Millions of Americans displayed concern about pollution and related environmental problems at the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970. The national staff coordinating the event realized that maintaining awareness required sustained support from both citizens and activists. To provide this support, the Earth Day staff formed two organizations: Environmental Action (EA) a non-profit political organization, and the Environmental Action Foundation (EAF), its educational tax-exempt affiliate. These two organizations operated together as a collective. In keeping with this concept, members of the Coordinating Council (CC), a governing body that linked the EAF to the EA, made all important decisions. The EAF, an environmental research and education organization, served as a resource to support the advancement of global solutions through research, education, litigation, and collective action. These goals were achieved through funding by government agencies, foundation grants, and individual members. The members were garnered through direct-mailing advertisements and telemarketing. The EAF also maintained a number of affiliates that share its goals. One of the most influential of these was the Energy Conservation Coalition (ECC), a body composed of twenty national public interest organizations including environmental, consumer, senior citizen, scientific, and religious constituencies. The four major program areas of energy efficiency, utility deregulation, solid waste management, and reduction of toxic substances were the main focus of the EAF's efforts. It also promoted solar energy as a safe and economical alternative to nuclear power. Working towards change in utility pricing structures, the EAFpromoted energy efficiency and protecting persons on low and fixed incomes. Recycling, source reduction, control of hazardous waste, energy efficiency, and renewable energy sources were also strong areas of advocacy. Working closely with the EA, as well as other environmental, social justice, consumer, public interest, business, and government groups the EAF seeked to achieve their goals. It promoted its policies through the dissemination of educational materials and resource information to students, teachers, and concerned citizens. Its bimonthly magazine, Environmental Action,, provided continued awareness to these groups. It promoted environmental education through additional publications, fact sheets, and films. EnAct/PAC, an EAF-affiliated political action committee, created one of the foundation's most influential publications, the Dirty Dozen list, which spotlights the twelve members of Congress who have the worst environmental records. The EAF also maintained a Toxic Team teaching citizens about toxic hazards in their communities. The federal Right to Know Act (1986), which was passed as a part of the Superfund, was central to the Toxic Team's effort. Despite promoting environmental education and recruiting new members, the EAF did not solicit its members' opinions on current and emerging issues. As a result, during the final years of the organization, membership declined annually at approximately thirty percent, while new members were not sufficiently embraced or retained. Combined with this, grants began to dry up and staff was forced to lay itself off. While there were once approximately twenty five activists staffing EA, by the dissolution of the organization there were only two or three. The board of directors convened in June of 1996 to dissolve both the EAF and its ties to EA. Since 1996, the EA was revived and continues to advocate environmental awareness.
From the description of Records of Environmental Action Foundation, 1970-1996. (University of Pittsburgh). WorldCat record id: 299575663
