A Field Guide to Conservation Finance - Softcover

Clark, Story

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1597260606 ISBN 13: 9781597260602

Verlag: PAPERBACKSHOP UK IMPORT, 2007

Inhaltsangabe

Finally, a comprehensive book on land conservation financing for community and regional conservation leaders. A Field Guide to Conservation Finance provides essential advice on how to tackle the universal obstacle to protecting private land in America: lack of money.

 

Story Clark dispels the myths that conservationists can access only private funds controlled by individuals or that only large conservation organizations have clout with big capital markets. She shows how small land conservation organizations can achieve conservation goals using both traditional and cutting-edge financial strategies. Clark outlines essential tools for raising money, borrowing money, and reducing the cost of transactions. She covers a range of subjects including transfer fees, voluntary surcharges, seller financing, revolving funds, and Project Related Investment programs (PRIs). A clear, well-written overview of the basics of conservation finance with useful insights and real stories combine to create a book that is an invaluable and accessible guide for land trusts seeking to protect more land.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Story Clark is a consultant specializing in land conservation strategy and finance, advising conservation organizations and foundations in the Rocky Mountain Region and elsewhere. She has worked in land conservation and land use planning for over 25 years in association with (among others) the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Jackson Hole Land Trust, and as a county planner for Teton County. Ms. Clark currently serves on boards or advisory boards that include: the American Conservation Association, Conservation International, Ruckelshaus Institute for Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Wyoming, the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences at Duke University, the Wyoming Stockgrowers Agricultural Land Trust, the Tuckernuck Land Trust, and the Lady Bird Johnson Award Jury. She recently retired from the board of the Land Trust Alliance after serving two terms. She is a frequent speaker and instructor at land conservation conferences. She lives with her husband and two daughters on their family ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

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A Field Guide to Conservation Finance

By Story Clark

ISLAND PRESS

Copyright © 2007 Island Press
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-59726-060-2

Contents

About Island Press, 
Title Page, 
Dedication, 
Copyright Page, 
Acknowledgments, 
Foreword, 
Introduction: A Field Guide, 
Part 1 - Positioning Your Organization, 
Chapter 1 - Organizational Readiness, 
Chapter 2 - Financial Readiness, 
Chapter 3 - The Deal, 
Chapter 4 - Legal and Ethical Considerations, 
Part 2 - Raising Money, 
Chapter 5 - Raising Money, 
Chapter 6 - Traditional Fundraising Methods, 
Chapter 7 - Traditional Fundraising Plans and Sources, 
Chapter 8 - Voluntary Surcharges, 
Chapter 9 - Transfer Fees, 
Part 3 - Borrowing Money, 
Chapter 10 - Borrowing Money, 
Chapter 11 - Bank Lending, 
Chapter 12 - Seller Financing, 
Chapter 13 - External Revolving Loan Funds, 
Chapter 14 - Internal Protection Funds, 
Chapter 15 - Foundation Program-Related Investments, 
Part 4 - Looking Ahead, 
Chapter 16 - Reducing Costs, 
Chapter 17 - Putting It All Together, 
Conclusion: How It Could Come Together in the Future, 
Appendix, 
Glossary, 
Notes, 
Bibliography, 
About the Author, 
Index, 
Island Press Board of Directors, 

CHAPTER 1

Organizational Readiness

Ready or Not: The Hardeman Meadows

It was a "must buy" ranch. Three quarters of a mile of highway corridor defining the edge of one town and the gateway to another, and half a mile deep, dotted with grazing cattle. The pasture and elegant barn preserved the area's rural character. The ranch offered a tranquil foreground to the dramatic backdrop of the mountains. A beloved, local agricultural family owned it, but they were forced to sell due to family reasons. The father was a popular local auctioneer. The children were star ropers and basketball players. They were kind community people pushed to make a tough decision.

The family had approached the local land trust a year earlier. At the time, this young land trust was accepting donated easements and was not in a position to purchase expensive land. Because of the perceived risk, the land trust responded with a modest offer to purchase the ranch. In this conservative community, the land trust had been working quietly with landowners at their kitchen tables, soliciting conservation easement gifts. It was not interested in controversy or high-profile issues, fearing that they would jeopardize these essential relationships. While the land trust very much wanted to protect the ranch, it could not imagine risking money it didn't have.

