At the Fund, we believe that protecting the outdoors requires more than just saving land. While safeguarding land is crucial, conservation should also be about supporting the responsible use of natural resources.
That's why we offer financial assistance to small green businesses through our Natural Capital Investment Fund. By supporting companies that offer environmentally sustainable products we're making sure there are ways to "go green" today and in the future.
One of the businesses NCIF has helped is North Carolina's FLS Energy. The company designs and installs solar hot water heating and electrical systems for residential and commercial customers. FLS Energy's products and services provide families and businesses with concrete strategies to reduce their consumption of electricity and fossil fuels.
General contractor Dale Freudenberger, building designer Hardy LeGwin and engineer Michael Shore came up with the idea for FLS Energy in 2005 on the rooftop of their kids’ school, where all three were volunteering on a construction project. They set up their first office in the boiler room of a former factory. With a dirt floor and a piece of plywood to plan on, they set out “to make solar energy mainstream, sooner rather than later.”
But they needed capital. That's when NCIF stepped in to help them with the financing to expand and hire staff —long before a commercial bank would have supported them.
The Results
Thanks in part to NCIF's loan, FLS Energy now has 80 employees and anticipates sales of more than $40 million in 2011. The Durham-based Council for Entrepreneurial Development just named the company a “North Carolina Business to Watch” and FLS is about to win national recognition for its fast-growing success from a national business magazine. Not bad for a small green business!
On top of its corporate growth, FLS Energy has invigorated the economy of western North Carolina, as its new employees buy homes and start families.
We're proud that NCIF is able to support entreprenuers who are committed to the sustainable use of natural resources. With help from supporters like you, we're able to offer resources to the people who are working to make our country greener.
In addition to conserving land for wildlife and recreation, we also support the responsible use of land and natural resources. How? We help small "green" businesses grow through our loan programs, like our Natural Capital Investment Fund (NCIF). NCIF helps small businesses that are committed to improving the environment.
Our Natural Capital Investment Fund is much more than just a lender. Funding from NCIF helps small green businesses build a foundation on which to grow.
We are able to provide critical financing to small companies—often family- or individually owned—that use natural resources sustainably. We recently helped Annie's Naturally Bakery, a family-owned business that is committed to using local high-quality and organic ingredients. Joe and Annie Ritota started Annie's in Sylva, North Carolina. With NCIF's financing, Annie's was able to open a second location in Asheville and give it a “green” makeover that includes solar thermal heating units and energy efficient ovens. Annie's plans to hire 10 full-time and 10 part-time workers in their new location, bringing the total number of staff to nearly 50. In addition to helping the local economy through job creation, Annie's expansion is good news for local farmers: Annie's participates in the North Carolina Organic Bread Flour Project, which helps farming communities struggling to maintain profitability.
NCIF is a critical lender to small green businesses, which may have difficulty qualifying for loans from traditional lenders because of their size. We help business owners like Susan Newman, founder of New Life Plastics Recycling in North Carolina. Susan founded New Life in 1998 as a recycling alternative for large industrial clients that would normally dump their plastic products in a landfill, an expensive and environmentally damaging practice. In 2009 New Life recycled 7 million pounds of material into products like DVD covers, drain pipes, and plastic boxes. When it was time to make necessary repairs and upgrades to its building, NCIF funding provided a financial boost that enabled the company to acquire additional financing from the Self-Help Credit Union. Together, the two loans allow New Life to repair its building and increase its working capital, allowing it to serve a growing number of customers.
Our conservation financing supports sustainable and responsible community development. NCIF financing is helping Green Opportunities—a nonprofit in Asheville, North Carolina that is "dedicated to improving lives, communities and the health of the planet through innovative green collar job training and placement programs." As a subcontractor to the Asheville Housing Authority, Green Opportunities wanted larger contracts, but was unable to finance the shift from small-scale residential jobs to large-scale, publicly funded commercial jobs without the aid of an NCIF loan. Green Opportunities used the funding from NCIF for equipment purchases and working capital so they could increase the number and size of their projects.
The growth of all of these businesses not only helps the environment but also creates healthy communities with strong economies. We know that for conservation solutions to last, they need to make economic sense. With tools like NCIF, we're making sure "going green" is more than a trend of today, but a viable option for people and businesses in the future.
In September 2008 The Conservation Fund announced that Texas’s largest wetlands mitigation bank opened for business. The Pineywoods Mitigation Bank encompasses more than 19,000 acres along the Neches River, traveling through Angelina, Jasper and Polk counties. The new bank will restore native bottomland hardwood forest and provide a wildlife corridor between Davy Crockett and Angelina national forests.
“The Conservation Fund is pleased to offer this important conservation resource to the public and private development community in East Texas. We see mitigation banking as an additional tool, like Pineywoods ecotourism and sustainable forestry, that we and our partners can use to help protect East Texas’s outdoor legacy.”
