In a three-part series, Washington Post Staff Writers Joe Stephens and David B. Ottaway detailed questionable practices at the worlds richest environmental group like the following:
- Acquiring raw land, attaching development restrictions, then reselling the properties to supporters at greatly reduced prices.
- Selling ecologically sensitive land at reduced prices to the organization's trustees for use as home sites.
- Conducting land deals that coincide with charitable contributions to the Conservancy from the buyers, who then benefit from significant tax breaks.
- Drilling for oil under the breeding ground of endangered species.
- Buying land from corporations whose executives sat on the nonprofit's governing board.
- Accepting cash payments for roughly the amount of a discount that is then written off the buyers' federal income taxes.
I hate to hear it. I thought Nature Conservancy was one of the few environmental groups still worth supporting. So many of the other ones have gone whacko.