Where do they work?
Who works there?
What do they do?
What have they accomplished?
Financial data
How do they raise money?
Media and public discussion of the organization
Assessment by greendonor contributors

TNC has about 3200 employees in 528 offices located in all 50 states of the U.S.A. and 28 countries.

We are awaiting further information on workforce composition from TNC. Meanwhile, a look at job openings posted on TNC's website gives some idea of the workforce. The turn-over for various kinds of jobs likely varies, so job openings are unlikely to be of the same composition as the actual workforce. Nevertheless, it's interesting that about 58% of job openings were classified by us as pertaining to programs, 19% to fund-raising, 9% to administrative/senior management, 6% to communications, and 9% to other things, including government relations, finance, policy, legal, advisors, and analysts.

TNC's website lists a scientific staff of 36, under the following categories: lead scientists (3), Presidential University Fellow (1), Atlantic Conservation Region (8), Mid-Americas Conservation Region (2), Pacific Western Conservation Region (5), Developing Strategies group (1), Global Priorities Group (1), Climate Change Initiative (1), Fire Initiative (3), Freshwater Initiative (1), Invasive Species Initiative (2), Marine Initiative (4), David H. Smith Conservation Research Fellowship Program (1). In addition, TNC employs [number pending] biologists.

The Board of Governors currently has 39 members, one from Ecuador and the rest from the USA. About half are from the business world, five are academics in biology/ecology (one is co-author of Neotropical Birds, Ecology and Conservation), one is in a university department of public affairs, two are in law firms, one is a former U.S. Ambassador to China and retired Navy Admiral, and of the rest, several work for or are involved with TNC and several are involved in philanthropic/foundation work.

(Head office departments include: Information Systems, Human Resources, Finance, Marketing, and External Relations.)

In explaining their "Conservation By Design" approach: TNC explains that its "vision is to conserve a set of places that, if managed appropriately, will ensure the long-term survival of all their native life and natural communities not just those that are threatened."

The TNC website contains a dearth of information on its land securement programs. The organization states that it works in the following regions: Asia Pacific, the Caribbean, Central America, North America, and South America; but they do not indicate the proportionate effort or spending in each region (we're enquiring about that). TNC's recent annual reports can be accessed through the website and these provide a description of several dozen highlights among the year's achievements (see summary below).

The website does outline that TNC is involved in (1) private lands conservation through land acquisition, conservation easements, and "conservation buyer projects"; (2) the development of conservation-friendly policies for parks and public land management; and (3) funding for conservation through debt-for-nature swaps, conservation trust funds, ecosystem service payments, resource extraction fees, and public finance campaigns. In its programs, TNC forms partnerships with governments, other NGOs, "local stakeholders", and corporations. TNC has five "priority conservation initiatives", and several Programs, listed below. All are detailed on TNC's website.

• 1. Climate change Initiative - Identifying and implementing strategies that will help mitigate greenhouse gas emissions while searching for ways to make natural areas more adaptable to climate change.
• 2. Fire Initiative - Restoring fire-altered ecosystems (dealing with problem of long-term fire suppression)
• 3. Freshwater Initiative - Working to counter two "insidious threats to freshwater ecosystems: ecologically incompatible water management and unsustainable agricultural practices".
• 4. Invasive species Initiative - Controlling the adverse ecological impact from invasive non-native plants and animals through a combination of prevention, eradication, restoration, research and outreach.
• 5. Marine Initiative - Working to improve the long-term survival and resilience of critical coastal and marine habitats from Indonesia in the heart of Asia's coral triangle, across the Pacific islands, along the Atlantic's North, Central and South American coasts, and in the Caribbean Sea.
• Ecoenterprises - A joint initiative of TNC and the Inter-American Development Bank, the EcoEnterprises Fund "uses the tools and principles of venture capital to protect natural areas in Latin America and the Caribbean, uniting business and conservation".
• Ecotourism Program - Working with partners to better harness the potential of ecotourism as a tool for long-term biodiversity protection and local economic benefit.
• Migratory Bird Program - Works to protect critical habitats for wide-ranging and migratory birds throughout the Western Hemisphere.
• Parks in Peril - Since 1990, this program has provided financial support and scientific expertise to protect and manage millions acres of national parks in sites across Latin American and the Caribbean by working with USAID and other partners.
• Subterranean Conservation - Caves and groundwater systems are important ecologically, but poorly understood and documented and little protected; this program is working to rectify this.

TNC is currently raising $1.25-billion for its campaign to save 200 of the world's "Last Great Places". The amount raised, as of March 2002, is given as 1.239-billion. We were unable to find information on their website on what sites or general locations have been designated among the 200. TNC's website merely says it "will develop a Blueprint for saving the Last Great Places".

Here are some of the reported accomplishments in financial year 2003-2004:

Accomplishments in financial year 2001-2002:

• TNC joined with the U.S. EPA and researchers at Stony Brook University to conduct sonar mapping of the botton of the Peconic Estuary, Long Island, New York, where the scallop fishery has been scuppered by invading brown algae. [Is this not the sort of research that government alone should be doing?]

