Donor Who Crossed High-Tech Frontiers Now Conserves Natural Ones

Unlike many other environmental groups on the Philanthropy 400 list, Conservation International (No. 341) does not conduct direct-mail campaigns.

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Although it accepts small contributions, the Washington charity focuses most of its fund-raising attention on courting wealthy donors.

“Our goal is not to have millions of members,” says Peter A. Seligmann, who co-founded the organization in 1987 after serving as head of international programs at the Nature Conservancy (No. 14). Instead of working to acquire large tracts of environmentally sensitive land, as was the practice at his former organization, Mr. Seligmann’s group has tried to preserve the diversity of animal and plant life in tropical rain forests, coral reefs, and other regions around the globe by focusing on just 25 “hot spots” that he says are especially fragile. Those regions, in 17 countries around the world, make up a mere 1.4 per cent of the earth’s land surface — about the size of Alaska and Texas combined — but contain more than 60 per cent of all plant and animal species identified so far, he says.

The group believes that it can make the most difference with its donors’ dollars by keeping its focus tight.

“We have supporters who not only believe in us and therefore support us very generously, but in essence they depend on us for accountability,” Mr. Seligmann says.

Conservation International, in fact, has just 3,000 individual donors — compared with an organization like the Nature Conservancy, which recently chalked up its one-millionth donor. Yet 500 of Conservation International’s donors give between $1,000 and $25,000 annually. The organization’s average gift is $3,200.

Some give a lot more. The biggest donor is Gordon Moore, co-founder of the microchip maker Intel Corporation, whose passion for fishing has taken him to some of the very places that Conservation International is trying to save.

Last year, Mr. Moore, 70, and his wife, Betty, donated $35-million to the organization to create the Center for Applied Biodiversity Science. The research center, which is already up and running, employs experts in biology, business, economics, and political science to predict where threats to biodiversity are likely to occur — and to find solutions to head off the destruction.

Even without that gift, which came too late to be included in the organization’s fiscal 1998 financial reports, Conservation International garnered a spot on The Chronicle’s Philanthropy 400 for the first time, raising $27.4-million.

“Frankly, Peter [Seligmann] is a very good fund raiser,” says Mr. Moore, whose fortune is estimated to be worth $15-billion. “He presents a rather compelling picture of what Conservation International is doing.”

Mr. Moore’s relationship with Mr. Seligmann — and commitment to Conservation International — stretches back to 1987, when he mailed in a small donation to the organization. After recognizing Mr. Moore’s name on a list of donors, Mr. Seligmann promptly called a mutual acquaintance — John Young, then CEO of Hewlett-Packard — to help arrange an introduction.

By 1990, Mr. Moore was on the charity’s board of directors. Now retired from Intel, where he remains chairman emeritus, Mr. Moore travels at least twice a year with Conservation International, and he attends just about all of the board meetings.

“At one time it looked like the earth’s resources were infinite,” says Mr. Moore. “Now we’re finding out they’re all finite.”

He adds: “There’s a fairly large overlap between preserving wild places so future generations can experience them and in preserving biodiversity. They fit together very nicely.”

In fact, Mr. Moore and Conservation International agree that human pursuits — recreational or otherwise — must be accommodated by those battling habitat loss.

The group is known for its non-confrontational approach to solving conservation problems, a tack that more and more conservation groups are choosing. Conservation International has made a point of working with industries and landowners, as well as with local and state governments, to build consensus among competing interests and to offer incentives that meet the economic and social needs of people in developing countries. What’s more, the charity hires local people to direct its projects in the field.

One example of success is in Suriname, where Conservation International helped persuade the government not to sell off portions of its tropical rain forests to international logging conglomerates. It demonstrated that other uses for the land, such as ecotourism and pharmaceutical exploration, would do less harm and offer better long-term economic opportunities for people in the region.

“Conservation really has to make sense for everybody for it to be enduring,” Mr. Moore says. “It’s got to make sense for the local people in particular. You can’t just fence off their back yard and say, ‘We’re going to preserve it.’ Most major corporations these days appreciate that they have a role to play in conservation also, and several of them are also taking leading positions.”

Conservation International’s inclusiveness is reflected in its Board of Directors. Among those who serve are Edward O. Wilson, the renowned Pulitzer Prize-winning author and biologist, and William Clay Ford, Jr., chairman of the Ford Motor Company.

Mr. Wilson, who has long been involved in the conservation movement, says the Center for Applied Biodiversity Science will help the group move ahead even further by enabling experts to detect which areas are likely to be threatened by massive destruction, and to intervene before any major loss of species or habitat occurs. It also will allow them to accelerate the process of identifying the species in various habitats and to better understand how the rich diversity of flora and fauna is critical for human survival.

“This was a dire need in the conservation community,” Mr. Wilson says.

Mr. Moore, who by all accounts is a self-effacing sort, has sought to play down his role in the center — declining, for example, to name it after himself.

“I deserve no credit at all for the intellectual context of the center,” he says. “That definitely came out of C.I. management.”

Mr. Moore says he plans to continue to be an active member.

“If you’re going to be a donor, you want to be aware in detail of what the money’s going to be used for,” he says. “I wouldn’t have become a major donor if I hadn’t gotten closely involved with what they’re doing.”

One duty he won’t perform, however, is raising money for the group.

“I’m the world’s worst fund raiser,” he says. “I hate to ask people for money.”