We provided funding and expertise to strengthen the ability of nonprofits, communities, and decision-makers to protect our region's air, land, and water.

We supported conservation efforts in Alaska, British Columbia, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington (and the Yukon Territory for a few years), a large region with abundant natural resources, vast areas of undisturbed wildlands, and thriving populations of humans, wildlife, fish, and native plant species.

Photo by Gordon Darrow

Vision

We envisioned a future in which Northwest citizens inspired their leaders to make the strongest possible commitment to steward our natural resources for generations to come. Guiding our work were these underlying beliefs:

  • That to sustain our fish and wildlife populations, we need large core habitat areas linked by wildlife corridors, rivers, and streams.
  • That to sustain a healthy economy, we need clean air, land, and water.
  • That to ensure our children inherit these natural treasures, we must seek an informed populace and decision-makers who are accountable to strong stewardship policies.

Methods

As a small foundation, we couldn't fight every fight, no matter how urgent or worthy. Therefore, we provided grants within a focused set of funding areas, guided by our sunset theory of change.

We endeavored to reach our goals by staying open to a range of grantee strategies and tools necessary to protect our air, land, and water, as well as the human and wildlife populations that depend upon them.

We strove to add value by convening leaders, offering training and technical support, initiating research projects on crosscutting challenges, and sharing lessons and ideas across the region.

To maximize the impact of our limited grantmaking dollars, we collaborated with other grantmakers. And whenever possible, we encouraged our grantees to collaborate with each other.

Photo by Gordon Darrow

Measures of success

We knew our grantees were succeeding when we saw policy gains at the state (or provincial) and local levels, protection of critical landscapes, a growing conservation mandate, and more effective conservation advocacy. Each of our funding areas had specific objectives and benchmarks that we used to evaluate our foundation's success.

Photo by Gordon Darrow