Since 2008 the Biolage and Matrix families have helped to “Spread the Love” to conservation. For four years in a row, Biolage has created special co-branded products sold in participating salons. Together with salon owners, stylists and the Biolage family at L’Oreal and Matrix, contributions have helped to protect and restore many of our favorite places—especially those that benefit from the Fund’s voluntary carbon offset program, Go Zero.
In 2010, Biolage launched a "Thank You" campaign to help give back to salon owners and stylists who were making a difference in their own environment. The concept was simple: Biolage’s website encouraged salon owners, stylists and clients to write a thank you note to each other. For each thank you posted online, Biolage would donate $1 to the Fund in support of our efforts to create a greener, leafier planet.
The campaign ran through 2010. Online response was fantastic; stylists and salon owners across the country embraced the program, and more than 22,000 thank you notes were posted to the website. Biolage responded by doubling its initial pledge from $10,000 to $20,000.
Tomer Bar (pictured at right), brand manager for Biolage, presented a $20,000 check to the Fund's Jena Meredith at Biolage's Spread the Love Imagination Matrix event in January 2011.
The 2011 Spring Renewal effort kicks off in April, benefiting Go Zero restoration projects at Lake Ophelia, Grand Cote, and Upper Ouachita national wildlife refuges. Biolage’s Hydratherapie brand has pledged an additional donation of $15,000 to help protect and restore coastal wetlands within the Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Maurepas basins in Louisiana.
2011 marks the fourth year Biolage has run a spring campaign to benefit the Fund's Go Zero program. The 2011 Spring Renewal campaign runs through June to help the Fund’s high priority reforestation and climate endeavors.
Already Biolage's Spring Renewal donations have helped to plant 13,500 trees at key sites including Grand Cote and Lake Ophelia national wildlife refuges in Louisiana. Matrix and Biolage team members learned firsthand the value of restoring these lands during a site visit to the wildlife refuges in fall 2010 (pictured at left).
As the forests at Grand Cote and Lake Ophelia mature, they are expected to trap an estimated 240,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and provide important habitat for the federally threatened Louisiana black bear.
The Grand Cote and Lake Ophelia project received gold level validation—the highest level available—under Climate, Community and Biodiversity (CCB) Standards, Second Edition. The standards are written by an international nongovernmental alliance that promotes land-management solutions.
Help Biolage “Spread the Love.” We'll help you calculate your carbon footprint and you make a donation to Go Zero today.
The PulteGroup Land Legacy Fund—launched in 2005 under the name Centex Land Legacy Fund—has protected more than 73,000 acres of critical conservation lands thanks to Pulte's generous investment.
Centex created an innovative relationship with the Fund to help protect environmentally sensitive land parcels. As a revolving fund, this program is different from others because investments are temporary and the dollars eventually are returned to the fund for future investments. The fund continues to operate with the original permanent donation Centex made six years ago.
Rather than let this donation sit idle, PulteGroup talked with the Fund about reactivating the program and putting the existing dollars back to work. We already have identified initial opportunities for us to get involved in protecting important land parcels in Arizona and Texas. Just like it was in 2005 when Centex first established the fund, investing in the conservation of sensitive land resources continues to be a win-win-win: for us, for the markets in which we operate and most important, for the environment.
The Fund has employed the ready capital of the PulteGroup Land Legacy Fund to purchase top-priority lands in geographies of interest to PulteGroup and its employees. Since its launch, the PulteGroup fund has supplied critical bridge financing toward 21 conservation projects in 14 states, leveraging additional conservation dollars and achieving dramatic results for wetlands, forests, and waterways from coast to coast.
The PulteGroup fund is used to pay for options, title searches, appraisals, surveys, environmental assessments, upfront staff costs, interest in fee and the purchase of conservation easements. As loans from the PulteGroup Land Legacy Fund are repaid by state and federal appropriations or philanthropic gifts, monies are available to support future conservation projects.
Total acres:........................4,233
Fair market value:...$6,350,000
This remarkable property includes unfragmented mixed hardwood and conifer forestlands running along 10 miles of Short Hills, a prominent range in the Allegheny Mountains. Cedar Creek, the stream that runs under Virginia's famous Natural Bridge is just east of the property. The land is habitat for many native species, including black bear, deer, turkey, ruffed grouse, bobcat, fox, beaver, songbirds and raptors. Additionally, the land contains a unique plant community under watch by the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation and is near other protected lands, creating the perfect opportunity to bridge these areas through green corridors.
Total acres:..........................2,568
Fair market value:...$12,500,000
At the headwaters of the Nanticoke River, the Fund recently protected more than 2,000 acres of land in the Glatfelter Forest. This significant tract marks the completion of a three-year, multiphased project of more than 5,000 acres—some of the last vast forested lands in this area. Within the Chesapeake and Delaware bay watersheds, this area will be preserved for recreational opportunities and wildlife viewing. True to our mission of integrating economic and environmental goals, a portion of the forest will be set aside for managed timberland.
