$500,000 Matching Gift Challenge

$500,000 Matching Gift Challenge — You Make the Difference!

Thank you! Nearly 900 of you made match-eligible gifts to the Alliance during the Challenge to help us meet the $500,000 Challenge goal! Although we’ve met the goal for this year, we are aiming to exceed it as evidence to the Challenge sponsors that our community is as heavily invested as possible. Until December 31st, we will continue to report every gift from new supporters and increased gifts from renewing supporters to our Challenge sponsors. Your gift will help make the case for their renewed lead investments in 2008.

Contribute today to the Land Trust Alliance and double the impact of your gift to strengthen land conservation across America.

Whether you have personally supported the Land Trust Alliance this year—or come to us as a new member — five Alliance donors want to encourage you to invest in our shared work today.

That is why they have created a $500,000 Pooled Challenge Fund that will match all new and increased giving dollar for dollar up to $100,000 per supporter. But we need your help to immediately secure the $500,000 in Challenge pledges from the Fund sponsors. Once matched with your help, the $500,000 Challenge will result in a total of $1 Million in critically needed funds to ensure that land trusts can protect the places you value.

Why now? Expanding our Community to Meet New Challenges

The Land Trust Alliance is truly grateful to all our loyal supporters, a small but extremely generous group of 2,000 people across America who have fueled everything that we do. Because our donor base is small, they have continually stepped up when needed to ensure the success of the land trust movement. Take last year, when our community increased its giving to help pass the new conservation tax incentive, launch the Land Trust Accreditation Commission, and publicize the valuable work of land trusts to millions of Americans through local and national media.

We are particularly grateful to a group of individuals who made leadership gifts last year to advance private land conservation at one of our most challenging and historic moments. The simple truth is that the private land conservation movement stands at a crossroad, and it will take more people dedicating more resources to address the challenges ahead. To inspire this wave of critically needed investment, today Dr. and Mrs. Henry A. Jordan, Ken and Dottie Woodcock, the West Hill Foundation for Nature, and two anonymous donors have formed a $500,000 Matching Gift Challenge.

If you or someone you know makes a tax-deductible contribution to the Challenge today, your gift will allow the Land Trust Alliance and its partners to:

Help more landowners afford to choose conservation by convincing Congress to make the expanded conservation tax incentive permanent before it sunsets on December 31.
Teach more people the art and science of saving land through a new 15-course curriculum on land conservation to be brought online for easy learning nationwide.
Strengthen a network of enduring land trusts that win greater levels of public support through implementation of best practices and preparation for accreditation.
Ensure that land protected today stays protected for all time by addressing IRS audits that call into question hundreds of conservation easement projects, and creating new legal resources to prevent future landowners from unraveling protections on conservation easement lands.

How the Challenge Works

If you have not made a gift to the Land Trust Alliance in 2006 or 2007, the Challenge Fund will match your gift dollar for dollar. That means every $1 you give will put $2 to work to build a stronger, more permanent foundation for private land conservation in America.

If you are a current donor to the Land Trust Alliance, the Challenge Fund will match dollar for dollar any increase in your giving over your 2006 support. So if you contributed $100 in 2006 and make a gift of $150 today, the Challenge Fund will match your $50 increase, making the total impact of your gift grow to $200.

You can make a secure gift online or via phone or mail. For more information, contact Suzanne Erera, 202-638-4725 or serera@lta.org, with your questions.

Thank you for making your gift today to help us meet the Challenge. Spread the word to others who care about protecting the places we need and love.

*Note: Eligible gifts must be made after May 1, 2007, and must be given to advance the Alliance’s overall program and not designated for a particular program area.

posted 5/16/07