From the moment Life of the Land was founded, the organization has refused government grants. The discipline has been costly. Government program funding has, over the decades, sustained much larger nonprofit budgets than ours. We have made our peace with being smaller because of what that funding decision buys us in return: the ability to challenge the government when it is wrong.
The conflict-of-interest math
An organization whose budget depends on a state agency’s discretionary grant has a powerful, often unacknowledged incentive to soften criticism of that agency. We have seen this dynamic across many sectors. By keeping our funding entirely community-sourced, we never have to ask whether a position will jeopardize next year’s allocation.
What community funding actually means
It means small recurring donors keep us going. It means we read every comment that comes back with a check. It means our annual budget rises and falls with the trust we earn. It is a high-accountability model. We would not trade it.
