Started in early 1996, GreenInfo Network was envisioned as a pathway for non-profits to access the power of computer based mapping and related visualization and analysis.

GreenInfo Network was founded by Larry Orman, who was stepping down as the executive director of Greenbelt Alliance, At Greenbelt Alliance, computer mapping had created the "land at risk" concept to show the threats of development in the San Francisco Bay Area (a strategy now being used by several other environmental groups in the US).

The initial idea behind GreenInfo was to focus on bringing GIS capacity into a wide range of organizations – allowing them to install the software, get trained in how to use it and to conduct their own maps. While appropriate for some groups, this strategy proved not to be as useful or easy to manage as GreenInfo's current approach that focuses mostly on doing projects for individual groups or coalitions of groups. While GreenInfo still provides support to those groups who want to install GIS, it's not the primary activity.

The earliest support for GreenInfo Network came from the US Forest Service's Urban Forestry program which made four grants in regions of the US to support "urban greenspace" planning. Led by Greenbelt Alliance, the Open Lands Project in Chicago, the Greenspace Alliance in Philadelphia and the Regional Plan Association in New York, this experiment attempted to place the protection and enhancement of urban forests in a larger metropolitan context. In the Bay Area, this project included assessing the potential for an organization to support other groups using GIS – it was out of this work that GreenInfo came.

Hosted administratively by Greenbelt Alliance, GreenInfo Network received its early funding from the Surdna Foundation along with very generous grants of equipment from Hewlett Packard Company and software from ESRI and MapInfo Corporation Additional grant support came from the Hewlett Foundation and the Compton Foundation. 

Beginning with just two staff and occasional volunteers in its first year, GreenInfo developed its basic capabilities and learned lessons about making technology work with limited resources. By mid-1998, GreenInfo's methods and capabilities were established and we began to expand our staff to handle the growing demand for our work, eventually building a core of nine professional staff ten years later 

While we mainly work in California, we also support national groups and groups in regions where GIS services are hard to come by. In addition, we maintain an ongoing interest in helping similar non-profit GIS support organizations get established in other parts of the country.

PS: We sometimes get asked why our name remains "Green"Info Network, when we do so much more than just environmental mapping. The answer is simply tradition – we've become widely known for what we do and it would be confusing to launch a new name. As far as the "network" part goes, our 300 client groups have shown that they are truly that.

The GreenInfo Network office in 1996