This continues to be a challenging economic time for non-profit organizations and foundations.  Although The Harder Foundation investment portfolio has outperformed its benchmark averages for three, five, and ten year periods, we took a significant loss in 2008 that was only partially restored in 2009.  Administrative costs were cut and our grant-making total for the year fell to $885,000.  Our 2009 year-end asset value was $28,762,100.  For 2010, we project an increase in our grantmaking total to $1,000,000.

 

The Harder Foundation has spent the last 18 months restoring our endowment, and restructuring our grantmaking strategy and program priorities to adapt to changing circumstances.  Our new priorities are described in the Grantmaking Program section of this website.  Our grantmaking program had been organized around focused funding areas and collaborative campaigns covering a wide range of issues affecting public lands in Alaska, the Pacific Northwest and the Inter-Mountain West.

 

Our new focus is on accelerating policies and actions to promote ecosystem adaptation in the face of climate change.  This change in focus reflects our growing sense of urgency about the impacts of climate change in our region of Alaska, the Pacific Northwest and the Northern Rockies.  Climate change is already evident at the ecosystem level.  For example, Whitebark pine forests – a critical food source for Yellowstone’s endangered grizzly bears – are being decimated throughout their Rocky Mountain range by a climate-induced disease, blister rust, and by mountain pine beetles.  In the Cascades, winter snowpack has been reduced by as much as 20%, and receding glaciers on Mt. Rainier are filling rivers with glacial debris.  Changes in precipitation and timing of runoff, coupled with higher temperatures, are altering habitat conditions in rivers and streams throughout the region, which will inevitably alter the life cycles of migrating salmon and steelhead, threatening their survival.  We are concerned that continued, rapid changes in ecosystems will reduce the chances of species to survive in a changing climate.

 

Our new grantmaking approach is, fundamentally, a strategy for maximizing biodiversity and healthy ecological functions on public lands and waters, and for promoting the long-term health and vitality of communities.  It elevates climate adaptation as a goal, yet maintains our long-standing commitment to durable conservation.

 

Our geographic focus has shifted as well.  We will focus on specific landscapes within the states of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, with some support to address key issues at the regional and national level.

 

This new approach should increase our effectiveness in supporting our grantees.  We will accept proposals by invitation only, and will have one grantmaking cycle in the second half of the year. We will evaluate the new program and make adjustments in 2012.

 

Addressing the impacts of climate change on western landscapes at a time of polarized national political forces and a devastating economic recession is difficult, and at times, frustrating.  This has been an especially trying period for those on the front lines, and we greatly appreciate our grantees’ creativity and resolve in these very challenging circumstances.