In the realm of green groups, there are no widgets for sale.

Donors receive no bells or whistles to take home and show for their money. There are only ideas, projects, promises of action, a hope and a cause.

Still, that's enough for the millions of individuals and foundations that invest in nonprofit conservation groups every year -- the everyday people, the famous and affluent, the candy-bar and automobile companies, the rock stars and media tycoons.

These cherished donors and their greenbacks are the lifeblood of almost every environmental group.

But donations are never certain and often waver, sometimes swelling or collapsing to decide a group's fate. That pressure - coupled with the increasing competition for grants and donations - has taught today's conservation groups to scrape for every dollar they can.

Green nonprofits work hard to court donors while maintaining their integrity. Yet the fight for conservation is also a constant fight for cash.

Big-name support

Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament and Mike Mease, cofounder of Buffalo Field Campaign, an environmental advocacy group, have one thing in common: The University of Montana.

Ament and Mease attended UM at around the same time in the early 1980s, a simple connection that was enough for Pearl Jam to become a BFC donor.

But Pearl Jam isn't the only well-known act to give to the group. BFC boasts an all-star donor list that includes Michael Franti, the Indigo Girls, Jackson Browne, Crosby Stills and Nash, Built to Spill, and Bonnie Raitt.

(click below to read the rest of the story, or go to the Bozman Daily Chronicle link above)

Grants support available for charities submitting their Certification Application

before June 1, 2011

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