Philanthropic Strategies in Place-Based, Collaborative Land Conservation: The Packard Foundation's Conserving California Landscape Initiative

Abstract

The Packard Foundation's Conserving California Landscape Initiative (CCLI), a US $175 million 5-year (1998-2003) program intended to conserve 250,000 acres of open space in three regions in California, exemplifies the potential contribution and pitfalls of a private foundation's engagement in contemporary place-based, collaborative conservation. The achievements and limitations of this philanthropic effort are revealed largely through interviews of program officers, grantees, and public officials. Focusing conservation in three regions of the state, employing deliberate grant leveraging, promoting conservation partnerships, approaching conservation on multiple fronts, and building nonprofit capacities, CCLI preserved more than 300,000 acres of land, generated around $700 million in matching funds, raised the profile of conservation in the state and local communities' agenda, and fostered collaboration among diverse publics. However positive, CCLI efforts inevitably raised broader governance issues— transparency and accountability, agenda setting and representation, donor power and grantees' autonomy—related to the enlarged role of private money in public conservation.