12 Days Of Charitable Giving 2019: The Garden Conservancy

It’s the eighth day of my 12 Days of Charitable Giving for 2019. Readers have suggested deserving charities over the past few weeks, and I’ll be posting the results here. Today’s charity is The Garden Conservancy.

The Garden Conservancy was founded in 1989 by renowned plantsman Frank Cabot. Since then, the Garden Conservancy has helped more than 80 outstanding American gardens survive and prosper. Every year since 1995, the organization’s signature garden-visiting program, Open Days, has been opening the gates to hundreds of private gardens across the country, allowing thousands of visitors to explore beautiful spaces not normally open to the public.

The mission of the Garden Conservancy is to preserve, share, and celebrate America’s gardens and diverse gardening traditions for the education and inspiration of the public. Some of the ways that The Garden Conservancy works towards is its mission are:

• They help save gardens by helping private gardens become public gardens.
• They help restore, rescue, and rehabilitate existing public gardens – including after natural disasters such as hurricanes, or to recover from decades of neglect. These gardens are often of historical and cultural significance; many are listed on the National Register of Historic Places or are National Historic Landmarks.
• They assist gardens by providing additional preservation services. These services may include short-term assistance or technical and planning advice in securing gardens for the public benefit, or the use of tools such as conservation easements to protect the future of a garden.

You can check out some of their projects here.

So how can you help?

To make a one-time or monthly donation, click over to the website. 

You may also mail donations to: The Garden Conservancy, P.O. Box 608, Garrison, NY 10524. Or call 845.424.6500.

For federal income tax purposes, if you plan to claim a deduction for a cash contribution, you’ll want to keep a record of the donation. Ideally, the organization will provide a written record with the name of the charity, date, and amount of the contribution.

You can also help by becoming a member of The Garden Conservancy. Remember that to the extent that you receive anything of value for your membership, you cannot deduct the value of those items. That’s called quid pro quo: for more, click here.

Do your homework. 

As always, you want to make sure that your donation is going to a qualified charitable organization. A search using the IRS’ new Tax Exempt Organization Search (formerly Select Check) reveals that the The Garden Conservancy is on the list.

To find out more about the work of the organization, check out their website, like them on Facebook, or follow them on Instagram.

I often suggest checking out third-party sites like Charity Navigator for more information about charitable organizations, including evaluations and access to tax forms and other financials. The Garden Conservancy has a four-star ranking on Charity Navigator.

Remember: Readers nominate their favorite charities to the 12 Days of Charitable Giving, and in most cases, I can’t personally vouch for the organizations. So be generous but be smart: Do your homework.

For more on making charitable donations, click here.

For other charities in the series: