Planned Giving Coordinator

New research and community stories show the growing case for nature-based solutions. Sep 21, 2026, 08:55 ET Human Nature spotlights solutions protecting water and strengthening local economies, from Arkansas Delta wetlands to Iowa farm fields and Mexican fishing communities WASHINGTON, Sept. 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ - The Walton Family Foundation is expanding its work to advance nature-based solutions, practical approaches that work with natural systems to protect water while strengthening communities and local economies. The focus is part of the foundation's evolving Environment Program strategy, pairing on-the-ground work with efforts to address the policies, financing and market conditions that can help effective solutions grow and endure. Today, the foundation launched Human Nature, a new storytelling series featuring multimedia case studies showing what that approach looks like in practice. Through stories from Arkansas Delta wetlands, Iowa farm fields and fishing communities in Mexico, the series spotlights how communities are already working with nature to reduce flood risk, improve water quality, strengthen livelihoods and build resilience. "When we take care of nature and work with natural systems, we are also taking care of people," said Moira Mcdonald, director of the Walton Family Foundation's Environment Program. "These nature-based solutions are already helping farmers keep more topsoil and profit on their land, helping fishing communities rebuild the stocks their livelihoods depend on, and helping people hold on to land that's been in their families for generations. We know these approaches can work. Now the challenge is helping more communities put them to work by bringing together local leadership, investment and policies that make proven solutions easier to adopt and sustain." Natural approaches also have broad public support and a growing body of research behind them. A 2025 Morning Consult poll found that 80% of Americans say restoring and protecting wetlands to absorb floodwaters should be a priority for state and local governments. A June 2026 study from the University of Georgia's Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems found that when the full range of benefits natural infrastructure provides - including flood reduction, clean water, habitat and recreation - is accounted for, these approaches can deliver returns of up to $8 for every $1 invested. Restoring Wetlands and Preserving Family Land in the Mississippi Delta In the Mississippi Alluvial Valley, the foundation-supported Tri-State Conservation Partnership has helped place more than 1 million acres into USDA Wetland Reserve Easements, paying landowners to return frequently flooded farmland to wetlands. The approach lets farmers keep their most productive acres in production while retiring the acres most prone to flooding, restoring habitat and reducing flood risk while keeping land in local hands. Local partners like The KKAC Organization, an Arkansas Delta land-retention and agricultural organization, help connect landowners, including historically underserved rural communities who have long faced barriers to holding on to their land, with these federal conservation programs. Financing Conservation on Iowa Farms In Iowa, the Environmental Defense Fund partnered with CoBank on a sustainability-linked loan with Heartland Co-op. The loan lowers interest rates as farmers adopt cover crops and saturated buffers: financing that has already helped fund 160,000 acres of cover crops and roughly 90 saturated buffers that keep nutrient-rich water out of the water supply. Elsewhere in Iowa, the foundation is working with the American Flood Coalition to help farmers like Loran Steinlage of FLOLO Farms adopt relay cropping, overlapping crops to keep roots in the ground year-round. The practice cuts erosion, boosts water retention and is estimated to add $51 per acre in farm profit, with the potential to cut downstream flooding by as much as 30%. Rebuilding Fisheries in Coastal Mexico On Mexico's Baja Peninsula, NGOs, Niparajá and Comunidad y Biodiversidad (COBI), have helped fishing communities establish networks of community-run fish refuges, marine zones temporarily closed to fishing to let depleted species recover. Now in continuous operation for 15 years, the refuges have helped rebuild fish populations while training local fishers as scientific monitors. The model has proven durable enough that the Mexican government plans to more than triple the number of fish refuge zones in 2026. About the Walton Family Foundation The Walton Family Foundation is, at its core, a family-led foundation. Three generations of the descendants of our founders, Sam and Helen Walton, and their spouses work together to lead the foundation and create access to opportunity for people and communities. We work in three areas: improving education, protecting rivers and oceans and the communities they support, and investing in our home region of Northwest Arkansas and the Arkansas-Mississippi Delta. To learn more, visit waltonfamilyfoundation.org and follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and X. SOURCE Walton Family Foundation

