American Conservation Association

American Conservation Association (not to be confused with the Conservation Foundation (UK)) has now merged into WWF-US.

"According to the organization's literature, the Conservation Foundation was organized in 1948 by a group of men who shared a recognition of a need for new public policies to deal with ecologi- cal problems, which they saw in terms "of the interdependence of all living things in the total environment," a view "that in 1948 was not widely accepted." The founder and first president of the Foundation was Fairfield Osborn, who was at the time president of the New York Zoological Society. The other founders included Samuel Ordway, Jr., an attorney and former member of the U.S. Civil Service Commission; George Brewer, a playwright and educator; David Hunter McAlpin, a financier; and Laurance S. Rockefeller, "a developer and philanthropist." It was felt that "a new and independent enterprise" was needed to effect "the furtherance of a more sophisticated concept of resource mangement," the Conserva- tion Foundation being the organizational expression of this belief." 


 * Samuel H. Ordway, Jr. - President from 1962-5
 * Russell E. Train - President from 1965-9
 * Sydney Howe - President from 1969-73
 * William K. Reilly - President from 1973-1989

History
"The Conservation Foundation is run by a large professional staff of 41 people who are in turn responsible to a board of trus- tees. The board of trustees, consisting of 28 people, four of whom serve as chairman, vice chairman, secretary, and treasurerr included the following people as of December 31, 1976:

"Ernest Brooks, Jr., Chairman William H. Whyte, Jr., Vice Chairman Anne P. Sidamon-Eristoff, Secretary John A. Bross, Treasurer Louise B. Cullman, Dorothy H. Donovan, Maitland Edey, Charles H. W. Foster, David M. Gates, Charles Grace, D. Robert Graham, Nixon Griffis, Philip G. Hammer, Walter E. Hoadley, William T. Lake, Richard D. Lamm, Lord Llewelyn-Davies, Cruz A. Matos, David Hunter McAlpin, Tom McCall, Richard B. Ogilvie, William M. Roth, James W. Rouse, William D. Ruckelshaus, James Hopkins Smith, Barbara Ward (Lady Jackson), Pete Wilson, George M. Woodwell.

"Of the 28 people who serve as members of the board of trustees, seven also serve as members of the board's executive committee: Brooks, Whyte, Sidamon-Eristoff, Bross, Gates, Hammer, and Ruckelshaus; Hammer serves as chairman. Five serve as members of the-board's development committee: Sidamon-Eristoff, Bross, Foster, Hoadley, and McAlpin; Bross serves as chairman of this committee in addition to his position as board treasurer." 

Top Grants Made
Source
 * Natural Resources Defense Council $380,000 (1989–2001)
 * Green Guide Institute $200,000 (1998–2000)
 * Sierra Club $91,000 (1992–2000)
 * Wilderness Society $90,000 (1992–2001)
 * World Wildlife Fund $40,000 (1992–2001)
 * World Resources Institute $38,000 (1992–2001)
 * National Wildlife Federation $35,500 (1992–2001)
 * National Audubon Society $35,000 (1992–2001)
 * Southern Environmental Law Center $35,000 (1992–1992)
 * League of Conservation Voters $30,000 (1998–2001)
 * Earthjustice $30,000 (1998–2001)
 * American Farmland Trust $25,000 (1992–1992)
 * Friends of the Earth $21,000 (1992–2000)
 * Earth Day Network $15,000 (2000–2000)
 * Conservation International $15,000 (1998–2001)
 * Environmental Advocates $10,000 (1998–2001)
 * Tides Foundation & Tides Center $10,000 (1991–1991)
 * Rocky Mountain Institute $5,000 (2001–2001)
 * Defenders of Wildlife $5,000 (2001–2001)

Board

 * Laurance Rockefeller  President
 * John H. Adams  Trustee
 * Frances G. Beinecke  Trustee
 * Nash Castro  Trustee
 * Charles M. Clusen  Executive Director
 * William G. Conway Dr. Trustee
 * Henry L. Diamond  Trustee
 * R. Scott Greathead  Secretary
 * Fred I. Kent III Trustee
 * W. Barnabas McHenry  Trustee
 * Patrick F. Noonan  Trustee
 * Story Clark Resor  Trustee
 * Carmen Reyes  Treasurer
 * David S. Sampson  Trustee
 * Cathleen Douglas Stone  Trustee
 * Russell E. Train  Trustee
 * William H. Whyte Jr. Trustee

People as of 1965
As cited in the book Future Environments of North America (1966)

Trustees
 * Fairfield Osborn - Chair
 * Laurance S. Rockefeller - Vice Chair
 * Eugene R. Black
 * Stephen W. Blodgett
 * George E. Brewer, Jr.
 * Ernest Brooks, Jr.
 * James Cagney
 * Lucius D. Clay
 * H. J. Heinz II
 * David M. Heyman
 * David H. McAlpin
 * Samuel H. Ordway, Jr.
 * Howard Phipps, Jr.
 * Gifford B. Pinchot
 * S. Dillon Ripley
 * Russell E. Train

1965 Conference Steering Committee
 * Chair - F. Fraser Darling - Vice president Conservation Foundation
 * Lewis Mumford
 * E. M. Nicholson
 * Ian McTaggart Cowan
 * Christopher Tunnard
 * A. Starker Leopold
 * John Milton

Related Sourcewatch articles

 * Larry Amon - former staff
 * Paul Mellon - former trustee