The Conservation Fund

The Conservation Fund is an American environmental non-profit with a dual charter to pursue both economic development and environmental preservation.

The Fund partners with community, government and corporate leaders to fulfill their conservation priorities. With these collaborators, the Fund protects what it calls wild havens, working lands and vibrant communities across the United States, with a goal of integrating economic and environmental objectives. Since its founding in 1985, the Fund and its partners have protected nearly 7,000,000 acres (28,000 km²) of land through projects in all 50 states.

Charity Navigator gives the Fund its top 4-star rating. The Fund has received this top rating for six consecutive years—only 4% of the charities rated by Charity Navigator have received at least 6 consecutive 4-star evaluations. The American Institute of Philanthropy consistently gives the Fund an "A +" and has ranked it as the top environmental charity in America for the past ten years. The organization earns high rankings because of low-fundraising costs (roughly 1% of budget) and a high percentage of dollars (over 96%) directed to programs.

Approach to conservation

The Conservation Fund is neither a membership organization nor an advocacy group. The Fund’s services include land acquisition, conservation finance, community and economic development, Environmental mitigation services, Green infrastructure planning, and conservation training. It works primarily with partners who have identified conservation priorities and request assistance achieving their goals. Frequent partners include federal government agencies—such as the National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service, and Bureau of Land Management—and state agencies, such as departments of natural resources. Land trusts, corporations, foundations and other non-profit organizations are also common partners.

Structure

Founded in 1985 by Pat Noonan, former head of the Nature Conservancy. The current CEO is Larry Selzer. About 140 full-time staff work in the Fund's headquarters, located in Arlington, Virginia and in offices in several states across the U.S. including California, Florida, Minnesota, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Texas and Wyoming.

The Conservation Fund stresses that its work is as much about "people as it is about places" and they do a lot of work in rural areas, assisting people with sustainable food production and managing the natural resources in their area, including freshwater and forests.

Below is a list of a few of the programs affiliated with the Fund:

• The National Capital Investment Fund is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that provides financing and small business loans to natural resource-based small businesses in rural areas. Started in 2001 in West Virginia, it has expanded to include North Carolina, Northeast Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, West Virginia, Southeast Ohio and Appalachian Kentucky. NCIF is certified as a Community Development Financial Institution Fund (CDFI) by the U.S. Department of the Treasury's CDFI Fund. CDFIs are private, specialized financial institutions that are targeted to borrowers who cannot meet the credit standards of traditional financial institutions because of perceived credit risk. NCIF is also certified by the U.S. Department of the Treasury as a Community Development Entity (CDE), having met the eligibility requirements set forth in the New Markets Tax Credit Program (NMTC) statute.

• ShadeFund was established by The Conservation Fund with a lead grant from the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities and Mercedes-Benz USA in 2010. It is similar to Kiva in that it provides microloans to entrepreneurs and innovators. What makes ShadeFund different is that it provides loans exclusively to American business owners who use natural resources creatively and responsibly. The goal is to help small businesses and support green jobs and the green economy in America.

• Land Trust Loan Program, provides bridge financing and real estate expertise to land trusts. The program started in 1993 and has a revolving fund of $15 million. To date, the program has provided more than $85 million dollars in more than 150 loans to roughly 100 land trusts.

• The Conservation Leadership Network's offers courses ranging from understanding mitigation banking, green infrastructure planning, the use of GIS tools for strategic conservation and training in the design and management of water reuse tools.

• The Resourceful Communities Program has been operating in North Carolina since 1991. This program helps under served communities protect and restore natural resources.

• The Freshwater Institute, located in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, launched in 1987 and conducts research, development, and training in water resource management, including developing technology and providing engineering services for aquaculture systems.

• Go Zero, is a voluntary, philanthropic carbon offset program. Through the Go Zero carbon calculator individuals or companies can measure their carbon dioxide emissions and donate to offset their carbon footprint. Go Zero plants native trees in protected parks and national wildlife refuges across the nation usually in partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The areas are selected based on the need for reforestation and restoration. Since 2006, Go Zero has planted more than 1 million carbon-storing trees primarily in the Southeast and Gulf Coast region.

References

Charity Navigator [1]
American Institute of Philanthropy [2]
Great Nonprofits [3]

External links

• Official website