Nature's Keepers: The Remarkable Story of How the Nature Conservancy Became the Largest Environmental Organization in the World

I am an employee for The Nature Conservancy and have found this book to be a "must read" for current and new employees. Very inspiring and a great overview of the work we do.

A wonderful story of a remarkable organization and how it's various leaders at the state, national and international level dealt with the constant changes and conflicts that are inevitable in a group that has had such an impact throughout the world. What is refreshing is that the conflicts are not hidden but highlighted so that we may know how the organization dealt with them to make the Nature Conservancy stronger.

He gets it. Birchard did a remarkable job distilling what and who made the Conservancy tick at every stage of its development. He captures the genius and passion of stars like Noonan and Jenkins. The dramatic struggles in the formative years were news to me, even though I worked at The Conservancy for 20 years. Others have tried before to penetrate this extremely complicated enterprise and capture the essence of the organization but nothing I have seen captures the pearls of organizational development like this book. Recommended reading for every charity's staff and board. I hoped the book had room to show how much fun we had- such as the hilarious story of the Aggassiz Glacier, a ficitious land project that staff almost got through the Board of Governors. Maybe in the next book. And I thank the author for re-inforcing my own pride in having worked so hard on the Conservancy's mission.

This is a well-researched, well-written book that paints a vivid picture of the politics and complexities of an organization -- even one as well-intentioned as the Nature Conservancy. This would make an excellent book for classes in management and leadership.

You don't need to be an environmentalist to love this book. The Nature Conservancy is not only the world's largest environmental organizations but one of the most effective. Having worked at other environemtal groups, watching the Conservancy's tremendous growth over the years, I was just amazed and wondered what they were doing to achieve such success. Now Nature's Keepers explains it all. What I really liked was that it was a real honest appraisal about the organization including the mistakes it made and the troubles it faced. It is a great lesson about how to face and overcome challenges to ultimately make your organization stronger.