Last week, the Land Trust launched the biggest fundraising campaign in its 42-year history. And, as with all our previous campaigns, this one is built around the chemistry of combining donations and grant funds to do the magic of conservation.

The latest contributions to the effort are two grants totaling $6 million. With these grants, we have already secured more than eighty-five percent of the grant and partner funds for our Nature Connection Campaign. We have also secured two-thirds of the donations we need, from three anonymous donors.

This combination of grants and donations is how we protect land – and build trails and wildlife tunnels. Last week, the Land Trust was awarded a $2 million grant from the California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) for work on our San Vicente Redwoods trails. And yesterday, the Sustainable Agricultural Lands Conservation Program (SALC) approved a $4 million grant to help fund the acquisition of Rocks Ranch.

This year, we also received funding from CNRA for work on our Watsonville Slough Farm trails, and from the Wildlife Conservation Board and the Coastal Conservancy for additional trail work.

These grants and partner contributions will fund two-thirds of the $61 million needed to do all this work. They represent the commitments of voters who approved bond and tax measures and of the multitude of state and federal funding agencies.

And all these grants require local funding matches. That’s where your donations come in. We have already raised $14 million. At this point, we are two grants and $7 million in donations away from success!

That’s the chemistry of grants and donations – they make success possible. And these days, there are two things we could use more of – some success and a lot of nature!