Please Note: After 25 years of grantmaking, we have closed our doors. Learn more here.

In our 25 years of operations, policy opportunities varied dramatically across the Northwest and reflected each place’s political environment, conservation history, and local conservation community.

Our strategy invested in two or three critical organizations in each state (or province) that demonstrated the leadership, capacity, and track record to enact, implement, enforce, and defend strong conservation policies.

NCEL legislators are working to protect pollinators, like bees, from neonicotinoid insecticides. via the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators

Measures of success

By the time the foundation closed its doors in 2020, we aimed to see:

  • Effective collaboration among organizations to achieve policy goals.
  • Conservation organizations with improved credibility and influence among community and policy leaders.
  • A broader base of stakeholders engaged in conservation advocacy.
  • More public officials and policy-makers who championed conservation priorities.

Photo via Ground Truth Trekking

Meet some of the organizations we funded through our conservation policy program

Meet more of our grantees »