31 March 2026 By David Allen, Development for Conservation When your land trust lists its conservation partners, what does that list look like? Does it include State agencies? Federal agencies? Local government agencies? Tribes? The Nature Conservancy? Other conservation nonprofits? All of the above? My guess is that the list...
In fact, for the vast majority of people you have met during the years since your actual “birth” day, your annual celebration doesn’t even register. Even for those who care about you a lot. They care about who you have become. What you’ve done. And...
1 April 2024 By David Allen, Development for Conservation Today is not normally a day for taking things too seriously, but I need to share with you something actually quite serious. It turns out I’ve been wrong. All along. I meant well, and it seemed right – it made sense...
11 February 2025 By David Allen, Development for Conservation I spent the better part of last weekend cutting up wood in my backyard. My wonderful white pines had shed several not-so-small limbs, four other trees needed pruning, and I had determined to take two of our lilac...
14 January 2025 By David Allen, Development for Conservation I don’t necessarily subscribe to the notion of “language police,” and nothing in this post is intended to be critical of the language YOU use to talk about your projects and programs. Still, words matter and the words...
22 October 2024 By David Allen, Development for Conservation If we could change our collective thinking in just one way, we would all raise more money – and not by just a little bit. That shift in thinking goes like this: Donors give because they want to. It sounds simple...
16 April 2024 By David Allen, Development for Conservation In my practice, I have come to make several nomenclature distinctions. These are oversimplified, to be sure, but they serve to help ensure my clients and I are talking about the same things when we use the same...
2 April 2024 By David Allen, Development for Conservation In a perfect world we would know – really know – every single donor who gives money. We would know how they found the land trust in the first place. We would know how old they are and...
27 December 2022 By David Allen, Development for Conservation A good friend was asked recently to prepare a few remarks for his church on the subject of Hope. As I had just completed my annual Holiday messages with a theme of Optimism, it started me thinking about...
18 October 2022 By David Allen, Development for Conservation I’m one of those people who likes strategic planning. It exercises two parts of my brain that I seem to have some aptitude for: convergent thinking (analysis and interpretation) and divergent thinking (brainstorming). An early exercise in strategic planning...