The Conservation Fund works to preserve and expand the mutually beneficial relationship between communities and nature. Through our Activating the Natural Resource Economy platform, we partner with rural communities on the frontline in decisions on the future of land, water and wildlife across the nation to align protecting nature with economic development and opportunity.

Rural America is experiencing significant demographic and economic shifts, prompting communities to grapple with difficult decisions about their future. How rural areas adapt in the years ahead hinges on their ability to innovate, the decisions of local leaders and the nation’s willingness to support strategic rural development.

To drive rural development forward, we bring technical assistance and flexible funding to partnerships in the same rural places where we work to conserve natural assets. We leverage today’s record levels of federal funding for rural development as well as philanthropy to support projects that meet both conservation and economic development goals.

Our work helps strengthen job-creating areas that rely on and sustain nature, like recreation, forestry, agriculture and clean energy, and invests in people and quality of life through affordable housing, childcare and downtown revitalization.