I support land conservation mainly because I want there to be something left for my kids to enjoy.

I grew up in northern California, and spent most of my time outdoors. California's natural resources were (and still are) spectacular. As a kid, my family frequented Mount Tamalpais, Yosemite, Tahoe, the Redwood Forest, the Sierra Foothills and various lakes and small farms. I have fond memories of river rafting, hiking, and drinking fresh spring water in the mountains. Tilden Park (in the East Bay) was practically in my back yard, and they have their wonderful Little Farm, various nature programs, and day camps for kids. By the time I was 3, I had a pretty deep appreciation for what nature had to offer.

I currently live near Sandy Hook, New Jersey. It's a 7 mile peninsula with Atlantic Ocean beaches on one side, a bay on the other, bird sanctuaries, bike paths—with spectacular views of New York City, Long Island, and the Jersey Coast. And every year or so, there's an attempt to "open it up" to development. It's up to us to save what's left, and try to reverse the destruction of our planet, one acre, one river at a time.

 

Why I Choose To Support The Fund

I was checking Charity Navigator and The Conservation Fund stood out—big time! First, 97 percent of contributions go directly to the programs they are intended to support. Instead of producing slick commercials, the Fund makes every dollar count. They walk the walk. And the results speak for themselves: Almost 7 million acres preserved, among other accomplishments.

We've protected nearly 7 million acres of wildlife habitat, parks, historic sites, working forests and farms across the United States.

A hallmark of our work is our unwavering understanding that for conservation solutions to last, they need to make economic sense. Our land conservation work often has economic benefits, whether we're saving recreation destinations that attract tourists or protecting working forests that provide timber and jobs.

Corporate Partner contributions are highly leveraged: We have the lowest fundraising costs in our field and 97% of our funds go to conservation programs.

With your help, we can continue to make sure America's favorite places stay that way.

 

 

 

Tom Stults is a member of our Cornerstone Society, a special group of individuals who have invested long-term in our conservation efforts by making gifts of $500 or more for five years or longer.

Read his story:

 

 

My most enduring memories all come from time spent outdoors. My favorite outdoor place is the Sleeping Bear Dunes lakeshore in Michigan, which is actually a place that The Conservation Fund helped to protect. My family has been spending summers there for nearly 75 years, and to me it remains among the most beautiful places I've been. The area's pristine lakes, rolling dunes, peaceful forests and postcard shorelines taught me an early lesson about the value of our natural assets—not only for their own sake, but also for the well-being of the surrounding communities and beyond.

It is by no means the most "wild" of places I've enjoyed, but that lakeshore holds the most sentimental value. To me, Northern Michigan means time with family, a total refresh and an escape from television and routine. We fill our days with activities rooted in the area's surroundings. We hike the dunes, canoe the Crystal River, birdwatch on the bluffs, cool off in the Caribbean turquoise waters of Glen Lake, and of course fuel ourselves on delicious Michigan cherries and ice cream.

I believe it is our responsibility to leave our environment in as good or better condition as how we inherited it. We rely on our surroundings to sustain and improve our quality of life, yet much about the way we live is unsustainable. Land conservation and sustainability projects help to balance this dynamic and ensure a healthy world for future generations.

Why I Choose To Support The Fund

The Fund is the most efficient organization out there when it comes to land conservation and environmental sustainability. Not only is its overhead impressively low, it has the ability to quickly shift focus to wherever the need for resources is greatest. The Fund works with an amazing array of people and organizations to secure the best outcome for the areas it seeks to protect or improve. By donating to the Fund, I’m making a permanent impact with each dollar spent—work that has a future value well beyond the money used to make the project happen.

My father was an avid outdoorsmen and he took my sisters and me out hiking and backpacking from an early age. I’m 73 and I still hike and still enjoy exploring scenic and wild places. I have a long history of enjoying the outdoors and want to see the scenic outdoors endure for other generations.

There are so many worthwhile charities out there and I support a number of organizations that do different types of work. I decided to focus on conservation because it appeals to my interests. I would like to see my donation go to saving wild, scenic places and preventing encroachment from things like housing and roads and mining that have devastating impacts on nature.

Why I Choose To Support The Conservation Fund

The Conservation Fund was highly recommended to me by a friend. I looked it up in the American Institute of Philanthropy (AIP) and saw the Fund got an A rating so I know that the money goes to the mission of the organization and not to marketing and overhead. I know the Fund will use my money wisely.

