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Type: Journal Article
Author(s): E. R. Larson; A. G. Boyer; Paul R. Armsworth
Publication Date: December 2014

The effectiveness of conservation organizations is determined in part by how they adapt to changing conditions. Over the previous decade, economic conditions in the United States (US) showed marked variation including a period of rapid growth followed by a major recession. We examine how biodiversity conservation nonprofits in the US responded to these changes through their financial behaviors, focusing on a sample of 90 biodiversity conservation nonprofits and the largest individual organization (The Nature Conservancy; TNC). For the 90 sampled organizations, an analysis of financial ratios derived from tax return data revealed little response to economic conditions. Similarly, more detailed examination of conservation expenditures and land acquisition practices of TNC revealed only one significant relationship with economic conditions: TNC accepted a greater proportion of conservation easements as donated in more difficult economic conditions. Our results suggest that the financial behaviors of US biodiversity conservation nonprofits are unresponsive to economic conditions. © 2014 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & sons Ltd. This is an open-access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Citation: Larson, E. R., A. G. Boyer, and P. R. Armsworth. 2014. A lack of response of the financial behaviors of biodiversity conservation nonprofits to changing economic conditions. Ecology and Evolution, v. 4, no. 23, p. 4429-4443. 10.1002/ece3.1281. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4264893/.

Cataloging Information

Topics:
Regions:
Alaska    California    Eastern    Great Basin    Hawaii    Northern Rockies    Northwest    Rocky Mountain    Southern    Southwest    National
Keywords:
  • adaptation
  • charity
  • conservation easements
  • conservation easements
  • financial ratios
  • land trust
  • nongovernmental organization
Tall Timbers Record Number: 31224Location Status: Not in fileCall Number: AvailableAbstract Status: Okay, Fair use, Reproduced by permission
Record Last Modified:
Record Maintained By: FRAMES Staff (https://www.frames.gov/contact)
FRAMES Record Number: 53736

This bibliographic record was either created or modified by Tall Timbers and is provided without charge to promote research and education in Fire Ecology. The E.V. Komarek Fire Ecology Database is the intellectual property of Tall Timbers.