About

I. Statement of Policy

The Land Trust Accreditation Commission requires applicants to register, submit documents, attend scheduled conference calls, and make payments on time in order to remain an applicant or accredited land trust. These requirements help ensure that the accreditation program is administered fairly.

• For a first-time applicant, failure to meet these deadlines or to attend a scheduled conference call will be deemed to be a withdrawal of its accreditation application by the land trust; the application review process will stop and the applicant will be removed from the current applicant list.
• If the applicant is accredited and applying for renewal, failure to meet these deadlines will mean its accreditation will expire at the end of its term and it will no longer be licensed to use the accreditation seal; to be reconsidered for accreditation it will need to submit the application used by first-time applicants.

II. Exceptions and Extensions

There may, however, be limited extraordinary and unforeseen circumstances outside of the control of the land trust that would prevent it from meeting deadlines for which an extension of a deadline may be appropriate. (Extensions such as the following may be granted: a one-round extension of the application deadline; a brief extension of the Additional Information Request due date that is not longer than 90 days; and rescheduling of the applicant call as soon as feasible.)

An extension of a deadline may be granted by the Commission’s executive director only if one or both of the following criteria are met:

• A disaster or other event destroys land trust property or records.
• A key individual dies or has a serious illness.

Exceptions are considered rare and will not be considered for routine changes in business structures, staff turnover, economic downturns, or other events that can occur in the ordinary course of operating a nonprofit organization.

If a circumstance is not addressed by this policy and/or would prevent the Commission from effectively reviewing an application, the Commission or the executive committee may make a determination to extend a deadline on a case-by-case basis.