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Help Our Future Fund Grow!
We highly recommend Zelle to donate with no fees. Simply remember to leave a message when donating that mentions the Future Fund. The Zelle transfer may be directed to Directors@cowlmich.org. If you like, you may set the "repeat payment" option and send funds monthly.
If Zelle is not an option, these are our links to PayPal and Facebook, which both use the PayPal system and charge the same small fee. Please reach out to Directors@cowlmich.org to specify the amount of your donation that is meant for the Future Fund, so we know to put it there.
For cash and Check instructions, please visit our Donate page.
Details
11/27/2025: Fund value $980.
As long as we retain our nonprofit status, there are no expected taxes or fees of any kind, at any time.
Should be a great way to leave something behind after we're gone. There is tremendous potential for this account to become a large boon for the community, despite starting as a small seed today. If one day's wages were invested 80 years ago, it's estimated we'd be able to fund $5,563,630 worth of conservation today, or $52,512,934 in 20 years. And all that tax-free!
The intention for the fund is that it should be realistically expected to produce $500,000/year in passive income in 2020 dollars. This means the fund is not to be drawn-from until the board may show convincing evidence that this goal is reached. Given historical returns of the market, we expect this to require a balance of ~$5 million in 2020 US dollars, an amount which is not to be drawn from if the value drops below. The more initial donations, the faster this goal can be reached. With the latest values, we expect the fund to mature in 2135, but more early donations can bring this date much closer. We should be able to fund the intense stewardship of rehabilitated or vulnerable properties, so they can support ancient, native ecosystems for people to enjoy.
"True that those who care
Aren't the only ones who should bear
The necessary price to keep the township nice.
But imagine if, long before our names were spoken,
Someone had set a single seed in the soil—
A fund left quietly growing,
Unbothered by politics,
Unafraid of developers,
Patient as rain.
By now it would stand like a great oak,
Casting shade over every acre worth saving,
Buying time, buying peace,
Buying freedom from the fights we keep repeating.
We don’t have that oak.
But we can plant it.
Not for applause,
Not for today,
But so some future child walks a trail
That exists only because we chose
To leave strength in the ground.
Gifts placed in the future fund
Are not spent until
They become something rotund.
They grow in the dark like roots,
Thickening year after year,
Power accumulating quietly
Until the land we love
Needs no argument,
No defense,
Only a steward.
Maybe we’ll never see the day
When the fund is strong enough
To buy back every threatened meadow
Or shield every quiet stand of trees.
But someone will.
And when they ask how the township was saved,
The answer will be simple:
Because a handful of people
Who cared enough
Trusted time to finish the work.
Help us plant the oak.
Let the future be our legacy,
Even if we’re not here
To stand in its shade."
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