130,500 causes · $320M raised · 4.7 since 2009
How much can a land trust raise with a silent auction?
A small membership, and land nobody else can offer a walk on.
Free for up to 20 items Unlimited bidders No credit card required
Short answer: how many access items your staff and landowners will support, and whether stewardship was explained.
Working it out from a small, committed membership
Land trust memberships are small and unusually loyal, so the number turns on access items rather than on list size.
- Members, who are few and give at a rate most organizations do not see
- Easement donors and conserved landowners — excluding anybody mid-negotiation
- How many access items staff and landowners will actually commit to
- The cost of the stewardship you are funding: a monitoring year, a survey, a fence line
The third input is the ceiling. Selling more walks than anybody will lead spends landowner goodwill, and that is the one input on this page you cannot replace.
What moves it
Access items, and who will lead them
A walk on land the public cannot otherwise enter has no comparable. The ceiling is staff and landowner willingness rather than demand: property access items.
Whether stewardship was explained
Donors fund what they understand. A trust that publishes the monitoring cost gets a different response from one asking for general support.
Neighbours of protected land
They benefit directly from the view, the water and the absence of development, and almost none have been asked for anything.
The outdoor constituencies
Hunters, anglers, birders, hikers and photographers are organized, local and interested in exactly the land you hold.
Setting the goal
Name a stewardship unit with its real cost — a year of monitoring on a named preserve, a survey, a fence line — and report against it with a photograph from the visit. A trust that shows the work being done has explained the endowment better than any appeal.
Goal and budget mechanics: fundraising goals and budget.
General information, not legal or tax advice for your trust. Easement donation, appraisal and substantiation rules are technical and consequential — your own counsel and the landowner's advisers decide how any of this applies.
More guides for Land Trusts
Your largest donors are your partners Property access items
Land the public cannot otherwise walk on Valuation, and where not to go
A trust must never appraise Item ideas that actually sell
Access, expertise and the outdoors Getting items donated
Landowners, neighbours and outfitters
Frequently asked questions
What caps a land trust auction?
Who will lead the access items — staff and landowner willingness rather than demand. A walk on land the public cannot otherwise enter has no comparable, and the number available is agreed rather than assumed.
Which group is rarely asked?
Neighbours of protected properties. They benefit directly from the view, the water and the absence of development, and almost none have been approached.
How should we report?
With a photograph from the monitoring visit the money funded. A trust that shows the work being done has explained the stewardship endowment better than any appeal.
Fund a year of stewardship and open bidding
Name the property and publish the cost. Free for up to 20 items, no credit card.
Free for up to 20 items · Unlimited bidders · No credit card required