The Pineywoods Mitigation Bank has been approved to immediately begin selling mitigation credits to public and private developers who must compensate for unavoidable impacts to wetlands across a designated service area. Given its landscape-level scale and conservation value, the bank offers developers a unique opportunity to leave a positive environmental legacy. For conservationists, the bank provides a critical source of conservation capital in the region.
With revenue from mitigation credits, the Pineywoods Mitigation Bank will restore more than 13,000 acres of bottomland forested wetlands and an additional 6,000 acres upland to original condition as a self-sustaining forest indigenous to the Neches River Basin. That effort involves removing exotic and weedy plant species, replanting native trees and performing related restoration work. In addition, the bank will maintain and enhance scrub/shrub wetlands, emergent wetlands and areas of open water on the property.
As part of the mitigation bank’s formation, the Texas Land Conservancy holds a conservation easement on the property.
Private, industrial or government developers whose projects impact wetlands in the Neches River basin and select surrounding watersheds can purchase credits from the Pineywoods Mitigation Bank. The amount of mitigation credits necessary for a development project will be determined by a standardized assessment, based on calculations of development impact.
Significant private investment in the bank includes support from, among others, the Houston Endowment, TLL Temple Foundation and the Meadows Foundation.
The Pineywoods Mitigation Bank meets federal and state criteria for mitigation banks, receiving approval after review by an Interagency Review Team that includes the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Texas General Land Office and the Railroad Commission of Texas.
In 2002 The Conservation Fund launched its Great Lakes Revolving Loan Fund with a generous grant from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. Using capital from this source, the Fund provides technical assistance and bridge financing to nonprofit land trusts working to preserve resources within the Great Lakes Basin - the nation's most significant freshwater ecosystem. By 2007 the Mott Foundation's $7.3 million gift allowed the Fund and its partners to protect nearly 20,000 acres, valued at nearly $56 million, across the region.
The Great Lakes Basin includes all of Michigan and portions of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. This is the world's largest freshwater ecosystem, and contains 20% of Earth's fresh surface water. The basin's sand dunes, coastal marshes, rocky shorelines, rivers, streams and wetlands support a rich diversity of wildlife.
But often the areas with the highest ecological value are also the most sought after for development. And the need to respond quickly to land purchase opportunities is growing. Parcels held by families for years are coming up for sale. Rising property taxes are making it impossible for some landowners to keep their property, and mergers and acquisitions lead commercial owners to sell land for cash.
The establishment of the Great Lakes Revolving Loan Fund addresses the critical need of land trusts and public agencies to respond quickly to land or conservation easement purchase opportunities with ready funding.
Because the average wait for public funds or private fundraising campaigns is 18 to 24 months, the bridge funding provided by the loan fund can make a tremendous difference. In the case of many of the GLRLF projects, homes most likely would have been build on the property and the biological, scenic and public access resources would have been lost forever.
Under the provisions of the GLRLF, short-term loans are made to public agencies and nonprofit land trusts for the conservation of coastal and freshwater sites of high ecological significance. Fund are available for two primary types of transactions: direct loans to land trusts and advance purchase of land on behalf of public agencies and/or nonprofits.
Loans from the GLRLF have helped to protect places including:
With the repayment of loans, the GLRLF will be used again for conservation throughout the Great Lakes region. On average, The Conservation Fund uses revolving funds three times every five years. Because the GLRLF will be continuously at work, it has already preserved land valued well in excess of the $7.3 million corpus provided by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.
For more information, contact:
Mike Kelly
kellym@conservationfund.org
989.892.9171
Some of the best business ideas start small. Across farms, forests and whitewater rapids, entrepreneurs see business potential in celebrating or sustainably tapping the environment. But how can these ideas move from the drawing board and into the community? The Conservation Fund offers small loan programs that can help emerging or growing sustainable businesses get ahead.
The Fund’s ShadeFund™ is a microloan program launched in 2010 that provides small loans to green entrepreneurs.
While most microloan charities focus on entrepreneurs in the third world, the ShadeFund is aimed at American entrepreneurs and innovators who use natural resources creatively and responsibly to spur a greener economy.
Established by the Fund with a lead grant from the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, ShadeFund accepts donations from individuals, companies and foundations to help green entrepreneurs grow their businesses and create jobs. As soon as donations are received, they are pooled by ShadeFund and can be used to support qualified small businesses nationwide. Once the entrepreneurs repay their loans, those same dollars are recycled to empower new investments in green endeavors.
Eligible industries include sustainable farms, forestry and forest products, ecotourism and small-scale renewable energy production. ShadeFund loans range from $5,000 to $50,000 and can be used for working capital, as well as for the acquisition of materials, supplies, equipment and certification.
To apply for a ShadeFund loan or support an entrepreneur, visit: www.shadefund.org.
