In the summer of 2010, the Ottawa Community Foundation entered into a unique partnership with the Mississippi Madawaska Land Trust Conservancy to support the long-term stewardship of conservation lands in the Ottawa area. Part of a province-wide campaign called “Care for the Land you Love,” the partnership is one of 14 initiatives between community foundations and their area land trusts that offer donors a whole new way to help protect their local eco-systems.
Headed by Community Foundations of Canada and the Ontario Land Trust Alliance, the campaign is working to raise awareness and funds to maintain the more than 60,000 acres of special lands under land trust care in the province. “Land preservation and endowment-building are a natural fit for community foundations,” said Monica Patten, President & CEO of the Community Foundations of Canada. “This program allows foundations across the province to work in tandem with both donors and their local land trusts to promote conservation efforts and create a sustainable future for us all.”
The provincial “Care for the Land you Love” campaign has raised over $300,000 for Ontario land trusts so far.
Each local partnership allows donors to double the impact of their gifts as each dollar contributed by the end of 2011 will be matched up to $20,000. “The partnership with the Ottawa Community Foundation will help us raise the funds needed to maintain and preserve special lands for generations to come,” said Mary Vandenhoff, Treasurer of the Mississippi Madawaska Land Trust Conservancy. “Our hope is that when the program is complete, we shall have established a fund that will provide the income necessary to steward the lands entrusted to us for long-term nature preservation.”
The goal of the MMLTC fund is to raise a total of $40,000 through the matching funds program by the end of 2011. To date, it has raised a little over a quarter of this goal. Over the summer of 2011, the conservancy will hold a number of family-friendly fundraising events, including a Canada Day Ceilidh and Nature Celebration in a heritage barn near Lanark, which will feature a nature walk, star gazing, a barbeque supper, Celtic music and a silent auction.
The Mississippi Madawaska Land Trust Conservancy is a non-profit charitable organization that works in and on behalf of the people and communities in the region, both to acquire lands for nature preservation, and to help landowners preserve their lands for the long term. The Land Trust covers an area of 560,000 hectares, extending from the western part of the City of Ottawa in the east to Lake Mazinaw and Highway 41 in the west, and from Sharbot Lake in the south to the lower Madawaska River in the north. To learn more about the Conservancy, visit www.mmltc.ca.
“Care for the Land you Love” is supported by the Ontario Trillium Foundation Future Fund Program, Community Foundations of Canada and the Ontario Land Trust Alliance.
For further information about the provincial partnership program, visit www.cfc-fcc.ca.