Accomplishments in financial year 2002-2003:

Table 1: Basic financial data for The Nature Conservancy for the most recent years.

FISCAL YEAR	FINANCIAL DATA rounded to million (m) or thousand (K)		EXPENDITURES percent of total expenses
2004 (ending June 30, 2004)	Total revenue: Total expenses: Total assets (yr-end): Total liabilities (yr-end):	$732m $516m $4065m $547m	Programs: Administration: Fundraising: ------------------ wages/benefits: professional & consulting fees:	78% 12% 10% ------------------ 35% 14%
2003 (ending June 30, 2003)	Total revenue: Total expenses: Total assets (yr-end): Total liabilities (yr-end):	$762m $570m $3,739m $562m	Programs: Administration: Fundraising: ------------------ wages/benefits: professional & consulting fees:	80% 11% 9% ------------------ 31% 9%
2002 (ending June 30, 2002)	Total revenue: Total expenses: Total assets (yr-end): Total liabilities (yr-end):	$972m $633m $3,282m $350m	Programs: Administration: Fundraising: ------------------ wages/benefits: professional & consulting fees:	82% 9% 9% ------------------ 26% 8%
2001 (ending June 30, 2001)	Total revenue: Total expenses: Total assets (yr-end): Total liabilities (yr-end):	$732m $434m $2,934m $264m	Programs: Administration: Fundraising: ------------------ wages/benefits: professional & consulting fees:	77% 12% 11% ------------------ 34% 10%
NOTES:
Source: IRS Form 990 (courtesy of www.guidestar.org).
Assets: in the most recent year (2003-2004), the main components were: land, buildings, & equipment (58%); [breakdown within this category: 59% conservation land, 37% conservation easements, 3% buildings for operations, 1% other] securities (33%) other investments (5%) pledges receivable (2%)
Liabilities: in the most recent year (2003-2004), the main components were: bonds (taxable revenue) (54%) accrued actuarial liability (19%) mortgages & other notes payable (11%) tax-exempt bond liabilities (5%) other accrued expenses/liabilities (3%) deferred revenue (3%) accounts payable & accrued expenses (2%)
The figure for wages/benefits is the amount across all 3 categories (program, administrative and fundraising) as a percent of total expenses. Likewise for professional/consulting/contract fees.
In 2002-2003, 39% of the $48,739,194 of fundraising expenses consisted of membership costs. Professional fundraising fees averaged $221,341 for the four years.

Table 2: Breakdown of revenue for the 2003-2004 financial year.

Revenue Category	As percent of total revenues
Private individuals, companies, foundations1	60%
Program service revenue (including government contracts)	31%
Net investment income & interest	9%
Other2	1%
NOTES: Of public contributions, 79% were in cash and 21% were non-cash donations.

1 We will ask for a breakdown of this category into the three components.
2 "Other" revenue: net revenue from: rent, asset sales other than securities, inventory sales, and special events, plus "other income".

The The Nature Conservancy did not give a breakdown of program spending by program in its latest IRS Form 990. We will ask the organization for that information.

The Nature Conservancy did not give a breakdown of program spending by program in its latest IRS Form 990. We will ask the organization for that information. The form does indicate that lobbying expenses totalled $2.04M in $yearspan, making up just 0.45% of program expenditures.

Table 3: Compensation for senior full-time staff for the 2003-2004 financial year.

Compensation	Number of individuals	Job title(s)
$360,345	1	President & CEO
$175,963-$208,436	9	CFO, Chief Administrative Officer, Chief Operations Officer, 5 Managing Directors (Pacific/Western, Human Resources, Info System, External Affairs, Atlantic), General Counsel
$138,279-$142,177	2	Acting General Counsel; Acting Managing Director, External Affairs

We note that in 2002-2003, the proportion of costs for (1) "compensation of officers, directors, etc." and (2) "other salaries and wages" is the same in the three categories of program, administrative and fundraising expenses, suggesting that allocations of staff time were made by applying one set of estimates to both management and other staff, rather than by independent measures of time budgets.

In its Form 990 returns, TNC has a large expense category of "professional and contract fees". In 2002-2003 this totalled $51-million, 9% of the total of $570-million in expenses. What were these fees for? The largest payments to individual firms or people are tabled below. But we will ask for further information.

Table 4: Compensation for the five highest paid independent contractors (firms or individuals) for professional services in 2003-2004.

Service	Compensation
accounting services	$958K
habitat mitigation services	$901K
graphic design	$781K
fundraising, PR, and research	$675K
conservation center construction	$482K

Sources of revenue in 2004 were:

[further info pending]

We have prepared a synopsis of the controversial May 2003 Washington Post series on TNC and its aftermath.

[... ] Sacramento Bee series [...]

[This section awaits the accumulation of input from visitors to the greendonor site.]