Fact Sheet
Keep It Colorado’s Transaction Cost Assistance Program
In 2021, Keep It Colorado partnered with Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) to establish the Transaction Cost Assistance Program (TCAP). In 2022, thanks to the program’s initial success and additional GOCO investments, Keep It Colorado has been able to continue the program — and grow it. Additional funders contributing to the pool of investments have included Ducks Unlimited and the Walton Family Foundation.
“This program has enabled CWLT to conserve many working farms and ranches in western Colorado. These farmers and ranchers may not have deep pockets to pay for transaction costs, but the continuation of their operations are critical to the viability of our local economy and the conservation of their properties is essential for habitat protection and water protection.”
TCAP regrants funds to nonprofit land trusts to help cover the costs associated with conservation easement transactions. It enables landowners who have urgent opportunities to conserve their properties, but who face financial barriers to facilitating the transaction, to conserve more land more quickly – thereby protecting critical habitat, local food systems, iconic viewsheds, wetland and river corridors, and places of historic and cultural significance. With this assistance, Keep It Colorado eases the financial burden on landowners and enables them to move forward with protecting critical landscapes that are imminent risk of subdivided or converted to other uses.
TCAP Success Stories
Outcomes at a Glance
Since 2021 when Keep It Colorado formed TCAP in partnership with GOCO, it has awarded more than $2.5 million in grant assistance to Colorado nonprofit land trusts. This aid enables land trusts to help landowners complete 56 conservation projects and protect over 52,000 acres of critical habitat, local food systems, iconic viewsheds, wetland and river corridors, and places of historic and cultural significance across the state.
Demand for transaction cost assistance continues to increase as more landowners are motivated to conserve land. Applications far outweigh funds: In Year 1 of the Emerging Conservation Opportunities program, Keep It Colorado was able to fund $412,000, or just 36% of the $1,141,986 requested for transaction cost assistance.
Continuing this program, and increasing the amount of funding available, will be central to helping Keep It Colorado and our coalition members advance goals of Conserving Colorado: A 10-year Roadmap for the Future of Private Land Conservation over the next decade – including the community’s collective goals to conserve 3.3 million acres by 2033.
The demand for conservation-related
cost assistance far outweighs available funds. Organizations interested in supporting this work are invited to contact Hannah George, programs manager.
Thank you!
TCAP GRANT NEWS RELEASES & PROJECT LISTS
“The role TCAP plays in private lands conservation cannot be understated. Without this program the land trust community would be missing a significant source of funding for easements, particularly smaller/medium sized donated projects that may not compete for other state/federal sources of funding. This program plays a substantial, if not necessary, role in conserving Colorado.”
“Transaction cost assistance funding is instrumental for many MALT landowners. Growing this program ensures that as MALT’s conservation efforts grow there will be continued funding support, thus growing land and water conservation throughout Colorado - particularly in places where wildlife corridors and habitats are vulnerable.”
“Private land conservation, largely accomplished through conservation easements, is critical for achieving the many ambitious conservation goals that entities like Keep it Colorado and other conservation organizations have put forward. Completing a conservation easement requires a willing landowner with the will to not only donate the significant value of the easement, but to cover the costs of the transaction, which often exceed $100,000. Transaction cost assistance has been critical to so many conservation easements that simply would not have been completed without that assistance. Put simply, this funding is essential and doubling its availability will go a long way toward achieving the ambitious goals of doubling down on conservation in the next ten years.”
