Become a Member

© 1998 Ted Rhodes

Why Should I Join?

With past support from people like you, the Land Trust has protected over 18,000 acres of important coastal and rural lands – special places forever preserved – on which children can play, farmers can cultivate, wildlife can survive, and you can enjoy. But can’t keep working without your support. Membership donations are vital to our success.

By joining with our other 850 current members, you can directly help conserve Santa Barbara County’s unique natural lands and working farms and ranches.

Click hereto view and print our Membership Form.

(To download the membership form, you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Click here to obtain the latest version of this free software.)

Benefits of Membership

If I Join, Where Does My Money Go?

The Land Trust spends an average of less than 8% of our annual budget on operations – rent, office equipment, insurance, fundraising, and salaries of our small staff.

This means about 92% of grants and contributions we receive go directly to acquire and care for land and conservation easements!

5 Ways You Can Help Protect Santa Barbara County’s
Open Space and Farmland

1. Support local farmers and ranchers.
Buying local produce and meats in stores and at farmer’s markets helps to maintain our county’s farming and ranching economy.

2. Encourage your local school or civic group to organize field trips to protected lands.
The Coronado Butterfly Preserve, Carpinteria Bluffs, Arroyo Hondo Preserve and Carpinteria Salt Marsh are excellent places for children and adults to learn about our natural world.

3. Volunteer for trail work, habitat restoration or docent programs.
Your helping hands are needed for trail work or habitat restoration at Arroyo Hondo, Carpinteria Salt Marsh Nature Park and Coronado Butterfly Preserve. Docents are also needed at Arroyo Hondo and Carpinteria Salt Marsh Nature Park.

4. Support the Land Trust.
By becoming a member or renewing your membership, you can directly help conserve Santa Barbara County’s unique natural lands and working farms and ranches. Click here to view and print the membership form.

5. Give to the Land Trust Endowment.
By giving a donation of cash or property, now or by bequest, to our Endowment Fund, you directly help us preserve land and resources year after year.

Planned Giving & Our Endowment

There are a number of ways that you can leave a legacy of land conservation. Gifts to our Endowment Fund – made today or tomorrow – help us protect the rolling hills, watersheds, coastal bluffs and working farms and ranches in the future. Planned gifts, made to the Endowment Fund or other projects, offer several tax benefits. Ideas for planned gifts include:

•  Bequests – The Land Trust has been remembered in wills through cash or property bequests. This is one of the simplest ways to make a future gift.

•  Charitable Remainder Trust (CRT) – With a CRT, appreciated assets are placed in an irrevocable trust, which the trust may invest or sell to provide income to the donor for life. Ultimately, the assets become the property of the Land Trust, while providing current tax savings.

•  Appreciated Assets – Appreciated assets such as real estate, stocks, bonds or securities can be donated and tax benefits realized from the donation without paying tax on capital gains.

There are many types of charitable gifts with substantial tax advantages. We encourage you to contact your professional tax advisor as to how best to structure a gift for your needs. The Land Trust, with the support of the Santa Barbara Foundation, can also help you learn more about these options. Call us at (805) 966-4520 for more information.

Thank you!

Contact Information:

Land Trust for Santa Barbara County
P.O. Box 91830  •  Santa Barbara, CA 93190
(805) 966-4520 ph  •  (805) 963-5988 fax
email: membership@sblandtrust.org