The family turned to a developer who planned to blanket the pastures with townhouses. Once the negotiations were public, the community reacted; everyone was in an uproar. Newspaper headlines tracked the developer's every move and the public's angry responses. Eyes turned toward the land trust to find a solution.

The land trust could hide no more. Saving or losing the ranch was quickly becoming its defining moment. Although the community was activated to help the land trust succeed, it was an untested volunteer force—affluent but untapped to do more than support the land trust's $70,000 annual budget. The land trust's two-and-a-half-person staff was eager to take on the project, but its board of ranchers and donors was understandably hesitant. A crucial factor, though, was the land trust's board chair, who had run a major corporation.

In the eleventh hour, the land trust bit the bullet and risked its entire savings ($100,000) to buy a nonrefundable option. Then it set out to raise almost $2 million dollars in three months to buy the property. Before it signed the option, the land trust considered where it would find the money. It talked to a few donors. But in all honesty, it had little idea how it was going to pay for the land and had no commitments from donors for funds. The whole project was dangerous. It placed the fledgling land trust's existence at risk and threatened to dash the hopes of many in this new land conservation movement.

Over the next three months, the land trust threw its first big community fundraiser outdoors in a park in Wilson, Wyoming. It snowed the night before and into the morning. The county committed $500,000 to the project, only to withdraw its commitment when sued for authorizing the expenditure. Never having worked with a bank before, the land trust hastily arranged for a loan to cover the county's share. After the three months, with the county lawsuit still pending, the land trust had not raised all the money needed. It exercised its option anyway and squeezed out the last $100,000 in the final days. Less than six hours before closing, it completed a complex resale agreement with a conservation buyer for part of the ranch and a ten-year lease with another local nonprofit for the barn.

So why so much struggle and all the surprises? The land trust was not ready. When a land trust faces its first big acquisition, it can let the situation get desperate and risk everything—stressing its board and panicking its donors—or it can get ready in advance. Pushed by seemingly uncontrollable circumstances, many land trusts take the panic route. The impending threat of development has catalyzed the creation of many land trusts. Those that survive grow from the experience. But it is an unnecessarily difficult and perilous way to grow. Some readers may choose to skip this first section of the book because they are too busy saving land to get ready. But they will be back if they survive that first big deal, because no one wants to do it that way again.

How do I know? Because the "Campaign to Save the Hardeman Meadows," described above, was my first exposure to big money and time-pressured purchases by my small land trust. I wanted to do this deal more than anyone, but I had no idea what I was getting into. When the heat was on, a group of us had cornered our board chair, and against his better judgment, he agreed to recommend the project to our board. That decision cost him and others four months of sleepless nights, for only one reason: we were not ready. We had cultivated landowner contacts, but we hadn't cultivated other key community members, donors, and leaders who would have stood ready to help us in important ways.

Hard work by many, the business acumen of our chair, and lots of luck got us through. We made the contacts, but in a big rush. The project defined us and made us a stronger, more active land trust. It built up our donor base, and it makes me proud every time I pass by the beautiful Hardeman Ranch. But we could have gone under. There are easier and safer ways to mature.

I have done it both ways—the unprepared way and the prepared way—and I highly recommend the latter. Even when you are fully prepared, deals can be scary and unpredictable, so there is no reason to be unprepared as well. It is really not so difficult to begin getting ready now for that crucial moment when that most important place is threatened and the land trust must step in.

What does it mean to be prepared? It means being organizationally and financially ready and having the right project. I have made plenty of mistakes in all these categories. For the Hardeman Meadows project, our land trust didn't have an optimal board for purchasing land; we didn't have a large established donor base or prospects ready to write checks. We had not done a thorough feasibility study and didn't have a clear idea of our sources of...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: PAPERBACKSHOP UK IMPORT
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2007
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1597260606
• ISBN 13: 9781597260602
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 387
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: preigu; mail@preigu.de; ; Lengericher Landstr. 19; Osnabrück; 49078; Deutschland