Total acres:.........................16,050
Fair market value:...$52,250,000
Through a partnership between The Conservation Fund, the state of California’s Water Resources Control Board, Coastal Conservancy and Wildlife Conservation Board, and with support from Dallas-based Centex and ACE Group, approximately 16,000 acres of redwood and Douglas fir forests surrounding Big River and Salmon Creek were protected permanently from fragmentation, development and conversion to nonforest uses. Click here to learn more about the Big River Salmon Creek project.
How does an organization with no membership, no environmental agenda and no charitable endowment consistently get good conservation done?
Partnership.
At The Conservation Fund, we help our partners—government, community and business—fulfill their conservation goals. We provide real estate skills, infrastructure planning, bridge financing, community development and other tools to achieve these goals.
Our main partners include:
The story of American conservation began with a federal commitment that ultimately led to four land management agencies: the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (watch a short video about the USFWS here) and the USDA Forest Service. Today, we help each agency acquire and conserve the American landscape, including wild havens, popular parks, working forests and more. This work is possible thanks to critical bipartisan support from congressional leaders.
State, regional and local government leaders also play pivotal roles in protecting their communities’ favorite places, open space and natural resources. Every region has environmental features that define its character, provide clean air and water and support jobs tied to the outdoors. To help government partners identify, protect and enhance these resources, we offer strategic planning, conservation training and economic development strategies, in addition to our real estate services. In just one example, our Freshwater Institute offers engineering solutions to manage water resources.
Nationwide, more than 1,700 local land trusts work to protect community treasures, from places where people play outdoors to sites that hold history. To help these local leaders, our Land Trust Loan Program lends a portion of our own conservation capital to them for bridge financing—low-interest loans used to acquire a property while permanent funding is secured. We have lent dozens of land trusts more than $80 million. By doing so, we’ve accelerated the pace—and promise—of local conservation.
Many Americans believe strongly in traditions tied to our land—from farming, ranching and native experiences to simply passing down a cherished family property. We work with landowners to balance their economic needs and desire to protect their land for the future. These efforts can include placing a conservation easement, or legal agreement to restrict development, on property.
We help charitable foundations fulfill environmental missions with signature projects in their communities and program successes that reach across America. To generate high conservation returns, we consistently leverage private foundation dollars with public funds. Together, we’ve saved land and water resources, energized local economies and trained conservationists for lasting results. Some of our key recent and long-term funders include the: Richard King Mellon Foundation, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, McKnight Foundation, Mt. Cuba Center Inc., Peter Jay Sharp Foundation, Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, T.L.L. Temple Foundation and Robert W. Woodruff Foundation.
From Wall Street to Main Street, business is key to environmental progress. We welcome corporate contributions to land conservation and pursuit of environmental solutions, such as mitigation for environmental impacts. Corporate donors provide critical support for our work through collaboration, financial contributions and gifts of land. Our Go Zero program also enables companies to offset carbon emissions by planting trees that restore native forests.
Small businesses that sustainably use natural resources can make big gains for conservation. That’s one reason our Natural Capital Investment Fund invests in emerging and growing businesses across the Southeast and Appalachia.
Donating your BP Visa® rebate earnings to The Conservation Fund is one of the most effective ways you can help to protect America’s wildlife habitat, working landscapes, and recreation areas. Simply indicate the dollar amount you would like to contribute, and BP will mail you a check made out to The Conservation Fund.
Your gift to the Fund is an independent charitable investment that will directly support the protection of America’s highest conservation priorities. Donations from BP Cardmembers will be used to establish the BP Cardmember Land Legacy Fund, a program of The Conservation Fund’s Revolving Fund. These donations are leveraged and then reinvested in land protection efforts as many as three times during a five-year period.
With support from partners like you, the Fund has protected more than five million acres across all 50 states. This conservation legacy ranges from national parks and forests to wildlife refuges and community open space. Recognized as one of the nation’s top environmental charities by the American Institute of Philanthropy and Charity Navigator, the Fund’s 1 percent fundraising cost is the lowest in the environmental field. Fully 96 cents of every dollar donated to the Fund go directly to support land conservation, sustainable programs, community initiatives, and leadership training.
When you give to us, you don't get calendars or toys. You get results.
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Powered by: Phase2 TechnologyThe Conservation Fund National Office
1655 N. Fort Myer Drive, Suite 1300
Arlington, Virginia 22209-3199
Phone: 703-525-6300
Fax: 703-525-4610
Email: postmaster@conservationfund.org
