Campaign Exceeded Goal by More Than $5 Million
WASHINGTON, D.C.(Feb. 4, 2016) – The Land Trust Alliance, a national land conservation organization working to save the places people love by strengthening land conservation across America, today announced the completion of its first campaign, which raised $40.1 million in new funds. The total is more than $5 million above the campaign goal.
“It’s of course a wonderful thing to celebrate the fact that we overshot our goal by over $5 million,” said Frederic Rich, campaign co-chair and vice chair of the Alliance’s board of directors. “Forty million dollars is an impressive achievement for an organization of this size. But frankly, it’s not the money that matters. It’s what we were able to do with this money.”
Used to increase the pace, improve the quality and ensure the permanence of land conservation, campaign funds were reinvested as they were received across five years. The resulting initiatives – such as making permanent a federal tax incentive for land conservation and establishing the Terrafirma Risk Retention Group – have transformed the entire land trust community.
“The title of this campaign was Together: A Campaign for the Land,” Rich said. “The Alliance itself is all about having the nation’s 1,700 land trusts think of themselves as together in a single, national movement. Every land trust itself is all about a community coming together to save the places that define them. And those places that we save, those are places where people come together and where their differences seem trivial. So if you ask me how we succeeded in this campaign, the answer is absolutely the same: We succeeded because we did it together.”
Leaders of land trusts across the United States already appreciate the differences the campaign has made. Nicole Byrd, executive director of Solano Land Trust in California, said the Alliance “invests in all of us and they are genuinely invested in our success.” And Christine Johnson, president of the Conservation Foundation of the Gulf Coast in Florida, described the Alliance as her “go-to place for making sure that I am doing all that I can to save the land we cherish so much.”
For more information about how the Alliance is helping land trusts save the places people need and love, visit www.landtrustalliance.org.
Campaign leaders included: David H. Anderson, honorary chair; Michael P. Dowling, campaign co-chair; and Frederic C. Rich, campaign co-chair. The campaign cabinet included: Robert A. Ayres; Alan M. Bell; Lauren B. Dachs, campaign vice-chair; Peter O. Hausmann, chair of the National Council; Sherry F. Huber, campaign vice-chair of regional committees; Ted Ladd, campaign vice-chair; and William Mulligan.
Regional campaign committees included chair Ted Ladd, Lisa Cashdan, Scott Dickerson, Jameson S. French, Sherry F. Huber, Laura A. Johnson, Mary McFadden, J.D., Nicholas J. Moore, Julie Sharpe, Steve Small and Peter Stein for the New England region; co-chairs Peter O. Hausmann and Frederic C. Rich, Christopher E. Buck, Marjorie L. Hart, Alice E. Hausmann, Tony Kiser, Fernando Lloveras San Miguel, Caroline P. Niemczyk and Michael A. Polemis for the New York/Mid-Atlantic/Puerto Rico region; co-chairs Alan M. Bell and William Mulligan, David Hartwell, Kathy K. Leavenworth and Judith Stockdale for the Midwest region; chair Lauren B. Dachs, Maria Elena Campisteguy, Anne Kroeker, Glenn Lamb, Richard Leeds, Thomas S. Reeve and Darrell Wood for the Pacific region; and co-chairs David H. Anderson and Robert A. Ayres, Lise H. Aangeenbrug, Laurie Andrews, Michael P. Dowling, Lawrence R. Kueter, Penelope H. Lewis and George S. Olsen for the Rocky Mountain/Texas region.
About the Land Trust Alliance
Founded in 1982, the Land Trust Alliance is a national land conservation organization that works to save the places people love by strengthening land conservation across America. The Alliance represents more than 1,100 member land trusts supported by more than 100,000 volunteers and 5 million members nationwide. The Alliance is based in Washington, D.C. and operates several regional offices. More information about the Alliance is available at www.landtrustalliance.org.