Our Story

Our History and Evolution

Conceived at a meeting organized by Harvard Forest and the and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School, in 2007, the Conservation Finance Network (CFN) was formally founded in 2012 by conservation leaders Peter Stein, Brad Gentry and Story Clark following sessions at the Land Trust Alliance National Rallies and under the aegis of Island Press. A key partner in our evolution has been Yale University’s Center for Business and the Environment (CBEY), whose students and staff have helped put on events, create CFN’s web page, and develop case studies and other educational materials on conservation finance.

At the time of CFN’s founding, there were few venues to learn about creative funding and financing strategies, and many practitioners were working in isolation. CFN sought to respond to this by creating a “community of practice” to equip practitioners with the information, skills, and tools they need.

Since launching our first Conservation Finance Boot Camp in 2007, CFN has played a critical role to help elevate conservation finance within the land trust community and broader conservation movement. Key developments in CFN’s history include the Department of Defense Readiness and Protection Integration Program’s embrace of the program, support via the US Department of Agriculture’s Conservation Innovation Grant program that launched the Conservation Finance Roundtables, and a decade-long partnership with Credit Suisse (now UBS) to mount conferences targeting private sector leaders.

Today, we continue to run the Conservation Finance Boot Camp each summer, and put on one to two Conservation Finance Roundtables per year. We also explore key funding and finance topics through our Working Groups and select consulting engagements. Our in-person and online trainings, which include our Nature’s Returns webinar series, now reach over 700 practitioners annually, and our E-newsletter audience has grown to more than 8,000 individuals. Alumni of our Boot Camps and Roundtables—many of whom hold positions of significant influence—act as ambassadors for conservation finance and the CFN, contributing their time and insights as resource faculty and mentors.