The Natural Capital Investment Fund (NCIF), an affiliate of The Conservation Fund, provides flexible, “patient” capital to small and emerging natural resource-based businesses that will advance sustainable economic development throughout West Virginia, North Carolina, Virginia, Northeast Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky.
In particular, NCIF provides up to $250,000 in debt or equity financing and targeted technical assistance to a broad range of environmental businesses—from specialty food producers to ecotourism and from biofuels manufacturers to multimillion dollar forest-products enterprises.
Supporting small businesses and entrepreneurs in rural communities creates more than just financial returns. The majority of NCIF's clients are in economically distressed rural counties where creating jobs—particularly in businesses that respect natural resources—is critical to a community’s very survival.
And, since the businesses are natural resource-based, they provide a reason to protect the lands and waters on which they depend, building a long-term foundation for prosperity and a sustainable business plan for conservation.
Learn more about the work of NCIF at www.ncifund.org.
Thanks to a lead grant from the McKnight Foundation, the $2.9 million Mississippi River Revolving Fund was established in 1994 to aid in the protection of wetlands, wildlife habitat, working landscapes, greenways and other natural areas in the ten states of the Mississippi River Corridor—from Minnesota to Louisiana.
Administered by The Conservation Fund, the Mississippi River Revolving Fund provides loans to nonprofit organizations and government agencies to aid in the protection of land along the main stem of the river or along key tributaries, as well as greenways that are part of larger regional projects. These loans enable groups to quickly acquire or protect properties using types of transactions: direct loans to land trusts and/or other nonprofit organizations, and advance purchases of land in partnership with public agencies.
Through strategic use of funds, The Conservation Fund will promote/protect water quality in:
Step One: Interested parties should contact The Conservation Fund for an informal consultation to determine whether a formal loan application or, if it is a request on behalf of a public agency, a Letter of Intent should be submitted.
Step Two: Applicants must complete and return a loan package form or Letter of Intent to The Conservation Fund at the address provided below. The Letter of Intent should outline the project, reason for the request, timeline of when public funding or other repayment revenue will be available, and an assurance that the title commitment, appraisal and environmental conditions of the property meet public agency standards.
Step Three: After an in-depth review of the application or request, a representative from The Conservation Fund will visit the property and meet with the board and/or staff of the applicant or agency.
Step Four: The Conservation Fund’s staff meets regularly to review proposed and pending advance purchase and loan transactions to analyze for each transaction the leverage of the deal and repayment plan. In the case of an advance purchase, a formal agreement will be prepared and, if it is approved, The Conservation Fund will proceed with the advance purchase and will then be reimbursed when public funding is available. For all loan applications, the committee will determine the amount and type of collateral needed for the loan. Collateral can include pledged cash assets of the land trust, promissory notes, letters of credit from donors, a mortgage or appropriate securities.
Funds are released as determined by the executed agreement.
Application forms are available by contacting:
The Conservation Fund's work to balance economic and environmental objectives requires financing to bring it to life. Whether through bridge loans to land trusts for conservation acquisitions or through small business financing to launch natural resource-based businesses, the Fund engages directly in promoting the sustainable use of financial and natural resources.
Unlike an endowment, 100 percent of every dollar invested in the Revolving Fund is used to acquire important conservation lands. Our Revolving Fund provides ready capital to purchase top priority lands for conservation across the country. On average, each dollar in the Revolving Fund is recycled three times in five years.
Administered by The Conservation Fund, the Mississippi River Revolving Fund provides loans to nonprofit organizations and government agencies to aid in the protection of land along the main stem of the river or along key tributaries, as well as greenways that are part of larger regional projects.
In 2002 The Conservation Fund launched its Great Lakes Revolving Loan Fund with a generous grant from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. Using capital from this source, the Fund provides technical assistance and bridge financing to nonprofit land trusts working to preserve resources within the Great Lakes Basin—the nation's most significant freshwater ecosystem.
Does your land trust need financing to make a project happen? The Conservation Fund, through its Land Trust Loan Program, provides bridge financing and short-term loans to more than 1,700 local nonprofit land conservation organizations across the nation to accelerate the pace of conservation at the local level.
Some of the best business ideas start small—and rural. But how can these ideas move from the drawing board and into the community? Two of our programs offer solutions to small sustainable businesses. Our ShadeFund is a microloan program that individuals, corporations and foundations can donate to in order to provide loans to green entrepreneurs across America. Our Natural Capital Investment Fund (NCIF) provides flexible, “patient” capital to small and emerging natural resource-based businesses that will advance sustainable economic development throughout West Virginia, North Carolina, Virginia and Northeast Tennessee.
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1655 N. Fort Myer Drive, Suite 1300
Arlington, Virginia 22209-3199
Phone: 703-525-6300
Fax: 703-525-4610
Email: postmaster@conservationfund.org