How the Arc of Appalachia Purchases Lands for Preservation

At the Arc of Appalachia, our mission is to preserve the most ecologically significant lands out there - those that still provide refuge for intact natural communities. Many of our supporters ask how we go about acquiring our lands. We wish to shed light on the process, including how private philanthropy and public land grants work together to advance our mission.

In addition to relying heavily on private philanthropy to buy land, the Arc of Appalachia frequently submits applications to two public funding programs in Ohio: the Clean Ohio grant program and WRRSP - the Water Resources Restoration Sponsor Program administered by the Ohio EPA. When either of these two funding programs are awarded, one donor dollar can leverage three or more dollars in public funding. Clean Ohio and WRRSP both employ grant scoring methodologies that closely align with the Arc’s mission. Because there are no equivalent public grants in West Virginia and Kentucky, Arc acquisitions in these two states are funded solely by private donations and private grantors.

The Revolving Land Fund—Our Most Powerful Tool

When properties come up on the real estate market, there is usually only a small window of time to buy them before someone else steps up to the plate. The kinds of lands we are looking for - those with beautiful old woodlands and healthy waterways - happen to be what everybody else is looking for, too! The most appealing and well-priced properties sell in just 2-3 days. Negotiating a fair sale price in a competitive market requires that we move quickly and have cash in hand.

In our nonprofit’s early years, we had to either find those rare, patient, conservation-minded land sellers willing to wait while we campaigned for funds, or we had to apply for interest-bearing bank loans, another slow process. No nonprofit wants to spend its precious money on interest payments, of course, so over the decades of our existence, we built up our own cash reserves for land-buying that we call the “Revolving Land Fund.” Even though Revolving Land Funds are commonly employed by larger land trusts, many donors aren’t familiar with how they work.

Today, when we encounter a seller with an outstanding property who won’t wait for months to consummate the sale, we draw monies for the sale price and closing costs from our Revolving Land Fund and loan it, interest-free, to our nonprofit partner, Wilderness East. Wilderness East then buys and holds the lands for us while we raise money for the project from our usual sources.

Having a holding partner like Wilderness East is essential to the Arc because grantors will not permit a nonprofit to apply for acquisition funds for land they already own. Grantors will, however, permit an applicant to work with a partnering nonprofit, so long as the land-holding nonprofit does not put any conservation easements or other environmental protections on the land. Once the Arc raises the acquisition funds in full, we buy the property from Wilderness East at the same price at which the land was previously sold to them. Wilderness East uses the sale’s income to pay back our loan, and we put those monies back into the “Land Bucket” to reinvigorate the Fund. The process can now be repeated, over and over again.

Some properties that are small in size, especially those that have been developed with houses, are not eligible for grant awards. When we want to secure these kinds of tracts to fill in the puzzle pieces of our preserves’ master plans, we must buy them outright with cash and rely on our fundraising campaigns to restore our Revolving Land Fund’s balance, Buying both large and small parcels is necessary to create large, contiguous nature preserves that are so valuable for wildlife. Also, preserves that are bordered by roadways are much more effectively protected than preserves that can be accessed from the backyards of multiple residences. That is why buying smaller tracts along the road is often a priority for the Arc, preferably purchasing them before they get developed with houses.

In the past, our Revolving Land Fund’s balance has ranged from empty to $500,000, depending on where we are in the replenishment cycle. Given today’s much higher land prices, we could effectively use a fund four times that size or more. Refilling the “Land Bucket” has always been central to our work. Today, however, the need is greater than ever before. If you make an unrestricted donation to the Arc of Appalachia, there is a very good chance that some of it will end up in the Land Bucket!! Or, if the thought pleases you, consider a restricted donation to the Revolving Fund, a gift which keeps giving forever.