Protect Wilderness

The Campion Foundation's Fight for Permanent Protection

Leverage is everything. When it comes to protecting the last remaining, intact large-scale ecosystems, we focus our work on the largest landscapes of northwestern North America. These lands are public lands, that belong to all of us, so protecting them depends on the strength of our advocacy strategies. Our grantees lead remarkable campaigns that leverage their greatest strengths to protect our most important threatened wilderness areas before it’s too late. Our philanthropic investment supports advocacy to protect incredible landscapes in Alaska, British Columbia, Yukon and Northwest Territories, Washington, Idaho, and Montana.

Our wilderness work is guided by our Six Strategies, and some highlights include:

Advocacy: We support advocacy towards securing permanent protection for wild landscapes – including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (AK), Peel Watershed (Yukon), Thaidene Nene (Northwest Territories), Olympic Peninsula (WA), Scotchman Peaks (ID/MT), and Beaverhead-Deerlodge (MT).

Grantmaking: We are proud to fund the work of Trout Unlimited to protect Bristol Bay from the threats of large-scale industrial mining, including  the proposed Pebble Mine.

Field Building and Convening: Protecting the Arctic Refuge requires a well-honed campaign strategy and a well-developed coalition of partners.  We serve as the campaign hub, which means we are the connective-tissue providers, the communications strategy catalyzers, the grasstops invigorators, and the occasional war room chaperones.

Capacity Building: A recent grant to the Montana Wilderness Association for a database upgrade will significantly improve their engagement organizing, communications and fundraising.

Our grantmaking is strategic, targeted and by invitation only.

Download our Wilderness Program Strategic Plan.

Learn more about what we do/don’t fund.

Foundation Wilderness Grantees