Plant Hope and Double Your Impact Today
There’s never been a better time to plant hope for the future of the places you love.
In celebration of 51,000 acres protected, generous supporters Greg and Shannon McFayden have created a $51,000 matching gift challenge for Conserving Carolina’s Future Fund. Every gift made toward this challenge through September 19 will be matched dollar for dollar until the full $51,000 has been unlocked!
You can make your gift today using the link below or join us at Conservation Celebration on September 19, where you’ll also have the opportunity to participate in the matching gift challenge.
Together, we can double the impact of every dollar to protect more land and water, restore more habitat, connect more people with nature, and ensure Conserving Carolina is ready to meet the conservation challenges of tomorrow.
Make your gift today and help unlock the full $51,000 match!
What Kind of World Do You Want to See?
Imagine the future you want to see. What kind of world do you want to live in? What do you want to pass on to your kids and grandkids, or the children in your life?
Sometimes the outlook can feel bleak. News reports tell us that wild creatures we cherish—like hellbender salamanders and monarch butterflies—could go extinct. Hurricane Helene was a jarring wake-up call that climate change is already bringing extreme weather. And in so many places we see bulldozers scraping the raw earth; we see development taking over our farms and forests.
So what are you going to do?
As part of Conserving Carolina, you are creating a very different future. You are planting hope.
How You Are Planting Hope for the Future
You are putting plants in the ground at restoration sites along our rivers and streams.
The seeds and saplings that you help us plant are growing into much-needed habitats that have been missing from our landscape for too long—wetlands, meadows, riverside forests.
When you plant hope at these restorations, we start to see more birds, fish, and other animals right away! We see a landscape that is more resilient—safer from floods and droughts. We see new places of wonder that people can experience while walking, paddling, fishing, or birding. And we see this at over 15 restoration projects recently completed or in the works!
You are planting a future full of protected lands—where healthy forests, farms, wetlands, and rivers are not scarce but abundant.
Conserving Carolina has already helped protect over 51,000 acres, including treasured public lands like DuPont, Chimney Rock, Headwaters, and our Hickory Nut Gorge trails. We also help private landowners protect farms, forests, rivers, and summer camps.
These places will be there for our children and grandchildren—and we need to go further. You can help us protect a life-giving landscape that has homes for wildlife, rivers that run clean, and plenty of places for people for people to find joy, health, solace, and awe. This living world invites us into relationship with something larger than ourselves.
You are planting possibilities for the people who live here.
For example, at the WORX Project—on a campus that is part of 250+ protected acres—students deepen their connection with the outdoors and explore career paths, including opportunities in our growing outdoor economy.
You are planting possibilities for kids when a school garden sparks creativity and curiosity. You are planting possibilities for families who can access a new park or trail close to home—like the Ecusta Trail, Saluda Grade Trail, or Bell Park. You are planting possibilities for local businesses, as rail trails bring vitality to small towns. You are planting possibilities for the folks who come here in retirement and start a new chapter where they can both enjoy and steward a wonderful natural world.
This is the future that you are planting when you give to Conserving Carolina’s Future Fund.
What is the Future Fund?
The Future Fund is our annual fund. We rely on donors like you to give every year to keep Conserving Carolina going in our three-part mission to protect, restore, and inspire appreciation of our natural world.
Protect
You can protect special places forever. With such major challenges to our future, we need to do more to protect the places that sustain our lives with food, water, health, and beauty.
Restore
You can leave the natural world better than you found it. Your gift brings back wetlands, tends healthy forests, and creates havens for wildlife.
Inspire
You can connect more people with nature—inspiring them to give back. You help to widen the circle of conservation, ensuring that more people benefit and more people care.
How Our Team Multiplies Your Donation
Your gift to Conserving Carolina supports everything we do—from hands-on work at conservation projects, to outreach in our community, to managing our organization.
Much of your annual donation supports our staff. Our highly skilled team does exceptional conservation work—and leverages your donation so we can do even more. We develop outstanding projects and apply for grants that, in an average year, will triple your donation. We build relationships with landowners who go on to show great generosity in conserving their land. And we invest in community outreach, so that more people are inspired to give, making conservation stronger.
Your gift to the Future Fund goes far further than you might think. You are protecting our natural world. You are planting hope for the future.
