The Conservation Alliance sent grants totaling $945,000 to 29 organizations working to protect and defend wild places throughout North America. The grants came from the group’s regular grant fund ($860,000), Public Lands Defense Fund ($45,000), and a board-driven discretionary fund ($40,000). The grants put the organization on track to contribute $1.9 million in 2018, another record.
The vast majority of the recent grants, totaling $860,000, came through the group’s Winter 2019 funding cycle. The Conservation Alliance membership includes more than 235 outdoor and related businesses that come together around a shared purpose to protect wild places for their habitat and recreation values. Each member company contributes annual dues to a central grant fund. The Conservation Alliance made donations to 22 grassroots conservation organizations as follows:
| Organization | Project | Amount |
| Alaska Wilderness League | Arctic Refuge Defense Campaign | $ 50,000 |
| American Rivers | Protecting Western Montana’s Last Best Wild Rivers | $ 50,000 |
| American Whitewater | Western Rivers Conservation Campaign | $ 50,000 |
| Appalachian Mountain Club | Campaign to Protect and Promote Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument | $ 30,000 |
| California Wilderness Coalition | Northwest California Mountains and Rivers and Central Coast Wild Heritage Campaigns | $ 50,000 |
| Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society – Yukon Chapter | Protect the Peel Campaign | $ 30,000 |
| Forterra | Maloney Creek and Forest | $ 35,000 |
| Friends of Nevada Wilderness | Desert National Wildlife Refuge Defense Campaign | $ 40,000 |
| Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness | Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters | $ 50,000 |
| Oregon Desert Land Trust | Diablo Mountain Inholding Acquisition Campaign | $ 25,000 |
| Oregon Wild | Oregon State Scenic Waterways Campaign | $ 35,000 |
| Outdoor Alliance | Protecting North Carolina’s Mountain Treasures Campaign | $ 40,000 |
| Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation | Falls Creek-Rocky Mountain Front Access Acquisition | $ 40,000 |
| The Nature Conservancy – Colorado | Fisher’s Peaak Ranch Project | $ 40,000 |
| The Wilderness Society – Colorado | Gunnison Public Lands Initiative | $ 45,000 |
| Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership | Safeguarding Montana’s Wild Backcountry Campaign | $ 25,000 |
| Trout Unlimited – Alaska | Protect Bristol Bay Campaign | $ 50,000 |
| Trust For Public Land | Hunger Mountain Headwaters Campaign | $ 40,000 |
| West Virginia Land Trust | Buy the Moon Project | $ 35,000 |
| Wild Salmon Center | Elliott Forest Campaign | $ 30,000 |
| Winter Wildlands Alliance | Campaign for Northern Sierra Winter Ecosystems | $ 45,000 |
| Yaak Valley Forest Council | Wilderness on the Kootenai National Forest Campaign | $ 25,000 |
| $ 860,000 |
“Our membership continues to grow, enabling us to support 22 important land and water conservation projects in this grants cycle,” said John Sterling, executive director of The Conservation Alliance. “Thanks to the generous support of our members, we’re on track to award a record $2 million in 2019.”
Each project funded during this grant cycle was nominated to submit a grant proposal by a Conservation Alliance member company. The Conservation Alliance staff and board evaluated 56 proposals and placed 25 projects on a ballot. The 22 grants awarded in this grant cycle represent the projects that received the most votes from Conservation Alliance member company employees. Collectively, these projects seek to protect more than 35 million acres, 2000 river miles, and halt one dam. The grants cover projects in the U.S. and Canada.
Four of the 22 organizations received funding from The Conservation Alliance for the first time: Oregon Desert Land Trust; Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation; The Nature Conservancy-Colorado; and West Virginia Land Trust.
In addition to the regular grants, The Conservation Alliance made three grants from its Public Lands Defense Fund (PLDF), and four discretionary grants. The $15,000 PLDF grants support Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, The Wilderness Society for their efforts to defend the Roadless Rule in Alaska and Utah, and Western Environmental Law Center for their work to defend the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. The PLDF is a special grant fund, launched after the 2016 elections, that supports efforts to defend the integrity of the U.S. public lands system.
The four discretionary grants – each $10,000 – support Methow Valley Citizens Council, Pacific Rivers Council, Park County Environmental Council, and Texas Climbers Coalition. Each organization presented a proposal to wrap up a project that did not need the scale of support that our regular grants provide. The Conservation Alliance board has the authority to make grants not to exceed $10,000 without running the requests through our usual grant review process.
For a complete overview of each grant, visit conservationalliance.com/grants.
