Strategic Philanthropy & Conservation Legacies
Resources Law Group has designed and implemented philanthropic efforts noted for their strategic focus, efficient management, and demonstrable results. Some of these efforts have unfolded on a breathtaking scale, involving massive landscapes and ecosystems, unique resources, and indescribable beauty. Others take place in a more intimate setting, with families or small communities protecting a ranch or a view with great local meaning.
We never view this work as mere pass-through of funding. What interests us — and, not coincidentally, our clients — is long-term protection of natural resources carried out alongside a client’s specific goals. We build systematic programs to ensure that funds are spent in the highest priority areas. We seek opportunities for leverage, helping our clients achieve greater conservation results by drawing additional funding (both private and public) whenever possible. We administer and monitor projects, flexibly adjusting strategies and tactics as opportunities and challenges arise. We communicate well and often. In addition, we work to find lessons and meaning in this work, for ourselves, and our clients.
Our work is easiest to understand by considering the projects we’ve led, or helped lead. To be very clear, we have been extraordinarily fortunate to work with great clients. These successes are theirs, and any list we offer is a reflection of their vision, commitment, and generosity. Our intent with these examples is simply to show that our work, quietly and effectively, has allowed great families and institutions to build lasting conservation legacies.
- The Conserving California Landscapes Initiative (CCLI) is the largest land conservation program in American history. This innovative, five-year, $175 million initiative was executed on behalf of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. It pioneered numerous collaborative strategies and processes, and served as a magnet for over $764 million in leveraged funds. With a systematic approach, it has enabled the protection of more than 400,000 acres of beautiful, productive, and richly diverse California lands in three regions — the Central Coast, Central Valley, and Sierra Nevada — along with the development of supportive policies and organizations.
- A family is creating a state-of-the-art environmental education facility to inspire thousands of visitors to the California Coast and serve as a tribute to a family member. We worked with the family and public officials to develop the center, secure all the necessary funding, and will help ensure the project meets the needs and desired outcomes of our clients and the public.
- The Preserving Wild California program (PWC) is a five-year, $150 million effort to preserve significant elements of California's wildlands. It relies on systematic land acquisitions, and fosters supportive policies, organizations, and constituencies. Designed and administered by RLG in collaboration with Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, it makes grants, offers low-interest bridge financing, and enters into contracts for a range of activities. These include acquisition of lands within identified priority areas; increasing wildlands protection through local, state, and federal policies; expanding the capacities of wildlands protection organizations; and facilitating conservation efforts through science and research.
- The California Coastal and Marine Initiative (CCMI), a program of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, seeks to improve coastal and marine conservation in the Central California Coast region and generate more effective statewide policies and programs to enhance the protection of California’s coasts and oceans for future generations. To accomplish these ends, CCMI invests in building state capacity, creating more effective policy and governance structures, developing a broad statewide constituency, and fostering scientific knowledge that informs conservation. CCMI also takes advantage of opportunities to communicate successes at the state level to catalyze national reforms.
For more information on these and other programs, please visit the Client Experience page of this site and www.resourceslegacyfund.org.