Renewal

The application fee is also due on the application due date. It is invoiced separately. Learn more about accreditation fees.

Previous applicants found it helpful to review the application and list of attachments in advance of logging onto the AMS. See the Reference Application Packet.

The Commission selects specific conservation easements or fee properties listed on the Land Conservation Project List provided in your pre-application. The number will generally be capped at four (two easements and two conservation fee properties); additional projects may be selected if the land trust had a large volume of transactions during its accredited term or has a variety of unique projects, for example. Your land trust then provides a complete set of documentation for that project. 

The Commission has created a project documentation list that contains the potentially-required documentation for any type of conservation project (easement, fee, purchase, donation, mitigation, etc.). This list can be found in the Renewal Reference Application Packet which can be downloaded from the Materials for Renewal Applicants page. The specific documents requested by the Commission will be listed in the AMS.

Targeted verification includes a narrow set of documents to show how the land trust met the requirements in specific areas. Based on your land trust's pre-application answers and documentation, the Commission may request specific documents be uploaded for transactions or activities identified as being higher risk (i.e., a routine conservation easement amendment to add acreage would not be selected for additional documentation, but an amendment to add a building envelope likely would).

The list of documents that could be requested for each type of targeted verification item can be found in the Renewal Reference Application Packet which can be downloaded from the Materials for Renewal Applicants page.

While documentation must include the donor or landowner’s name, as applicable, we require you to redact social security or tax identification numbers.

We choose projects that we believe illustrate a range of your conservation properties. However, you may choose one additional project and provide the requested documentation for it. Please note that this would be in addition to the documentation for projects we have chosen and not in lieu of it.

If you find that your land trust is missing documents needed for the verification process, the best course of action is to provide a narrative explaining the situation. Do not attempt to re-create documents for the purposes of augmenting the application.

The starting point for effective controls lies with establishing clear expectations for integrity and accountability at the top. In a nonprofit organization, the board must express and demonstrate absolute commitment to integrity and compliance with controls.

For accreditation, the "control environment" aspect of internal controls is addressed, in part, with requirements for adopting Land Trust Standards and Practices (which are the ethical and technical and guidelines for the responsible operation of a land trust) and carefully managing conflicts of interest (see practice elements 4A1 and 4A2).

Every land trust faces a variety of risks from external and internal sources. Your land trust's assessment of its risks should focus on both the significance of each risk (what damage would be done if controls failed and errors or irregularities occurred) and the likelihood that such a control failure will occur. Based on that assessment, you will be able to develop control activities.

For accreditation, the "risk assessment" aspect of internal controls is addressed with short risk-assessment questions completed by someone familiar with the land trust's financial and accounting practices. (A land trust may have responded to similar questions for its auditor; the auditor uses the information to determine whether the financial statements fairly represent the land trust's financial position not to evaluate internal controls. The answers given to the auditor, however, can be useful in answering the accreditation questions.)

Control activities include the development and implementation of written policies and procedures that are designed to prevent error or irregularity from occurring and ensure rapid detection and correction for any errors or irregularities that do occur, despite the land trust's best effort to prevent them from occurring.

For accreditation, the "control activities" aspect of internal controls is addressed with requirements for written internal controls or accounting procedures that address the risks of misuse, loss or misstatement of funds – such as those risks identified in the risk-assessment questions. (Many land trusts already have policies and procedures that address these risks and these existing documents can be provided with the accreditation application; some organizations many need to formalize written internal controls that address these risks.)

Your staff, volunteers and others who are expected to perform control activities and comply with fiscal policies and procedures must have good information in order to carry out internal control responsibilities. Beyond providing basic information about your control expectations, risk assessment and control activities, the board and management team must ensure that a continual iterative process is in place to provide, share and obtain necessary information.

For accreditation, the "information and communication" aspect of internal controls is addressed, in part, with the requirements for board oversight of the land trust's finances (see practice elements 3A2a-d), the board's governance practices, and the land trust's response to any significant concerns identified through the annual financial audit, review or compilation.

Your land trust will need to develop effective approaches to monitoring its entire system of internal controls in order to understand whether they are working as intended.

For accreditation, the "monitoring" aspect of internal controls is address with an internal controls certification completed by a board officer or executive director attesting that the organization's financial controls are periodically verified to ensure they are effective.

[The above contains excerpts from the Land Trust Alliance's narrative on practice element 6D1. Access the full narrative.]