2024 is NFLT’s 25th anniversary year. As we count down to the anniversary date of our founding—December 27—we thought it would be fun to take a stroll down memory lane along the way. Starting today, and every week until December 27, we will feature a short story, profile, or highlight from the past 25 years. And for our first week what better way to kick off 25 years of memories in 25 weeks than by recognizing our founder, Bill McQuilkin? We dove into the archives (back to April 2017) and found an essay by Bill about the origin of NFLT and how he came up with the idea. The essay has been minimally edited for length.
My Journey with the NFLT
Bill McQuilkin
April 2017
December 1999 marks the date when the North Florida Land Trust got its start. Before then I had become acquainted with another premier land trust (Jackson Hole Land Trust), attended a Land Trust Alliance Rally, and was convinced that land conservation was urgently needed. This became a calling for me.
There were several important milestones that kept us going and made our success possible. First up, the Barnett Bank in Jacksonville was sold to a larger bank in the late 1990’s and left a number of senior ex-bank executives with free time. The initial board of directors was largely an ex-Barnett corporate board who were most generous with their money and time. Membership efforts were mostly low key and word-of-mouth.
My philosophy of managing a nonprofit organization included the importance of a business office and paid staff. Following the startup period when I wore all the operating hats, we hired our first Executive Director. This milestone turned out to be a difficult part of transitioning to a larger organization. There were several directors who left prematurely before the right person emerged. We changed business offices several times in Ponte Vedra Beach, Jacksonville Beach, and St. Augustine while we expanded our geographic reach and built a larger and more hands-on board of directors.
A very important fundraising and membership milestone was achieved when we invested in a formal fundraising training program called Raising More Money. We committed to having six board members spend one year following a fundraising formula which included monthly gatherings for new members and ending with an “ask” luncheon. Our first luncheon, with close to 100 people, netted the NFLT over $125,000 in pledges and income!
Another milestone was our first conservation easement. The 2-acre Cummer property, while not large, was hugely important because it proved we could follow all the important steps for land protection, and because the owner welcomed friends of the land trust to home receptions and under the tent sit-down dinners with speakers. This gave us visibility and credibility. We partnered with The Nature Conserve [sic] and The Trust for Public Lands to later protect the Pescatello Island, Spencer property, and a Fleming Island 50-acre property.
I am extremely proud of the fact that so many new properties have been protected (editor’s note: as of today, more than 39,000 acres) and the organization has prospered with professional staff. The NFLT is a legacy which gives me great pleasure and satisfaction.
Last fall Bill shared with us a sense of immense pride as he considered just how far the land trust has come. “From our humble beginnings as an all-volunteer organization, we’ve matured into a professional entity with full-time staff, marking our presence in the conservation world. Many initiatives have come and gone over the years, yet our trust stands firm, having outlived many of its contemporaries.”
Do you have a story about how NFLT has touched you, or was there an acquisition or specific impact of we had that resonated with you? We would love to hear it! Please email our Communications Officer, Sarah Hande, at shande@nflt.org with anything you want to share. As we so often say, NFLT cannot do what we do without you!
