Houston Audubon is happy to announce receipt of a $500,000 grant that will greatly enhance its ability to conserve and protect land in the Houston region. The generous grant from local businesswoman and conservationist Gene Graham establishes the Houston Audubon Land Fund at the Greater Houston Community Foundation for the purposes of acquiring, conserving, and managing habitat on the Upper Texas Coast.
This new land fund will serve as a ready source of funds for land acquisition and protection when circumstances don’t allow time to raise the dollars needed to purchase specific tracts of land. It will also provide funds needed to pay costs associated with acquisition and management of the land. Most important of all, the Land Fund will allow Houston Audubon to target important habitat and proactively acquire it rather than having to respond in emergency mode when land is already at risk of being developed. With ready funds available from this fund, Houston Audubon can develop a comprehensive regional approach to habitat conservation on the Upper Texas Coast.
The first $250,000 of the grant was given to Houston Audubon outright in 2007 to establish the HAS Land Fund. However, the second $250,000 is a challenge grant that will require HAS to raise matching funds in order to receive it; that is, the donor will match any funds received from other donors dollar-for-dollar within 30 days of receipt of the donations at the Greater Houston Community Foundation -- up to $250,000. Already in this year, our donor matched a $25,000 grant from The Ralph H. and Ruth J. McCullough Foundation and $40,000 raised by Houston Audubon for land stewardship. We’re off and running!
There is much work to be done, though, to match the remainder of the $250,000 in this calendar year – and we’re committed to building the HAS Land Fund beyond the $750,000 potential afforded by this grant because we must replenish it as we use it. Houston Audubon will be approaching foundations and major donors to ask for grants to match and build this fund, but we hope that HAS members and supporters will want to help, too. You can be a part of this exciting effort by sending your check (payable to the HAS Land Fund) to the Greater Houston Community Foundation at 4550 Post Oak Place, Suite 100, Houston, TX 77027, with the request that your donation be directed to the Houston Audubon Society Land Fund. Your early help in this effort will help us build our confidence as well as build this important fund!
