report from the field:

Environmental Philanthropy

Individual and family donors should consider the enormous impact a sustained, strengthening, investment can make in advancing a moderately-sized environmental organization or public policy issue. A major contribution can actually change the environmental landscape of Massachusetts.

Particularly in public policy and advocacy, a directed gift of $100,000 spread over five years could completely change the political direction and attention to an environmental issue. Many important areas of policy do not have leadership gifts or angel patrons—for example, watershed and river policy, environmental justice, toxics use reduction, farmland protection, and wildlife habitat restoration, are policy issues that cry out for funded advocacy initiatives. In recent years, the statewide Smart Growth Alliance (see p.13), which focuses on regional planning, “anti-sprawl” strategies, and the Conservation and Recreation Campaign that has brought attention to the dismal condition of our state parks, are both good examples of highly successful endeavors where major donors sustained their leadership gifts over a number of years to achieve significant results.

Massachusetts state government has been cutting back on its environmental commitments over the last decade, and the report card on the new administration and legislative leadership will take at least another year to develop. But some of the public neglect by our elected officials may be attributed to fragmented and episodic philanthropic giving to public policy initiatives. One-year gifts are just not effective in funding change on a statewide basis.

Massachusetts’ excellent land protection groups tend to be better-funded and more prominent than all but a very few other environmental charities. Consequently they wield the lion’s share of the environmental political influence on Beacon Hill. While their work in land acquisition is very important, many other worthy issues need the attention or organizing resources they deserve.

Massachusetts has a great history of national conservation leadership and environmental firsts, all of which began as philanthropic initiatives. We created the first park system, the first land trust, the first Audubon society, and the first native plant conservation society. We set up the nation’s first institute to help companies reduce their use of toxic chemicals, and adopted the nation’s first limits on mercury and global warming pollution from power plants. We were one of the first states to adopt a minimum requirement for new, clean, renewable energy. All of these good ideas have now been copied by dozens of other states. On environmental issues, Massachusetts philanthropy has been a national leader—and today that leadership is needed more than ever.

David DeKing
Vice-President, Environmental League of Massachusetts
Chair, Catalogue Board of Trustees