The service area of the Laura Hare Charitable Trust is focused in the State of Indiana. Grants are awarded to eligible not-for-profit organizations with a record of environmental protection, preservation, stewardship, and education and with a primary purpose related to preserving and protecting natural ecologically significant lands.
Funding has been awarded to land acquisition projects and land stewardship activities to protect and restore ecologically significant areas. These projects have been distributed through the state of Indiana with several properties being designated State Nature Preserves through IDNR. The Trust favors projects that protect and preserve large parcels of ecologically significant land to create contiguous mosaics of protected natural areas. Most projects are completed in cooperation with other funding sources to result in significant leveraging of limited Trust resources.
Environmental education remains an important area of interest for the Trust. Eligible organizations must have a primary purpose related to preserving and protecting ecologically significant lands. Thus, environmental education projects are limited to those organizations that meet this criterion. Between 2010 and 2019, The Laura Hare Trust has made gifts totaling more than $1.8 million for the acquisition of nearly 3,200 acres of ecologically significant land. Additionally, the Trust has funded twenty-three ecological restoration projects totaling more than $385,000.
Historically, projects have included The Environmental Learning Labs program, an environmental education program focused on creating, restoring and enhancing school ground natural areas. Additional projects also focused on environmental education and access, including the reprinting of Indiana’s Natural Heritage by the Indiana University Press, partial support for Indiana Expeditions science education programming by WFYI, and contributions to environmental education exhibits at the Indiana State Museum for Footprints: Balancing Nature’s Diversity Exhibit. Beginning in 2014, these projects will no longer be a focus of support for the Trust.