Connecticut Land Conservation Conference

March 22, 2025

Frank Center for Public Affairs,
238 Church Street, Wesleyan University, Middletown

Home > Conference > D.2 Should Land Trusts Use Debt to Conserve Land?

Workshops

D.2 Should Land Trusts Use Debt to Conserve Land?

Room: TBD
Intermediate Level, Advanced Level

The world is changing for all of us trying to protect land. We’ve seen it coming for decades. Prices are higher; preservable land is scarcer; and beneficent donors are their own endangered species. We’re now in a hyper competitive land acquisition environment.

Come explore solutions that three conservation veterans are using to compete against other buyers (not always developers) and move more quickly to meet seller’s closing demands. Yes, like buying a house in Connecticut!

And worse, many sellers are not accepting funding contingencies. We frequently must make all-cash offers – and close the deal before we get grant funds or firmly pledged cash donations.

Unless you’ve built up a multi-million-dollar acquisition fund, the answer today for some land trusts could be incurring short to intermediate term debt. This is a big change that warrants careful consideration.

Our panel will discuss the benefits and risks of land trusts using debt; who the lenders might be; the debt structures that have worked; and finally, the new governance necessary for prudent debt management while keeping your land trust on firm financial footing.

Together, they hope to provide you with a few new tools to compete in a way more competitive market, with constructive suggestions on how to use them safely.

Presenter(s)

Resources and Handouts

Clcc Handclap

“CLCC’s annual conference is like Woodstock for Connecticut’s land conservation community. It’s an opportunity to foster connections, get inspired, and celebrate our collective accomplishments”

- Pete Govert, Executive Director, East Haddam Land Trust


Previous Conferences

Interested in reading about past conferences? Check out past years' conference wrap-ups…