Conservation Easement Acquistion Matching Funds
Compatible Lands Foundation (CLF) is fortunate to receive a great deal of funding from the Department of Defense (DoD), US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and other governmental agencies. Most government-sponsored funding for the acquisition of conservation easements requires a certain amount in the form of matching funds. However, the benefit to you, as a donor, is that you your tax deductible contribution will help to “finish out” a project where we’ve already secured 50%, 75% or more of the funding. In other words, you get double, triple, quadruple or more of the military readiness and conservation impact from your donation. Perhaps more importantly, without these matching funds the public funding for some very important projects could expire.
If you specify that you want your donation to serve as matching funds for the acquisition of conservation easements, we assure you that 100% of those funds will be utilized for the process of securing conservation easements.
The CLF Stewardship Endowment
Conservation easements are permanent – the terms go on forever, irrespective of who owns the property. Because CLF only owns development restriction rights, not the property itself – the ownership of which remains with the land owner from whom we acquire the easements, CLF has stewardship responsibilities. We are required to monitor, on an annual basis, to confirm that the terms of the easement are being upheld. In the event of an infraction, CLF is required to enforce the terms of that agreement. All this cost money, in perpetuity. CLF has established a Stewardship endowment to fund these activities. There are significant limitations placed on the use of federal funds – as such we must secure endowment funds from private sources – YOUR HELP IS REALLY NEEDED FOR THE STEWARDSHIP ENDOWMENT.
Stewardship is critical to our mission as CLF. Acquiring the easement is just the first part of the process. If we fail to monitor and enforce our easements, we fail to achieve our mission to preserve military readiness and conserve important lands. If you specify stewardship endowment with your tax deductible contribution, we assure that 100% of those funds will go straight into our endowment.
CLF Operationg Fund
Success in our mission at CLF comes down to the people in our organization that have committed their lives and passion to preserving military readiness and conserving land. We’re a very lean organization – 97% of our revenue is directly used to acquire and manage conservation easements. However, as is the case with any organization, we have operating costs – salaries, expenses, etc. The bottom line is simple THE MORE PEOPLE WE HAVE THE MORE LAND WE CAN CONSERVE. Our people serve the following critical roles:
