how to start a stewardship organization from scratch

TK-2012/3

HOW TO START A WILDERNESS STEWARDSHIP ORGANIZATION

By Charles Bell

Founder, Poudre Wilderness Volunteers

Contents INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................. 2

WHO WILL GET THINGS STARTED? ............................................................................................................... 2

Attributes of the Founders........................................................................................................................ 2

THE FIRST STEPS ............................................................................................................................................ 3

Community Initiative ................................................................................................................................ 3

Agency initiative ........................................................................................................................................ 3

Create a Board of Directors ...................................................................................................................... 4

FOURTEEN STEPS TO FOUNDING THE ORGANIZATION ................................................................................ 5

HOW WE FOUNDED POUDRE WILDERNESS VOLUNTEERS ........................................................................... 7

Key Decisions for PWV .............................................................................................................................. 8

Summary ..................................................................................................................................................... 10

B u i l d i n g a W i l d e r n e s s S t e w a r d s h i p C o m m u n i t y

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www.WildernessAlliance.org

INTRODUCTION

I have often been asked how I did it. How did I start a wilderness support

organization that has not only endured for more than 15 years but has thrived

beyond anyone’s highest expectations -- growing to almost 300 active volunteers

who do more than $500,000 worth of work for the U.S. Forest Service each year?

I will attempt in this article to offer ideas, suggestions and guidelines for those

who wish to launch their own groups and then tell how we went about forming

Poudre Wilderness Volunteers.

Typically, the genesis of a successful wilderness stewardship organization can be

found either in motivated community members concerned about the health of

their region’s natural areas, or in a public lands management agency where

officials need volunteer support to help compensate for dwindling government

appropriations.

WHO WILL GET THINGS STARTED?

The “who” is very important in the initial phase of founding a wilderness support

organization.

Attributes of the Founders

When one or more community members try to form an organization, they lead by

example in motivating others to join them. Their own actions in volunteering

their time and talent serve as inspiration as they seek to recruit founding

members.

They need to emphasize that protecting the resource is their primary purpose,

rather than providing labor for an underfunded government agency. They need

to convince potential volunteers that above all it is the wilderness or other

natural areas that need their help.

What skills does a founder need? Among the most important are leadership

experience in getting people and tasks organized, a knowledge of using media to

promote the organization, good contacts at many levels in the community, and

the persuasiveness necessary to enlist others in the founding effort. The founder


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must also be sensitive to the wishes and constraints of land agency managers and

develop a good working relationship with them.

If the genesis lies in the community, one approach needs to be taken. If it comes

from an agency, then another approach is needed.

THE FIRST STEPS

Community Initiative

Let’s look first at the first two steps involved when the genesis comes from the

community.

1. One person, or a small group of persons, becomes concerned about

protecting a wilderness or another natural area and is motivated to do

something about it. They may or may not have specific ideas about what

they would like to do.

2. An approach is made to the land agency responsible for managing the

natural area with an offer to assist. The group may have ideas in mind

about what they want to do, or they may ask the agency what it would like

to have done.

Step 2 is a critical step. Land agency officials must be ready to accept such

help and must be confident that the citizens group does not have any hidden

agendas that may conflict with agency policy or procedures. In other words,

the citizens group must not be aiming to tell agency staff how to do their jobs.

Rather, they need to reach mutual agreement with the agency on what their

new group will do and how it will be organized.

Agency initiative

These same two steps are different when it’s the agency that wants to get a

volunteer group formed.

1. The agency manager needs to identify an individual or a small group in their

community who is familiar with the wilderness or natural area that needs


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help, is highly motivated to help conserve it, and who has the kind of skills

and experience necessary to create a new organization. This person or

persons should be asked to form a volunteer organization.

This is a very essential step. If the agency manager tries to do it on his or

her own, it is likely to appear that they are just seeking free labor to help

them do their job. In other words, they are most likely to be seen as

looking for help for the government agency rather than for the land. And

it’s the needs of the land, not the agency, which will motivate people to

volunteer.

2. Once such a person or persons has agreed to undertake the task, they need

to work with the agency manager to decide on what such a group will do

and how it will be organized.

From this point forward, the steps required to form an organization, no matter

what its genesis, are the same.

Create a Board of Directors

Once a basic role for the group has been decided it is time to create a board of

directors. Ideally, the organizers will recruit six to 10 persons to serve as a

founding board of directors. In some communities with small populations, they

may need to begin with fewer persons. But be mindful that there is a lot of time-

consuming work to be done to build a strong foundation for the organization.

Ideally, the new board will include persons who have managerial experience, have

a substantial network of contacts in the local community, know how to organize

volunteer training, and are adept at using all appropriate forms of media to

attract members and contributors.


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FOURTEEN STEPS TO FOUNDING THE ORGANIZATION

The tasks the new board needs to undertake include the following:

1. Decide on a name for the organization.

2. Have a thorough board discussion of how the organization’s mission should

be stated and how it will operate to fulfill this mission. It is important to

cover as many operational details as possible at this early stage – what kind

of volunteers will be recruited and what, specifically, they will be asked to

do; what training they will require; what kind of support they will need

from the organization and the Agency.

3. Seek a volunteer graphic artist to design a logo.

4. Assign someone with writing skills to draft a mission statement reflecting

the views expressed by the board. It would be wise to consult with Agency

managers as the mission statement is developed to assure that it reflects

the needs of the wilderness or other natural area to be supported and

establishes a framework for harmonious cooperation between the Agency

and the organization.

5. Decide at the outset whether or not to seek early incorporation as a non-

profit. It is highly recommended that this be done early on, as it establishes

an aura of permanence important for recruiting volunteers and raising

operating funds.

6. Assign to a board member (if possible, someone with legal or management

experience, and an ability to write) the task of drafting the organization’s

Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws. Templates and examples for this can

be found on the web, including those from Poudre Wilderness Volunteers

which are on the PWV website (www.poudrewildernessvolunteers.org).

With all the resources available, this task is much easier than one might


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fear.

7. Review the draft documents, revising as necessary to reflect the majority

views of the board.

8. Raise money to meet start-up costs. At a minimum you should raise $1,000.

Your situation may lead you to pursue a higher level of start up funding.

9. Submit Articles of Incorporation to the state in which the organization is to

reside. In most states, this is a rather simple task. Instructions can usually

be found on the web, probably at the Secretary of State’s website. There is

usually an incorporation fee payable to the state.

10. Open a bank account once the organization’s incorporation is approved.

11. Assign to someone with legal, accounting or management experience, who

also has an ability to write, the task of preparing the submission to the

Internal Revenue Service for tax-exempt status (commonly known as

501(c)3 but might actually be granted under another IRS code section).

Again, templates are available on the web, including the submission NWSA

made to the IRS, which was successful in getting us our tax-free status. This

is now more complicated than it once was and requires much more

preparation than the Articles of Incorporation or Bylaws. There is also a

substantial fee that needs to be paid to the IRS with the submission.

12. Launch a public campaign to recruit volunteers and raise money.

13. Develop a volunteer training program and a means of scheduling their

work. There are good examples of this available elsewhere on the NWSA

website.


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14. Establish committees to carry out the various tasks required to run the

organization – training, fund-raising, scheduling, project development and

management, website, etc.

HOW WE FOUNDED POUDRE WILDERNESS VOLUNTEERS

I came from a government background. I took early retirement after a successful

career in the U.S. Foreign Service, serving in senior management positions in U.S.

Embassies overseas. Upon my retirement, I moved to Colorado and went down

to the local U.S. Forest Service ranger district office to volunteer. They put me in

the Rawah Wilderness as a volunteer ranger, teaching me on the job the

techniques of trail work, Leave No Trace Outdoor Ethics, and educating and

assisting the public. I volunteered at a time when the ranger district had ample

money and staff to manage its wilderness and back country areas. But within

three years, these funds – and staff – had dwindled to nearly nothing.

By this time, I had fallen in love with the Rawah Wilderness and was deeply

concerned that it would be seriously degraded by the growing number of visitors

unless staff could be found to patrol it. I went to the district ranger and

suggested that I try to found a volunteer organization to fill the gap. The district

ranger encouraged me to give it a try. Using my understanding of the constraints

under which government agencies operate and my management experience, I

began laying the foundation of an independent volunteer organization dedicated

to assisting the Ranger District in managing the wilderness and back country areas

under its jurisdiction.

My short-coming was that I was new to the community and did not have the

contacts to get others involved with me in founding the organization. I turned to

my new friend, Art Bunn, a retired sales executive, who had lots of local contacts.

He put together 10 men and women representing a good cross-section of the

community to form a board of directors. And he used his contacts to raise $2000

from Hewlett-Packard to cover our start-up costs.


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We had our first organizational meeting in December 1995 at which we decided

on the basic purpose and structure of our organization. In early January, the

board met again to decide on our name and further develop our new

organization. I then drafted our Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws, with pro

bono help from a local attorney. After board approval, I submitted our request

for incorporation to the Colorado Secretary of State, which was granted in mid-

January.

I then drafted, with pro bono help from a local accountant, our submission to the

IRS for tax-exempt status, which was granted in April.

Key Decisions for PWV

Among the key decisions we made in forming Poudre Wilderness Volunteers

(PWV) were:

1. …that we would NOT be an environmental advocacy group. Rather we

would support the local Ranger District in ways that it desired. We would

not try to influence how the Ranger District managed the forest.

2. …that we would be an all-volunteer organization, meaning that no one

would be paid for any PWV activity.

3. …that we would be a board-driven organization, with board members doing

the lions’ share of the work required to operate PWV, though we agreed

we would recruit some committees and their chairs from the volunteer

corps to help spread the work load.

4. …that our basic mission would be education of the public by volunteer

rangers patrolling the trails to promote public land conservation.

5. …that we would screen prospective volunteers through personal

interviews.


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6. …that all volunteers had to attend our training weekend and be prepared to

spend at least six days a season on patrol.

7. …that volunteers would wear a uniform shirt when on patrol and use the

Authority of the Resource technique to bring errant forest visitors into

compliance with Leave No Trace principles.

8. …that we would have a stock patrol as well as hikers. This was decided

after a drawn-out, heated debate by the board.

(Our stock patrol now represents about one-fifth of our membership.)

9. …that the Ranger District officer appointed as our liaison would attend all

of our board meetings to assure full and harmonious coordination and

cooperation between PWV and the Ranger District.

In March, we enlisted the Supervisor of the Arapaho & Roosevelt National Forests

to host a news conference to announce the creation of our new group. We

succeeded in getting excellent coverage by all the newspapers along the Northern

Front Range and the TV stations from Denver that broadcast to our region. From

all this publicity, 100 people asked to volunteer. The board suddenly faced a huge

task of interviewing all candidate volunteers, developing a training program for

them, getting uniform shirts with PWV and USFS volunteer logos, ordering name

tags, and scheduling their patrols by the time the season began in late May.

Somehow, we managed. We were off to a good start.

My friend Art and I continued as co-chairs of PWV for three years, as we refined

our organization. Our board, which had attracted new members, was extremely

active in carrying out all the tasks our new organization demanded. And we

began our slow growth toward tripling the size of our volunteer corps.

At the end of three years, Art and I were determined to step down, despite cries

from the board that the organization would collapse without us at the helm. We

said, “So be it. It cannot be Chuck Bell’s or Art Bunn’s organization. It must

become a community organization to survive.” This was arguably the most


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important thing we ever did as leaders. Over the years, the turnover in board

chairs and board members has enabled PWV to be continually refreshed by new

ideas, new talents and fresh energy. This is its true strength as one of the leading

wilderness volunteer organizations in our nation.

SUMMARY

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