MUC, Positioned for Success, Still Seeks Funding

By Eric Weld, MassLandlords, Inc.

As we wrap up our GoFundMe campaign to raise capital for our nonprofit Massachusetts Urban Conservancy (MUC), we are now pivoting to more local and community-based grant funding strategies.

MUC is raising funds to support our first project, to transform this plot of unbuildable land in Randolph, Mass., by removing these overgrowing invasive plants (such as knotweed) and eventually planting native vegetation. Cc by-sa MUC

As we do so, we seek all the information we can gather on local and regional funding sources. If you know of environment or conservation grants in your community, send us an email at info@muc.bio or eweld@muc.bio.

While our GoFundMe campaign produced limited success, it helped build our public profile and forge connections that will be essential going forward. The campaign aimed to raise nearly $10,000 to support closing and insurance costs for a small parcel of land in Randolph, Mass., and the removal of overgrowing invasive vegetation there. Read more about the fundraiser and our first project.

We remain committed to the MUC mission to transform small, unbuildable urban lots into healthy, attractive green spaces, for the environmental benefits as well as the enjoyment and edification of nearby residents. The widespread enthusiasm and support we’ve received from other conservancies, property owners, educators, environmental programs and municipal conservation experts underscores the validity of our idea.

Land Donors Lining Up

Our online campaign produced a lot of support for MUC and its mission, and some valuable partnerships. Notably, we’ve received pledges of or inquiries about land donations from nearly half a dozen landowners, from western Massachusetts to Dorchester.

Each of these pledged properties has unique traits. Some are overgrown with invasives. Others are on forested wetlands. A couple are tiny, leftover residential lot fragments. However, with a little capital, every one of these lots could be redeemed from a useless tract into a healthy green space, protected forever as a semi-wild urban oasis.

MUC’s general mission is to transform empty, unbuildable urban properties into healthy, biodiverse microhabitats for pollinators and other animals, and as much-needed green spaces for urban residents. We know from working with landlords across the state that there are many such properties – small, leftover lots from housing developments that are deemed unbuildable due to odd size, inadequate space, slopes, wetlands or other reasons. Owners of these properties pay real estate taxes year after year just for owning the unusable space. In some cases, they pay for insurance coverage and maintenance costs. These lots can be hard, or even impossible, to sell. It’s an annual net liability with no prospect of regaining losses on the property, let alone return on the investment.

We put a call out to owners of such properties to donate the land to MUC, clear it from their expense column, claim a tax credit for the assessed value of the property and contribute to our series of environmental restoration projects.

Our win-win model has generated a lot of enthusiasm. The outreach we’ve received from land donors has affirmed what we thought: There are many small pieces of land (less than an acre) in the state that are of no use to the owners, but would be perfect as semi-wild community green spaces.

Best of all: our model is very cheap in comparison to most conservation projects. For only a few thousand dollars, we can turn an overgrown, wasted corner of land into a thriving ecosystem teeming with wildlife, providing shade, cooling an overheated neighborhood and offering an educational laboratory for local students.

Most conservancies have to come up with tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase land. Because we rely on donated land, our only costs are some administrative fees and minimal horticultural restoration.

A Good Deal

In addition to land donors, MUC has cultivated relationships with a parade of representatives from other conservancies, as well as science teachers and horticultural experts. This community of support will be essential when we raise the capital needed to implement our land restoration plans.

As part of our recent fundraiser, we hosted an online series of webcasts, in which we invited a variety of guests to sit for interviews about the environment, sustainable landscaping, economic benefits of donating land, and other topics.

Tom Chase, executive director of Village and Wilderness, was especially effusive about the bargain cost of MUC’s approach during his guest spot in September. Village and Wilderness, one of our new partners, is a Massachusetts-based national nonprofit collaborative for conservancies. Chase speaks from his background in individual fundraising and decades of working for and with conservancies.

“Your innovative approach and your organization is really unique,” Chase said of MUC. “The model you’ve developed where the landowner donates the land and all you’re looking for is the transactional price cost…that’s remarkably cheap in the conservation world. That is a good deal. Most conservation projects I worked on have run from, minimum, hundreds of thousands of dollars to sometimes quite a few millions of dollars. And so that’s a good deal. I don’t know of any that are doing what you’re doing.”

Other webcast guests included Don Sanders, executor of the Sudnovsky Family Trust, which pledged the parcel of unbuildable land in Randolph that we targeted for our first project; MassLandlords member Nate Fournier, owner and operator of Reimagined Roots, an organic landscaping company in West Boylston; and Tripti Thomas-Travers, director of the Microhabitat Accelerator program at Village and Wilderness, who joined Chase.

The webcasts were recorded and excerpts are available for viewing here.

The Importance of MUC

We are committed to getting MUC off the ground not because it’s easy or fun, but because our work is vitally important. Diversity of wild plants and animals, especially pollinators, is essential for agricultural output, keeping the price of food low, and helping our renters and all of us make ends meet.

It’s not in most daily headlines, but we are now in a worldwide extinction event (sometimes called the Holocene Extinction or Sixth Extinction). That, along with our planet’s rapid loss of biodiversity and natural habitat, are among leading threats to human existence. Our current circumstance is beyond precedent. We see thousands of plant and animal species disappear every year due to human activity. We don’t know where this extinction will lead. In 25 years, at our current pace, we may be beyond the point of repair.

That’s the big picture. More immediately, as most the world and U.S. populations move to cities, urban residents are increasingly suffering from lack of access to nature. Trees bring cleaner air and water and cooler temperatures. Green spaces offer mini escapes from concrete overwhelm and encourage social interaction. As we’ve reported, numerous studies show that life for urban residents with even limited access to nature improves in surprising ways: less pollution-related disease, lower cost of living, stronger economy, better academic performance, more socialization.

As property owners and rental business operators, we at MUC understand the stresses and immediate concerns of running a business and tending to our properties. But we are not only owners of buildings, we are also stewards of the land our buildings sit on. Assuring the health and long-term sustainability of the land we own is in our business interests.

MUC’s mission is at the convergence of needs among property owners and landlords, urban residents and nature. Our model aims to benefit all parties, and to strengthen and revitalize our environment in the process, for our kids’ and grandkids’ future lives.

We are continuing our work on grants and researching funding sources. If you, like us, feel moved by the work, you can still donate here, and/or let us know your thoughts at info@muc.bio.