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:

Government Partners

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.

Community Partners

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.

Foundation Partners

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.

Business Partners

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.

Every community—and landscape—is different. That's why conservation calls for different solutions, from protecting land to empowering rural communities, strategically planning infrastructure, investing in sustainable business and using water wisely. At The Conservation Fund, we do all this and more.

How? We’re a nonprofit that treats conservation as our business. We provide the skills, strategies and funds that our partners need to fulfill conservation priorities swiftly and successfully. With support from donors, we partner with community, government and corporate leaders to protect America's favorite outdoor places and to conserve resources for healthy, sustainable communities. We operate leanly, with no formal membership, charitable endowment or political agenda.

The fuel that powers our work is our land conservation Revolving Fund. Our Revolving Fund works like this: when we are asked to conserve high priority lands for one of our partners such as the National Park Service or a state wildlife agency, we use our Revolving Fund to acquire the land and hold it until the public agency can buy it back from us. Upon repayment, we return the money to the fund and it is ready for the next land conservation project. Dollar for dollar, our Revolving Fund has protected more land than any other land conservation vehicle. It's the gift that keeps on giving.