"Public Education and Convening." In order to promote public awareness of the law surrounding climate change, advocate for legal and policy reform on climate change, and assist attorneys and activists in gaining knowledge about climate change and avenues for reform. Climate Defense Project produced or updated seven publications available to the public for free on its website (including legal reference guides and visual guides to the climate necessity defense); published blog posts; had staff quoted or featured in approximately 20 articles; and had staff publish articles and law reviews. Staff attorneys traveled to and presented at a major environmental law conference, a public interest law conference, and a continuing legal education seminar, and spent approximately half of their time fielding informational requests from attorneys and activists, promoting legal reform developments on social media and the organization website, promoting new legal ideas through the production of amicus briefs, and networking with climate scientists and attorneys. Half of staff attorneys' time was devoted to this service, for an expense of $37,237. Payroll taxes for this salary totaled $13,162. Travel costs to and from conferences totaled $803. Information technology costs totaled $576. Office expenses totaled $138. Occupancy totaled $3,023. No revenue was derived from activity.
Executives Listed on Filing
Total Salary includes financial earnings, benefits, and all related organization earnings listed on tax filing
| Name | Title | Hours Per Week | Total Salary |
|---|
| Kelsey Skaggs | Executive Director, Staff Attorney | 40 | $51,750 |
| Alice Cherry | Treasurer, Staff Attorney | 40 | $51,750 |
| Joseph Hamilton | Secretary, Staff Attorney | 10 | $4,313 |
| Daya Ramesh | Board member | 1 | $0 |
| Maria Marcum | Board member | 1 | $0 |
| Ryan Loney | Board member | 1 | $0 |
| Wayne Hsiung | Board member | 1 | $0 |
Data for this page was sourced from XML published by IRS (
public 990 form dataset) from:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/irs-form-990/201921849349300307_public.xml