{{Short description|U.S. non-profit organization}} {{COI|date=April 2014}} {{Infobox organization | name = The Conservation Fund | logo = | type = | founded = 1985 | founder = Pat Noonan | location = Arlington, Virginia | key_people = | region_served = United States | focus = | method = The Fund's Conservation Strategy is through balancing environmental preservation and economic development. | revenue = | endowment = | num_volunteers = | num_employees = 140 | num_members = | website = {{URL|https://www.conservationfund.org/}} }}
'''The Conservation Fund''' is a U.S. nonprofit organization with a dual charter to pursue environmental preservation and economic development. From 2008 to 2018, it has placed more than 500,000 acres under conservation management through a program whose goal is to purchase and permanently protect working forests.<ref name="The Conservation Fund">{{Cite web|date=2018-09-10|title=The Conservation Fund|url=https://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/the-conservation-fund|access-date=2020-06-21|website=Business Jet Traveler|language=en}}</ref> Since its founding in 1985, the organization has protected land and water in all 50 states, including parks, historic battlefields, and wild areas.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Conservation Fund homepage|url=http://www.conservationfund.org}}</ref> The Fund works with community and government leaders, businesses, landowners, conservation nonprofits and other partners to integrate economic and environmental objectives.
The Conservation Fund was founded in 1985 by Pat Noonan, former head of the Nature Conservancy. The current CEO is Larry Selzer. About 200 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, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Texas and Wyoming.
==Conservation strategy==
The Fund's services include land acquisition, conservation finance, small green business financing, community and economic development, environmental mitigation services, green infrastructure planning, and conservation training. The Fund 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.
== Timeline: 1985–2015 ==
1985 * Patrick Noonan founds The Conservation Fund.<ref name="The Conservation Fund"/>
2001 * The Great Lakes Revolving Fund was created in 2001 with a $4 million grant from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.<ref name="Mott" />
2009 * The Fund's Great Lakes Revolving Fund helped the Land Conservancy of West Michigan protect a critical stretch of shoreline that became part of the Saugatuck Dunes State Park on Lake Michigan<ref name=Mott>{{cite web | url=https://www.mott.org/news/articles/innovative-loan-fund-preserves-natural-habitat/ | title=Innovative fund protects natural assets in the Great Lakes basin | publisher=Mott Foundation | date=October 17, 2017 | accessdate=March 25, 2018}}</ref>—saving wetlands, dunelands and safe havens for migratory birds and other threatened species.
2011 * The Conservation Fund helped the National Park Service acquire a 95-acre property, historically known as the Harman Farm,<ref>{{Cite web|last1=Gettysburg|first1=Mailing Address: 1195 Baltimore Pike|last2=Us|first2=PA 17325 Phone:334-1124 Contact|title=Sec. of Interior Announces Important Land Preservation at Gettysburg - Gettysburg National Military Park (U.S. National Park Service)|url=https://www.nps.gov/gett/learn/news/harman-farm-aquired-3-25-11.htm|access-date=2020-06-22|website=www.nps.gov|language=en}}</ref> which was the site of significant fighting during the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg.
2012 * After a nearly five-year process, the Fund conveys the final piece of Rocky Fork, the largest tract of unprotected land in the southern Appalachian Mountains, to the US Forest Service in September 2012.<ref>{{cite web|title=Cherokee National Forest Press Release: 'Forest Service Acquires Final Rocky Fork Tract' |url=http://www.conservationfund.org/press-releases/rocky-fork-tennessee-2012/}}</ref> Tennessee named it the newest state park that year.<ref>{{cite web|title=State of Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation Press Release: 'Governor Haslam And Senator Alexander Name Rocky Fork Proposed Site For Tennessee's 55th State Park'|url=http://www.conservationfund.org/press-releases/governor-haslam-and-senator-alexander-name-rocky-fork-proposed-site-for-tennessees-55th-state-park/}}</ref>
2013 * The Conservation Fund plays an instrumental role in the protection of key historic lands for the establishment of First State National Monument in Delaware<ref>{{cite web|title=Delaware's 'First State National Monument'|url=https://www.conservationfund.org/projects/woodlawn-property-a-new-national-park-in-delaware/}}</ref> and Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Monument in Maryland.<ref>{{cite web|title=Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Monument|url=https://www.conservationfund.org/projects/efforts-to-honor-harriet-tubmans-legacy/}}</ref> * The Fund completes a decade-long effort to reunite and conserve a 30-mile forested property on California's North Coast with the purchase of Buckeye Forest.<ref>{{cite web|title=Buckeye Forest|url=https://www.conservationfund.org/projects/buckeye-forest/}}</ref>
2015 * The Conservation Fund partners with Apple.<ref>{{cite web|title=Apple Is Buying Up 36,000 Acres Of Forest To Conserve It'|website=BuzzFeed |date=16 April 2015 |url=https://www.buzzfeed.com/ellencushing/apple-is-buying-up-36000-acres-of-forest-to-preserve-it#.djzBX1l4m7}}</ref>
==See also==
Garcia River Forest (a forest in Northern California owned and managed by the Conservation Fund)
==References==
{{Reflist}} *Charity Navigator [http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=4537] *American Institute of Philanthropy [https://www.charitywatch.org/top-rated-charities] *Great Nonprofits [https://greatnonprofits.org/org/the-conservation-fund] {{more citations needed|date=December 2013}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Conservation Fund}} Category:Environmental organizations based in Virginia Category:Organizations based in Arlington County, Virginia Category:Organizations established in 1985 Category:1985 establishments in Virginia