 

Andy Walker is a member of our Cornerstone Society, a special group of individuals who have invested long-term in our conservation efforts by making gifts of $500 or more for five years or longer.

Read his story:

 

 

I grew up in a small town in East Tennessee, and spent nearly all my time in the summers running around in the woods. When I was old enough I started backpacking, canoeing, tubing the Hiwassee and rafting the Ocoee.

I have hiked and camped throughout the southern half of the Cherokee National Forest and the adjacent parts of North Carolina and Georgia, but my favorite place is the Citico-Slickrock Wilderness Area/Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest—it has both great views and great creeks. When I go to the woods I want solitude, and I once spent five days in the Citico-Slickrock and saw just one other person.

Why I Choose To Support The Conservation Fund

The Conservation Fund stands out from similar organizations because of its thrift, its cost-effectiveness. I know that nearly all the money I give goes to protect land, water, and wildlife—not to pay for a huge administrative bureaucracy.

Buying land and conservation easements is simple, direct, and cost-effective. So is partnering with local groups that understand local conservation needs and economic realities better than any national group possibly could.  These are the strategies that attract me to The Conservation Fund. I also like the fact that The Conservation Fund protects not just environmentally important places, but places of historic and cultural importance too.

The Fund's Online Community offers a wide variety of features:

• Send a free ecard!

 

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Conservation takes teamwork. The members of the Fund’s Cornerstone Society are a special group of individuals who have invested long-term in our conservation efforts by making gifts of $500 or more for five years or longer.

 

Through generous and sustained giving, these donors have become the cornerstone of The Conservation Fund’s success, enabling us to protect America’s land legacy every day. To celebrate the impact these donors continue to make, we are inaugurating them as the charter members of our Cornerstone Society. Together, we can save—and enhance—the places you love.

Won’t you join us?

 

 

To acknowledge your special commitment as a member of the Cornerstone Society, we will recognize you in the following ways:

• Per your wishes, your name will be listed in our annual report and on our web site

• Advance notice of Fund receptions, events and seminars

• Special invitations to visit project sites that you have helped to protect

• Personal visits from a member of our senior staff

 

 

With your help, we can continue to make sure America's favorite places stay that way.

We've protected more than 7 million acres of wildlife habitat, parks, historic sites, working forests and farms across the United States.

A hallmark of our work is our unwavering understanding that for conservation solutions to last, they need to make economic sense. Our land conservation work often has economic benefits, whether we're saving recreation destinations that attract tourists or protecting working forests that provide timber and jobs.

You trust us to succeed—and with your support, we do.

 

Your donation will allow us to:

 

• Conserve land so that our children will enjoy the same outdoors we do today
• Protect critical wildlife habitat
• Add acres to national and state parks
• Help cities plan and grow green space

 

This past year, with your support, we were able to achieve significant conservation goals:

• We helped add acres to public lands in places like the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona, Gettysburg National Historic Site in Pennsylvania and Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota.
• Our land conservation work preserved critical wildlife habitat for endangered or vulnerable species including the grizzly bear, the pronghorn antelope and coho salmon.
• We continued to protect access to the outdoors for families and kids through land conservation projects that benefit the Boy Scouts and YMCA.

Check out highlights from our annual report for more information about our achievements in 2010. 

With your help, we can do more.

 

 

3M Company

ACE INA Foundation

Allegro Enterprises, LLC

Allen & Company Incorporated

Allied Capital Partners, Inc.

Altria Group, Inc.

American Chemistry Council

American Forest & Paper Association

Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc.

Apache Corporation

Arch Chemicals, Inc.

Arch Coal, Inc.

Ashland Inc.

Avista Utilities

Bass Pro Shops, Inc.

Bayer Corporation

Bear Naked

Bella Figura Letterpress Invitations

Bellock Construction, Inc.

Bielinski Homes

BP PLC

Brown Investment Advisory & Trust Company

Burger King Corp.

C & S Wholesale Grocers, Inc.

Cambrex Corporation

Cambridge Systematics

Cargill, Incorporated

Carr Clifton Photography

Centex Homes

Central Vermont Public Service

Chevron Corporation

Chicago Title Insurance Company

Chico's FAS, Inc.

