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Castleton Tower, Utah. Photo: Tom Till
Mission and History
Our Mission
The Conservation Alliance’s mission is to engage outdoor businesses to help protect and conserve threatened wild places for their habitat and recreation values.
Organizational History
The Conservation Alliance is a group of outdoor industry companies that disburses its collective annual membership dues to grassroots environmental organizations. We direct our funding to community-based campaigns to protect threatened wild habitat, preferably where outdoor enthusiasts recreate. The Alliance was founded in 1989 by industry leaders REI, Patagonia, The North Face, and Kelty, who shared the goal of increasing outdoor industry support for conservation efforts. We now have more than 160 member companies, and will disburse $900,000 in 2008.
Since our founding in 1989, the Alliance has contributed more than $6.5 million to conservation projects throughout North America. The results of our funding have been remarkable. Our grants have helped organizations in their work to protect more than 39 million acres of land, stop or remove 27 dams, and preserve access to thousands of miles of rivers and several climbing areas. We follow a rigorous grant proposal review process that ensures our grants go to organizations that can succeed given the necessary financial resources. Click here for a list of our grantees.
Our goal is to grow the Conservation Alliance such that our annual grant budget exceeds $1 million. Though the vast majority of those funds will always come from our member companies, we invite you to add your resources to our grant fund. We all believe in conservation, but don’t always know which organizations are doing the most effective work. By supporting The Conservation Alliance, you will invest in an array of the most compelling conservation projects in North America. Your donation to the Alliance will help increase our grant fund, and support ever more effective conservation groups.