None Nature Conservancy News Room Press Releases Search All Press Releases Cristina Mestre The Nature Conservancy (703) 841-8779 cmestre@tnc.org

The Nature Conservancy Recognized for Outstanding Performance, Efficiency, and Financial Security

ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA — December 18, 2006 — Today, The Nature Conservancy announced that it has received a four out of four star rating from Charity Navigator, the country’s top independent charity evaluator working to determine the financial health of the nation’s largest organizations.

Charity Navigator’s perfect rating has been given to The Nature Conservancy because the organization was found to exceed industry standards and to outperform the majority of public charities and almost all other environmental nonprofit organizations in terms of organizational efficiency, capacity, and financial health.

Organizational efficiency is defined as the ability to keep administrative and program costs down and to devote the majority of money raised to specific projects, while organizational capacity measures the strength and stability to pursue long-term objectives and solutions. Fundraising efficiency is defined as the amount of money spent in order for an organization to raise $1 in charitable contributions.

“Charity Navigator is a highly-visited and well respected information source for philanthropic minded people, and receiving their highest rating is very significant for the Conservancy,” said Steve McCormick, president and CEO of The Nature Conservancy.

“We want everyone who supports the Conservancy to know that we are maximizing every dollar to achieve meaningful conservation results.”

The Conservancy has received other recognitions this year, including an appearance on Charity Navigator’s “Top 10” list of “The Best Charities Everyone’s Heard Of” in November 2006. In addition, for the last two years polls by Harris Interactive® have rated the Conservancy as one of the most trusted organizations in the Nation’s Capital. The Conservancy also received superlative ratings from many other charity watchdog organizations, including the Better Business Bureau (BBB) Wise Giving Alliance and the American Institute of Philanthropy.

Charity Navigator’s four-star review of The Nature Conservancy can be viewed at http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm/bay/search.summary/orgid/4208.htm

For more information or to make a tax-deductible gift or year-end donation to The Nature Conservancy visit nature.org/give/

About The Nature Conservancy

The Nature Conservancy is a leading international, nonprofit organization that preserves plants, animals and natural communities representing the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. To date, the Conservancy and its more than one million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 15 million acres in the United States and have helped preserve more than 102 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. Visit us on the Web at www.nature.org.