Topic: Land Conservation

The National Philanthropic Trust’s 2017 Donor-Advised Fund Report found that the capital housed in donor-advised funds across the United States exceeded $85 billion in 2016. This represents an almost 10-percent increase since 2015 and a 28-percent increase since 2012.

Conservation managers and entrepreneurs who are looking to make their projects stand out as investment opportunities should be sure to supply the information that investors want. Impact investing experts interviewed by Conservation Finance Network expressed a surprising lack of interest in most impact metrics and measurements aside from carbon sequestration. They instead indicated that they prioritize honest assessments of risk. They also value an understanding of how an investment opportunity can fit into a larger portfolio.

There is a growing gap between available impact capital and conservation investments. This has become a major focal point for investment professionals in the field. One reason for this trend may be that conservation investments are not meeting investor expectations due to a lack of quality opportunities.

Among the piping plovers and marsh grasses of New Jersey’s scenic coast, environmentalists and communities are busy creating green infrastructure to shield the shorelines from storm damage while supporting local economies. The Coastal Resilience Collaborative, the New Jersey Resilient Coastlines Initiative, and the NJ Climate Adaptation Alliance are bringing financial and tactical resources to bear on restoring reefs, wetlands, marshes and dunes.

In our first episode of "Voices of Conservation Finance," we are excited to welcome Patrick Holmes, a Conservation Finance Network advisory committee member who shared stories of how his own professional development dovetailed with the expansion of the conservation finance field.

Simply put, business in its current form is a disaster for the environment. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Imagine businesses that make money by improving the land and communities around them. Imagine an economy that rewards those who nourish and restore the environment, instead of those who plunder and degrade it. What would those businesses look like?

National news coverage of Hurricane Harvey in 2017 painted a bleak picture of Houston’s ability to face severe storms. Some articles portrayed urban sprawl as having wiped out the city’s ability to cope with natural disasters, saying Texas policies were to blame.

LegacyWorks Group was founded to help donors and investors who are interested in achieving community and conservation goals to mobilize their capital in highly collaborative, impactful ways. In this interview, LegacyWorks Group’s founder, Carl Palmer, discusses the mindsets that allow philanthropic giving and impact investing to expand their horizons, accelerate their results, and reach broader goals.

While the field of resiliency investing is continuing to innovate, emerge and mature, it was incredibly clear from these conference participants and field practitioners that we covered measurable and significant ground since we gathered one year ago.

From its present stance as the only nation that is not a member of the Paris Agreement to its reduction of public lands protections at the federal and state level, the United States appears be failing to lead on environmental causes when compared to other developed nations. But while voters elected the officials who implemented many of these policies, the public seems to care deeply about conservation, as shown by popular voting behaviors for ballot measures.