The Vermont Natural Resources Council and Vermont Conservation Voters have formed a strategic partnership designed to combine their research and political strengths to expand their mission of environmental conservation.
During a news conference at the Statehouse on Wednesday, the two environmental groups announced that the organizations will share several board members and some financial resources. The two organizations will still remain separate legal entities, however.
The VNRC, a statewide environmental research advocacy group, and VCV, a political action group on environmental issues, will combine the organizations’ missions into one, said Stark Biddle, chairman of VCV’s board.
“What VNRC offers to us is a competence and analytical depth that we lack. What we offer to them is some political muscle, frankly, and some leverage,” Biddle said. “And that combination is a very powerful, we believe, combination.”
VCV makes campaign contributions, lobbies full time at the Statehouse and has created a legislative scorecard that ranks elected and administrative officials on environmental policy performance.
Biddle said the partnership will strengthen the state’s position as a leader in environmental policy, adding “depth” to the nonpartisan campaign for environmental conservation policy.
Though VCV has a functioning board, it has been without an executive director for about a year, Biddle said.
Though the two will remain independent entities with separate budgets, they will share some financial resources. For example, the League of Conservation Voters, the national organization that provides resources to state leagues, such as VCV, will provide $60,000 over three years to fund the partnership, Biddle said. The VNRC will also receive $45,000 from VCV’s Education Fund, which will be dissolved, he said.
VCV typically raises money during the political season, Biddle said, but the donor support that blossoms during the election later declines. He said the new partnership will even out that financial instability.
Brian Shupe, executive director of the VNRC, said his group could backfill VCV’s financial trough during the political offseason.
Shupe said VCV will move into VNRC’s offices in Montpelier and share leadership.
The VNRC has about 5,000 members and activists and its annual budget is a little less than $1 million, Shupe said.
VCV will hire a political director and will keep its one part-time employee, said Jake Brown, VNRC’s communications director. The two boards will remain the same with some members occupying both boards, he said.
Shupe said there has been progress on environmental policy in the state, but action is needed to address rising heating costs, the effects of climate change and the demand for clean water.
The partnership will enable both organizations to efficiently distribute the message of environmental conservation, Shupe said. He said recent years have been challenging because the state has focused on its short-term financial problems and not long-term environmental concerns.
