Our clients tackle some of the world’s most pressing environmental challenges. Together, we approach the work with rigor, integrity, grit, and creativity—challenging one another, our clients and, when necessary, the prevailing sentiment of the field in pursuit of greater impact. We frequently engage in long-term or recurring partnerships to provide flexible strategic capacity when it’s needed most. Over the last five years, CEA has supported close to $1 billion in grantmaking from a range of philanthropic partners.

Client Sectors

Philanthropy

We partner with philanthropic organizations—including endowed foundations, family offices, corporate foundations, and regranting entities—to amplify their impact and drive meaningful environmental change. With our subject matter expertise and capacities in program research and design, theory of change development, grantmaking strategies, and monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL), we help clients identify strategic opportunities, develop actionable solutions, streamline decision-making, enhance grantmaking effectiveness, and assess their results. Our services also include facilitating grantee convenings, fostering formal and informal collaborations, serving as outsourced program officers and staff to support grant sourcing and diligence, and developing and analyzing grant databases.

Nonprofits

We help nonprofit organizations strengthen their impact through developing and implementing strategies that align mission-driven goals with actionable plans. Our expertise in program design, organizational development, and evaluation enables us to optimize program effectiveness, expand reach, and ensure long-term sustainability. Our work can be very hands-on—incubating new programs, boosting operational capacity, and running searches for talent. Or it can be at the planning level—crafting strategic plans, business plans, or theories of change.

Sustainable Finance

We empower impact investors and program-related investment initiatives to unlock capital for transformative environmental and social change. By combining in-depth landscape analyses and impact diligence and measurement, we provide strategic guidance that informs and shapes sustainable finance strategies.

Private Sector

We work with corporate sustainability leaders, trade associations, and mission-driven businesses to integrate sustainability into core operations. With expertise in supply-chain sustainability, transparency, and sustainable leadership, we help clients navigate competing demands, mitigate risks, and implement strategies that drive environmental and social benefits. Our approach enables businesses to create value, strengthen resilience, and lead in the transition to a sustainable future.

Featured Content

“CEA brings a powerful blend of expertise, strategic thinking, and hands-on experience across climate, oceans and biodiversity conservation. Their team seamlessly bridges detailed analytics with high-level strategy, delivering insights that have shaped our work and continue to drive impact across the sector.”

—Alasdair Harris, Director, Ocean Resilience & Climate Alliance

“We believe CEA brings unparalleled expertise and a deep understanding of the climate field into our projects. Evidenced by their flexibility and collaborative approach, they are an ideal partner to help navigate the complex environmental challenges we face and a joy to work with. The team has provided us with insightful, tailored guidance and potential solutions that have led to incredible impact. To us, CEA is not just a consulting firm—they’re a trusted partner that makes it easy to turn ideas into action.”

—Katie Hunt-Morr, COO & VP Impact Platforms, ICONIQ Impact

“Our partnership with CEA has been instrumental in shaping and implementing our environmental strategy. CEA’s comprehensive approach and innovative solutions have not only helped us define our environmental vision but also turn it into actionable results.”

—Carlos Pagoaga, President, The Coca-Cola Foundation

“Our team engaged CEA for support as we developed a tailored strategy for the next phase of our rapidly expanding Agriculture Methane program. CEA successfully facilitated the process across a matrixed, global program to ensure full team engagement. We found them to be great thought partners. They challenged our pre-conceptions, helped us hone our unique value in an increasingly crowded ecosystem, helped increase our focus, and ultimately enabled us to level-up our work for greater impact.”

—Britt Groosman, Senior Vice President, Agriculture, Water, and Food, Environmental Defense Fund

“The CEA team became an extension of our own team, strengthening our impact with their deep subject matter expertise, strategic acumen, and flexibility and responsiveness to our needs. We so appreciated our collaboration with CEA and the close working relationship that we developed over many years.”

—Walt Reid, Former Vice President for Environment and Science, David and Lucile Packard Foundation

“CEA has been instrumental in helping us clarify and sharpen our organizational strategy. Their deep understanding of our space, combined with their thoughtful and collaborative approach, has made them a valuable partner in advancing our mission.”

— Gregg Treinish, Founder & Executive Director, Adventure Scientists

“EDF’s Climate Corps program has worked with CEA for over a decade to place hundreds of fellows with our corporate, government, and nonprofit partners. Across thousands of applications and interviews, I trust their insightful candidate assessments and their ability to warmly represent our program to potential fellows.”

— Ashley Medlar, Manager, Fellow Recruitment, Climate Corps US, Environmental Defense Fund

“We have appreciated CEA’s unique ability to understand our work and develop complex strategies that can address global issues with an eye toward pragmatism and an end goal of benefitting the communities we work in.”

— Ben Gilmer, Director, Large-Scale Fisheries, The Nature Conservancy