For Land TrustsFor Land Trusts

Implement Land Trust Standards and Practices

Do you want to take your land trust to the next level of excellence? Ensure your projects and your land trust are prepared for the future? Implementing Land Trust Standards and Practices is  the best way to ensure that your conservation projects — and the larger land conservation movement — will stand the test of time.

Tools You Can Use

Here are some resources to help you put the Standards into effect:

Assess Your Organization

The Land Trust Alliance has updated the Assessing Your Organization tool to reflect the 2017 Standards. Read an introduction on how to use the assessment or download the Assessing Your Organization workbook (free for members).

Land Trust Standards and Practices Curriculum

We're currently updating and reimagining the curriculum to take advantage of new advances in online learning technology. Until the new materials are ready, the current curriculum (free for members) has a lot of content that remains relevant, including case studies, exercises, sample documents and templates to apply what you learn.

Workshops and Webinars

Got goals for implementing the Standards? There’s probably a workshop or a webinar you could take to help you get there: check out upcoming webinars or look for workshops and other learning opportunities at a land trust conference.  

The Learning Center

The Learning Center is a huge resource while you’re implementing the Standards. You can find extensive background information for all 12 standards, 59 practices and 188 practice elements. And, you can follow links to related case studies, sample documents, templates and more. Go to Ask an Expert with your tough questions; get input from your colleagues in online forums; start preparing for accreditation; and so much more!

Resources and Tools

Webinar

Drafting Current Conditions Reports

Baselines are critical to ensuring what you protected stays protected. However, what do you do if your land trust has baselines that are insufficient or even worse don’t exist at all? Join stewardship experts Toby Jacobs and Heather Jobst as they discuss their land trusts’ two very different approaches to filling in the gaps in their portfolios.

February 23, 2021
Time: 
2 p.m. ET
Instructor(s): 
Toby Jacobs
Heather Jobst

Webinar

The Americans with Disability Act: What It Means for Land Trusts

Increasing accessibility of natural areas and online is an important endeavor, but not always easy to navigate. Join conservation attorneys Rachel Hampton, The Nature Conservancy, and Ray Lyons, as they discuss how the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) applies to nature preserves, conservation easement properties, websites and social media.

February 03, 2021
Time: 
2 p.m. ET
Instructor(s): 
Rachel Hampton
Ray Lyons

Publication

Nonprofit Law and Recordkeeping for Land Trusts – Volume I: Complying with Federal, State and Local Law

Author: 
Jane Prohaska
Year Published: 
2008

This course book gives you what you need to know about the legal requirements for operating a land trust and cover the issue of tax exemption, including the major requirements for maintaining charitable tax-exempt status and an overview of IRS Form 990.