--- title: how conservation fundraising reaches the crew canonical_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/how-conservation-fundraising-reaches-the-crew markdown_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/how-conservation-fundraising-reaches-the-crew.md subtitle: a grant pays a project. a certificate purchase pays the person whose name is on it category: how-to --- # how conservation fundraising reaches the crew *a grant pays a project. a certificate purchase pays the person whose name is on it* A watershed council in its third grant cycle knows the shape of the year. The creek still needs the willow planting along the cut bank, the fence that keeps cattle off the upper meadow, and the crew that walks the channel after every storm. The grant that paid for last season closes in June. The one that might pay for next season has not been announced. That creek exists whether or not anyone funds it. So does the meadow, and so does the season of work it takes to keep them whole. [**Ensurance**](/specific?from=guide) is one way that work gets paid. It is not the creek, and it is not the grant. This post is for the person raising the money — a council coordinator, a land trust director, a crew lead. If you came for what a nature-based solution is, [start here](/guide/what-nature-based-solutions-actually-are?from=guide). ## what conservation fundraising covers **Conservation fundraising** is how a council, a land trust, or a restoration crew pays for stewardship: grants from agencies and foundations, gifts from members and major donors, events, memberships, and fee-for-service contracts. All of it is real money. Most of it is restricted to a project, dated to a cycle, and gone when the cycle closes. The hard part is not the asking. It is that each dollar arrives with instructions and an end date, and the work it pays for has neither. The willows do not stop needing water when the reporting period ends. The end dates are getting shorter. On 9 September 2026, Ecotrust in Portland announced it was cutting about $2.7 million from a $14 million annual operating budget and going from 65 to 41 full-time equivalents, after federal funding — roughly 25% of its grant revenue in recent years — shifted under it. That is one organization, doing the work well, with the federal share of its grants, about a quarter, shifting under it. It is not an argument against grants. It is the shape of the year for a lot of groups right now. So here is the sentence this series is built on, and then the rest of the post is what it means. :::johnson **your certificate funds you. a coin sale fills the pool.** [how a certificate purchase pays the agent it names →](/manual/certificates?from=guide) ::: ## two ways a buyer's money moves Onchain, a group can put two different things in front of a supporter. Both are purchases. They land in different places. A **coin** is a token whose purchase fills a pool. The buyer's money goes into that pool, where it sits as the liquidity that other buyers and sellers trade against. If your group holds an allocation of its own coin and sells some of it to make payroll, you are selling into that pool. The trade moves the price down, for you and for everyone holding it. The buyer of a coin bought a pool, not the work. A **certificate** is the thing a buyer purchases that pays the agent it names. The price goes to that agent's account — the council's, the trust's, the crew's — at the moment of purchase. It does not pass through the coin pool. There is nothing to sell afterward to turn it into money, because it already is. | the buyer purchases | where the money goes | what happens when you need to pay the crew | |---|---|---| | a coin | into the pool | selling your coins to pay yourself drops the price | | a certificate | to the account the certificate names | the purchase already paid you | Jay, a steward with his own agent — his certificate funds him. Your certificate funds you. That is the whole sentence. It is the first purchase, from you. A later resale between holders does not pay you again. The rest of this series is the detail behind it. ## what the buyer actually bought A certificate is issued on the value of the living system — the creek, the meadow, the season of work it takes to keep them — and priced on what that work costs. The buyer is paying the cost of work that was issued on its value. All certificates are equal shares of one contract, and each one still names who gets paid. A buyer who picks yours is choosing where the check lands. That shape — one contract, equal shares, a name on every check — is post 3, and it is the part a land trust board will want to see written down. The buyer did not buy a coin to flip. They bought the value, and the purchase is what paid the crew. ## what you can tell a holder Two questions come after the purchase. Both have answers you can give without quoting a number. What does holding do? Holding a certificate is designed to pay three yields: one from that agent, one from that agent's group, and one from the whole protocol, because each certificate is an equal share of it. Splits and streams already route money where they are pointed. The engine that would pay every holder those three yields automatically is specified and still being built. Post 4 draws that line carefully, including who is eligible to receive anything at all. How does a buyer get out? The way out is the exchange — turn the certificate in for `$ENSURE`, or swap it one-for-one for another certificate — and it is built and not switched on yet. No rate is set. Post 5 says that plainly, to the crew, so the crew can say it to a buyer. Either way, the purchase already paid you. The exit is the buyer's later question. It is not this month's payroll, and it is not the pool. ## where this sits beside the grant Grants stay. Appeals stay. The major gift stays. This is another way the same work gets paid, and it pays on the purchase instead of on the final report. If you are earlier in the question — how a group gets off the grant treadmill at all, what it means to have your own name onchain — start with [how to fund a conservation group](/guide/how-to-fund-a-conservation-group?from=guide). If you want the rules, short, read the [certificate manual](/manual/certificates?from=guide). The manual says a purchase funds the agent account and that coins fund indirectly. This post is the scene the manual leaves out: sell your coins and you move the price; sell a certificate you issued, and the purchase already paid you. The price is a bridge so the crew can keep the creek. The dollar figure is not what the creek is worth. ## frequently asked questions ### what is conservation fundraising that pays the crew? Fundraising that lands in the account of the group doing the work, without a restricted budget line or a cycle end. Grants and gifts do this with conditions. A certificate purchase does it on the purchase: the price goes to the agent the certificate names. ### does selling our coin pay us? It moves money to you, and it moves the price down, because you are selling into the pool that the coin buyers filled. The pool is the coin buyer's exit, not the crew's payroll. Fees on later trades are extra. Post 2 is the whole mechanic on a watershed. ### whose certificate pays whom? The one whose name is on it. Each certificate names one agent, and the purchase price goes to that agent's account. A buyer picking a certificate is picking where the check lands — and if it is yours, the check lands with you. ### is this a security? No. This page does not offer a security and does not promise a rate. It says where a purchase goes: a coin purchase into the pool, a certificate purchase to the account the certificate names. ## next step If your council, trust, or crew wants to know what its own certificate would name, [tell us](/contact?from=guide&topic=certificate-paycheck). The reply is a conversation, not a price. If you steward land you do not own, [land stewards](/solutions/land-stewards?from=guide&topic=certificate-paycheck) is the page that shows how ensurance works for groups like yours. ## the series 1. how conservation fundraising reaches the crew — this post 2. [how to fund a watershed](/guide/how-to-fund-a-watershed?from=guide) — the buyer's coin purchase fills the pool. Selling your coins to pay the crew drops the price. 3. [how land trust fundraising pays the trust](/guide/how-land-trust-fundraising-pays-the-trust?from=guide) — one contract, equal shares, and the certificate still names who gets the check. 4. [what stewardship funding is designed to pay](/guide/what-stewardship-funding-is-designed-to-pay?from=guide) — three yields as the design. Splits and streams are what move today. 5. [how to fund a restoration crew](/guide/how-to-fund-a-restoration-crew?from=guide) — the crew is paid on the purchase. The buyer's way out is not a coin. ## sources [Ecotrust, 9 September 2026](https://ecotrust.org/press-release/ecotrust-announces-budget-reductions-and-organizational-restructuring-in-response-to-federal-funding-cuts/) — budget reduction of about $2.7 million from a $14 million annual operating budget; staff from 65 to 41 FTE; federal funding roughly 25% of grant revenue in recent years [ensurance manual — certificates](/manual/certificates?from=guide) — how a purchase funds the agent account