Who We Are

We harness the collective power of business and outdoor communities to fund and advocate for the protection of North America’s wild places.

A planet where wild places, wildlife, and people thrive together.

We are catalysts. Providing a link between the conservation community and businesses, we enable and inspire our colleagues to work together to protect the wild places vital to their business.

We represent strength in numbers. We recognize that our greatest strength is our collective nature. Our members are competitors who come together around a common purpose.

We embody simplicity and effectiveness. We are laser-focused on providing resources to grassroots conservation projects. We strive to find the best conservation partners who will succeed given adequate support, and we measure that success in terms of measurable, on-the-ground protection for wild places.

We are responsible. As a group of outdoor and associated businesses, we have a responsibility to invest in protecting the places that are important to our colleagues and customers.

The Conservation Alliance was founded in 1989 by industry leaders Kelty, Patagonia, REI, and The North Face to increase outdoor industry support for conservation efforts. They believed that cooperation among businesses was the most effective way to make the biggest impact.

Since our beginning, The Conservation Alliance grew from its four founding members awarding one $40,000 grant to over 250 members supporting over 300 organizations across North America through grantmaking and advocacy.

Today, The Conservation Alliance includes a network of hundreds of companies that are making investments in land and water conservation because protecting nature is fundamentally good for business. Investing in land and water protection today creates jobs, supports local economies, and ensures these benefits exist for future generations.

The Conservation Alliance offers an avenue for businesses to use their power – their brand name, their voice, their customer-base, and their pocketbook – to ensure the very places that they rely on for their bottomline are safeguarded for years to come. Click here to dive into our five year strategic plan.

In order to achieve our vision, we must actively work to create inclusive systems within our organizational culture, processes, and programs. We strive for a blend of humility, patience, and determination as we work to transform ourselves, shift our culture, build upon our 33-year organizational history, and connect with networks and communities who have not been part of our alliance in the past.

We commit to share ownership of our mission with our partners and communities, broaden access to decision-making power over funding and project priorities, and expand and diversify access to our financial resources and political clout. We know that our vision and path forward will evolve, and we pledge our transparency during mistakes and successes. We welcome the guidance and feedback of our members, grantees, supporters, and those we have yet to meet.

Justice
Hold ourselves accountable for using our power and privilege to address systems of bias and exclusion inhibiting our collective work.

Equity
Create the conditions necessary to expand access to our resources, opportunities, and the work we do.

Diversity
Actively recognize and value the ways in which different backgrounds, perspectives, and life experiences contribute to our work and the conservation movement.

Inclusion
Create systems that invite a variety of voices and perspectives by engaging with openness and curiosity, actively removing barriers to participation or access, and seeking out those who might be missing from the conversation.

Read more about our organization’s commitment to this work in our JEDI Statement.

Learn more about the Confluence Program, which we developed in recognition of the fact that our network of partners includes few groups representing historically racially excluded people. 

TCA unites businesses from a wide range of industries and harnesses our collective voice to lead the charge for reliable, bipartisan efforts that advance conservation policies and public land protection. TCA’s Conservation Strategy brings focus to this work in order to maximize and measure our impact over time. This benefits our members and grantees aligning the impact of our corporate advocacy and providing clarity for current and potential grantees. The Conservation Strategy is updated on a two year cycle. Read the 2025/2026 Conservation Strategy here.