Land Trust Alliance — Capacity & Excellence Programs

National membership organization providing peer-to-peer learning, free online courses, accreditation, and capacity-building grants for land trusts and watershed conservation nonprofits.

The Land Trust Alliance is the national umbrella organization for land conservation nonprofits, with over 1,000 member organizations including many watershed-focused land trusts. For organizational capacity building, the Alliance offers a uniquely deep set of resources: free online self-paced courses on governance, conservation easements, fundraising, and stewardship; in-person and virtual peer learning circles segmented by organization size; the annual Rally national conference; and a library of model documents (board policies, easement templates, financial controls).The Alliance also runs the Land Trust Accreditation Commission, an independent body that accredits land trusts meeting national standards — accreditation unlocks higher-tier federal funding eligibility (including the USDA Agricultural Conservation Easement Program), boosts donor confidence, and signals credibility to municipal partners. Capacity & Excellence grants help member organizations achieve and maintain accreditation.Watershed groups doing any land protection work — conservation easements on riparian corridors, fee acquisition of wetlands, headwater protection — should be Alliance members. Membership tiers are scaled to organization size and budget.