CONSERVATION · ANNUAL CAMPAIGN
Compatible Lands Foundation
Where military readiness and conservation meet — and a permanent funding program was built to sustain both.
$3.5M
RAISED
20x
ROC®
120
LANDOWNERS ENGAGED
67K
PEOPLE IMPACTED
01
The opportunity
A mission unlike any other — at the intersection of national security and conservation.
The Compatible Lands Foundation was formed in 2009 by a group of experienced conservation professionals at the encouragement of the U.S. Department of Defense. Their mission: to preserve natural resources on private lands adjacent to military installations across America — protecting both military training and readiness and the critical ecosystems that surround them. From Fort Hood in central Texas to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, Compatible Lands was doing conservation work that no other organization was positioned to do.
Through conservation easements — voluntary yet permanent restrictions on land use — CLF works with private landowners to preserve open space, protect threatened and endangered species, safeguard critical aquifer recharge zones, sustain prime agricultural land, and ensure that America's most important military training installations remain protected from encroachment. The organization's programs address land conservation, wildlife habitat, water quality, climate resilience, and agricultural preservation simultaneously — all while supporting the men and women who serve.
By the time CLF engaged COGEO, the organization had proven its model across eight installations in seven states. What it needed was a comprehensive philanthropic program to match the scale of its ambition — a permanent funding infrastructure that could sustain conservation easements, build the endowment, and support organizational growth for decades to come.
02
What COGEO did
Built a comprehensive philanthropic program for an organization with a mission unlike any other.
COGEO entered Compatible Lands Foundation with a clear understanding of what made this organization uniquely fundable. The intersection of national security, conservation, endangered species protection, water quality, and agricultural preservation gave CLF a donor story that could resonate across corporate, foundation, individual, and planned giving audiences simultaneously — and COGEO built the infrastructure to reach all of them.
Expanded the board and organizational infrastructure
Before the fundraising program could scale, CLF needed the leadership structure to support it. COGEO led a strategic board of directors buildout and recruitment process — identifying and placing board members whose professional networks, philanthropic capacity, and strategic alignment with CLF's priorities positioned the organization for long-term growth. The result was a board built not just to govern, but to open doors, make introductions, and lead by example in supporting the mission.
Developed the case statement and launched major gifts and individual giving
COGEO developed CLF's formal case statement — a document that captured the dual urgency of the mission in a way that moved donors from interest to investment. Conservation and military readiness are rarely achieved by a single organization. CLF does both — and COGEO made sure that story was told compellingly. With the case for support established, COGEO built CLF's first structured major gifts program, identifying and cultivating the individual donors and landowners most closely connected to the mission and guiding them through their first meaningful philanthropic commitments to the organization.
Built corporate outreach and foundation programs
CLF's unique positioning — simultaneously serving national security, conservation, agricultural, and wildlife audiences — made it an exceptionally strong corporate and foundation prospect. COGEO identified companies whose brand interests aligned with one or more of CLF's stakeholder communities and structured corporate partnerships that delivered both meaningful funding and genuine brand association. Foundation outreach targeted funders whose priorities intersected with conservation, military support, water quality, and agricultural preservation — diversifying CLF's revenue across multiple philanthropic channels for the first time.
Launched the CLF Legacy Society — a comprehensive planned giving program built from scratch
The most strategically significant element of the engagement was the launch of CLF's Legacy Society — a comprehensive planned giving program built entirely from the ground up. COGEO crafted the full program architecture, developed the marketing strategy, built the prospecting approach, and created the complete suite of giving vehicles: bequests through wills and living trusts, charitable gift annuities, charitable remainder trusts, pooled income funds, and beneficiary designations for retirement accounts, insurance policies, and bank and investment accounts.
The program began where every strong Legacy Society begins — with the board. COGEO guided CLF's board members to make their own Legacy commitments first, establishing the society's credibility and giving leadership a natural, authentic way to introduce planned giving conversations with donors and professional advisors.
Given that conservation easement donors had already made a permanent commitment to protecting their land, they were natural Legacy Society prospects — people who had demonstrated through their actions that they believed in leaving something lasting for future generations. COGEO built the prospecting infrastructure to identify these donors and cultivate those existing relationships into philanthropic legacies. The engagement also brought CLF's professional advisor network — attorneys, estate planners, financial advisors, and accountants — into the program as active partners in identifying and directing planned giving candidates to the organization.
03
The outcome
In three years CLF raised $3.5M — and built a philanthropic program as permanent as the easements it protects.
$3.5M
RAISED IN 3 YEARS
20x
RETURN ON CONTRIBUTION®
120
LANDOWNERS ENGAGED
67,000
PEOPLE IMPACTED
Over three years Compatible Lands Foundation raised $3.5 million — a 20x return on their investment in COGEO and a transformational moment for an organization that had relied primarily on Department of Defense funding to sustain its operations. The philanthropic program COGEO built diversified CLF's revenue across individual donors, corporate sponsors, foundations, and planned giving — creating a funding model as resilient and permanent as the conservation easements it was designed to protect.
The results speak to both the mission and the moment. Across eight military installations and seven states, CLF's work protects thousands of acres of critical open space — land that preserves drinking water for millions of South Texas residents through the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone, sustains habitat for the Golden-Cheeked Warbler, the Monarch Butterfly, the Gopher Tortoise, and other threatened species, maintains prime agricultural working lands for future generations, and ensures that America's most important military training centers remain fully operational for the men and women who serve.
Through the Farmer Education and Training Initiative — a partnership with the USDA, Texas A&M's AgriLife Extension, and the Farmer Veteran Coalition — CLF is also transitioning soldiers into careers in agriculture, providing hands-on training at the FEAT Farm and connecting veterans to a community of practice and a pathway forward. It is a mission within the mission — and a testament to what an organization with CLF's reach can accomplish when its philanthropic program matches its ambition.
CAMPAIGN MATERIALS
Campaign Case Statement
Download the Compatible Lands Foundation case statement — the document that launched a $3.5M philanthropic program for one of America's most unique conservation organizations.
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