Cockrell Foundation

ConocoPhillips Inc.

CONSOL Energy Inc.

CORPORATE PARTNERS

Cox Enterprises, Inc.

CP Chemical

CSX Corporation

Dallas Safari Club

Dell Computer Corporation

Delta Air Lines, Inc.

Dinse, Knapp & McAndrew, P.C.

Disney's Animal Kingdom

Dynamac Corp.

E.I. duPont de Nemours & Company

Eastman Kodak Company

e-Blue Horizons, LLC.

Ecosystem Investment Partners, LLC

Edison Electric Institute

EDSA

Entergy Corporation

Entrix, Inc.

Environmental Banc & Exchange, LLC

Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc.

Exelon Corporation

ExxonMobil Corporation

Falls Agency

Flatiron Asset Management, LLC

Florida Rock Industries, Inc.

Forest Investment Associates

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold, Inc.

Gaiam, Inc.

General Communication, Inc.

General Mills, Inc.

Georgia Power Company

Gershman Brown & Associates, Inc.

Giaronomo Productions

Glatfelter Company

Goetze's Candy Company, Inc.

Goldman Sachs & Company

Gonzalez, Saggio & Harlan, LLP

Green Diamond Resource Company

Guest Services, Inc.

Harris Interactive

Hausbeck Pickle Company

Heritage Properties, Inc.

Hollier & Associates

Hyatt Regency Chicago

IBM

International Paper Company

Johnson & Johnson

Khronos, LLC

Lafarge North America

Land Rover Portland

Last Minute Deals

Legg Mason, Inc.

Lexus Corporation

Linea Architects, P.C.

Lyme Forest Fund, L.P.

Madison Dearborn Partners, LLC

Marriott International, Inc.

MeadWestvaco Corporation

Michelin North America

Minardos Group

Mindshare Interactive Campaigns LLC

Minerals Technologies Inc.

Mississippi Power Company

Mitchell Hurst Jacobs & Dick, LLP

Monsanto Company

Morgan Terry

Moyes Storey Law Offices

My Investment Co., Ltd.

National Association of Clean Water Agencies

NBC Universal

New Jersey Natural Gas

NiSource Incorporated

Occidental International Corporation

Outdoor Adventure Sales

Peabody Energy

Philadelphia Eagles

Pollack Architecture

Potlatch Corporation

PPL Corporation

Rainbow River Ranch, LLC

Rayonier Inc.

Reid & Company Executive Search, LLC

Resource Management Service, LLC

Revett Silver Company

Riverview Plantation, Inc.

Rolex Watch U.S.A., Inc.

Rosemore, Inc.

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.

Rust Insurance Agency

Shawnee Peak at Pleasant Mountain

Sheraton Hotels & Resorts

Slash Bar Land Company

Sony Corporation of America

Southern Company

Springs Global US, Inc.

Stanhagen Consulting, LLC

SunTrust Bank

Tengelmann Group of Germany

The Breakers

The Coca-Cola Company

The Dow Chemical Company

The Landwell Company

The North Face

The Sustainable Land Fund

The Timberland Company

The Westervelt Company

Toyota Motor North America, Inc.

TPG Capital

Training Resources Group, Inc.

TransCanada Pipeline U.S.A. Ltd.

Travelocity.com

TriNet

Triton Container International Limited

U-Haul International, Inc.

Under Armour, Inc.

United Talent Agency

United Technologies Corporation

UPM/Blandin Paper Company

Vulcan Materials Company

Wagner Forest Management, Ltd.

Weyerhaeuser Company

Wiedenbach-Brown

William McDonough & Partners, P.L.C.

Wimberly Allison Tong & Goo, Inc.

Wisconsin Public Service Corp.

World Class Charters, Inc.

Yale Electric Sales Company, Inc.

We work to save favorite places across America—from expansive vistas along hiking trails to local community parks. Our donors are dedicated, generous and we know they trust us to succeed.

But why do they give to us? With so many charities to choose from, they have their reasons for supporting our work. Get to know some of our donors and find out what motivates them to give:

 

 

Tom Stults From Massachusetts (by way of Michigan)

 

 

 

 

 

Gregory Voge From Nevada

 

 

 

 

 

Andy Walker From Tennessee

 

 

 

 

 

Dan Wilensky From New Jersey (by way of California)