The Conservation Alliance sent grants totaling $500,000 to 17 organizations working to protect wild places throughout North America. The donations marked the Alliance’s first funding disbursal for 2011. Since the organization’s founding in 1989, the Alliance has contributed more than $9.3 million.
By a vote of the group’s member companies, The Conservation Alliance made donations to 17 grassroots conservation organizations as follows:
- Access Fund Boulder, CO – $25,000
- Adirondack Mountain Club Lake George, NY – $30,000
- American River Conservancy Coloma, CA – $30,000
- California Wilderness Coalition Oakland, CA – $35,000
- Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society
- Ottawa, Ontario – $30,000
- Conservation Resource Alliance Traverse City, MI – $30,000
- Deschutes Land Trust Bend, OR – $30,000
- Dogwood Initiative Victoria, British Columbia – $30,000
- Grand Canyon Wildlands Council Flagstaff, AZ – $30,000
- Greater Yellowstone Coalition Bozeman, MT – $30,000
- New Mexico Wilderness Alliance Albuquerque, NM – $30,000
- Out Ocean Portland, OR – $30,000
- Pacific Rivers Council Portland, OR – $30,000
- Rivers Without Borders Juneau, AK – $25,000
- Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests Concord, NH – $25,000
- The Wilderness Society (Idaho) Boise, ID – $30,000
- Western Rivers Conservancy Portland, OR – $30,000
Each project was first nominated for funding by a Conservation Alliance member company.
“Our members care deeply about the wildlands in their backyards,” said John Sterling, Executive Director of The Conservation Alliance. “We’re proud that our funding program gives them the ability to contribute real dollars to protecting those places.”
For the first time, The Conservation Alliance plans to contribute at least $1 million in grants in a single year. This first disbursement accounts for one half of that goal. The organization has budgeted to contribute another $500,000 in October.