Cinnabar Foundation opens door to investments in Montana’s homegrown conservation

A quarter-century ago, in 1985, the members of a tiny upstart foundation down in southwest Montana gathered to allocate cash grants to a couple of conservation groups.

The three-person board spent an hour or so talking business, a few days hunting elk, then cut grant checks totaling $1,123.

It was a modest start, by all accounts, but it marked the beginning of statewide grant-giving that continues today. In the last 25 years, the Cinnabar Foundation http://www.thecinnabarfoundation.org — Montana’s only homegrown conservation fund — has doled out more than 1,000 grants totaling more than $4.5 million, supporting the wildlife and wildlands beneath the Big Sky.

“It’s Montana’s own conservation fund,” said Cinnabar’s new executive director, Steve Thompson. “There is no other statewide fund that supports conservation across the board.”

By MICHAEL JAMISON Missoulian

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