CAPE’S REVOLVING LOAN FUND FOR OPEN SPACE ENHANCED

About $500,000 has been added to The Charles H. Thomsen Land Fund for Cape Cod, a project of The Compact of Cape Cod Conservation Trusts, Inc., thanks to a fund drive between November 2023 and May 2024. The sole purpose of the Fund is to provide short-term, quick-turnaround, low-interest (1%) loans to member land trusts of The Compact to buy land for conservation. Since it was established as part of The Compact in 1992, the Land Fund has provided 61 loans totaling $7.1 million to preserve 644 acres. The 2023-24 Enhancement Campaign will raise the available principal in the Fund from $600,000 to $1,100,000.

The Campaign derived sources of revenue from the following sectors:
Private foundation grants: $290,000, including the Cape Cod Foundation, the Pegasus Fund, the Beech Tree Trust and the Bilezikian Family Foundation, and an anonymous family foundation;
Member land trusts: 20 organizations totaling $117,000; and
Compact Friends: 13 households totaling $93,750.

Compact Executive Director said, “It is heartening to see the quick and ready response from so many sources who appreciate the work of The Compact to support environmental protection on Cape Cod since 1986. We will be able to provide more loans and stimulate more land-saving projects with this boost in resources.”

The Land Fund is named in memory of The Compact’s long-serving Treasurer Charlie Thomsen of Orleans who helped to build the initial fund in the early 1990s.