Profile: Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation

Red-tailed Hawk
© Connie Gelb

The Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation has been a mainstay in the North Carolina philanthropic community for more than 70 years, improving the quality of life for residents of the Tar Heel State through economic development, social justice projects and environmental protection. It is this last
category that has made the Foundation one of The
Nature Conservancy’s most trusted and important
partners in North Carolina.

For more than 25 years, the Foundation has supported
the Conservancy’s mission to preserve our state’s most biologically rich lands and waters, from the Outer Banks
to the northwest mountains. To date, Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation has awarded the Conservancy’s North Carolina Chapter a total of $2.5 million for conservation projects across the state; in 2007, the Foundation supported a transportation study that will propose alternative routes for a new interstate highway in southeastern North Carolina and help protect the Conservancy’s Green Swamp Preserve.

“Much of what we’ve been able to accomplish in North Carolina is due to the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation’s commitment to our cause and dedication to the natural world,” says North Carolina Chapter Executive Director Katherine Skinner. “Over the years, we’ve been incredibly
fortunate to have a strong working relationship with Foundation staff and trustees. Their understanding of the conservation issues faced by our state has not just supported our work, it has informed our vision.”

A perfect example of this is the Land for Tomorrow project. When the Conservancy and its partners began initial discussions of a huge effort to increase state support for conservation, everyone involved knew it would take considerable funding to get such a large, complex project off the ground. Conservancy staff approached Z. Smith Reynolds, which was immediately interested in such a potentially transformative effort.

But it was the extensive exchange of information between the conservationists and the Foundation that gave the project form, and it was the Foundation’s gift of nearly $1 million over three years that turned a conservation vision into reality.

The return on investment has been astounding, with the Land for Tomorrow initiative securing $128 million in additional conservation funding during the 2007 legislative session.

“Z. Smith Reynolds has made a difference on a number of Nature Conservancy projects in North Carolina. They’ve helped us acquire bird habitat on the Roanoke River, protect longleaf pine forests in the Sandhills and preserve the high slopes of Bluff Mountain, to name just a few of the special places where the Foundation has been involved,” says Skinner. “But Land for Tomorrow was the next level up: a statewide coalition of hundreds of organizations all pulling together to make North Carolina a better place to work and live. And Z. Smith Reynolds really got the ball rolling.”

The Nature Conservancy has always relied on its many partners to achieve its conservation mission, and is grateful for the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, one of the Conservancy’s most crucial partners in North Carolina for nearly three decades.