About

Fifteen years ago the land trust community was ill prepared to live up to the promise of perpetuity and was under legislative and regulatory threat. The Land Trust Alliance created the accreditation program and the Land Trust Accreditation Commission as a solution and offered a suite of related accredited preparation services to its members.

Today, accredited land trusts far outpace those not yet accredited. They have significantly bigger budgets, more staff and volunteers, and 8 times more money invested to steward and defend their conservation lands than their peers of similar size – they also save 3 times more land.

Accreditation was a strong motivator for change in land trusts; 87% of accredited land trusts responded that accreditation moderately or substantially motivated them to make organizational improvements. These groups strengthened their governance, transaction, stewardship and financial systems as part of the accreditation journey.

Public confidence in land trusts increased as a result; 85% of public agencies and foundations say accreditation increases their confidence in land trusts and 83% of landowners feel the same way. Instead of legislative or regulatory disruption there was acceleration of tax benefits and conservation funding.

These positive impacts can grow as more land trusts join the program, accredited land trusts continue to improve their practices in accordance with the revised 2017 Standards and stakeholders are provided with more information about the program.