Climate Week NYC 2026. September 20-27, 2026 - New York City, New York - More Info EDF staff will be representing the Office at the Climate Week NYC 2026 in New York City. This year's Climate Week NYC will focus on the energy, the impact, and the action that we drive together. Energy systems are being redesigned, supply chains are under pressure, and demand for electricity is rising, driven by electrification, AI and digital infrastructure. At the same time, the transition is unlocking new sources of growth, investment and long-term competitiveness. Specifically, EDF staff will be speaking at multiple events at Climate Week NYC 2026: * EDF Senior Advisor Jeff McClure will be speaking at the Carbon Innovation Forum on a panel entitled "Mobilizing American Capital: From Venture Bets to Public Markets" at 3:55 pm on Monday, September 21. The panel will explore how public markets are starting to bet big on next-generation energy technologies. Recent public offerings are early signals that capital markets see next-generation nuclear and geothermal not as speculative bets, but as investable, scalable answers to surging electricity demand. This panel will examine what's driving that shift: how investor priorities are evolving amid surging electricity demand, what it takes for an emerging energy technology to go from private financing to public markets and how public-private partnerships and federal financing can help the next wave of companies make that same leap. * EDF Acting Chief Investment Officer Julie Kozeracki will be participating in a panel discussion on "Powering America's Future: Innovation, Investment & Meeting Rising Energy Demand" at 3:30 pm on Tuesday, September 22. The panel will focus on where capital is flowing today, which projects are finance-ready, and the market shaping investment decisions. Speakers will explore the policy, financing and market forces shaping investment across renewable energy and other decarbonization technologies. * EDF Acting Chief Investment Officer Julie Kozeracki will also be speaking at the Nuclear Symposium at 3:00 pm on Wednesday, September 23. The symposium will focus discussions around workforce development, new infrastructure and nuclear in a time of growing energy demand and need for affordability. * EDF Chief Investment Officer Hernan Cortes will be speaking at the Grids in Transition event on a panel entitled "The New Operating Reality for US Grids" at 9:50 am on Thursday, September 24. The panel will discuss the electrification of transport, buildings, and industry driving new load profiles and peak demand; explosive growth in data center and AI infrastructure creating concentrated demand; renewable integration, distributed energy resources, and bidirectional power flows; Interconnection backlogs, generator queues, and the pace of new capacity delivery; Federal policy levers for grid acceleration; and building coordination across FERC, RTOs/ISOs, state regulators, utilities, and industry. * EDF Senior Consultant Elizabeth Wolfe will be speaking at the Grids in Transition event on a panel entitled "Speed to Power: Optimizing the Existing Grid Through Advanced Technologies, Digitalization and Flexibility" at 1:50 pm on Thursday, September 24. The panel will discuss advanced conductors and dynamic line ratings to increase capacity on existing rights-of-way; grid topology optimization, power flow control devices, and network reconfiguration; AI, digital twins, and real-time situational awareness for system operations; demand response, virtual power plants, and distributed flexibility as grid assets; grid-scale storage as a transmission and distribution system resource; and regulatory and market incentives for non-wires alternatives and grid-enhancing technologies (GETs).

EDF Statement: UN methane report underscores need to move quickly from promise to delivery. June 23, 2026 (London) Environmental Defense Fund Executive Vice President, Impact, Angela Churie Kallhauge issued the following statement today in response to the United Nations Secretary-General's call for accelerated global action to cut methane emissions during London Climate Action Week: "The Secretary-General is right: cutting methane is one of the clearest tests of whether the world can deliver on its climate promises. We applaud his leadership and UNEP's years of work to bring the world to this point. The tools to find methane pollution are here, and the solutions to cut it are within reach. Now governments, industry, financial institutions and civil society must show how they will deliver by turning existing commitments, better data and growing momentum into immediate, measurable reductions. Fossil fuel methane is the fastest near-term opportunity. Leaks, venting and flaring waste energy and create avoidable pollution. At the same time, a credible methane response must quickly scale practical, ready-to-deploy solutions across agriculture, including manure management and more efficient production, and the waste sector, where cutting methane can also reduce pollution and improve public health. EDF is already meeting this moment with science and technologies that makes methane pollution visible, policies and standards that drive reductions, finance tools that reward performance, and partnerships that help hold actors accountable." Background * Methane is one of the most powerful tools the world has to slow warming in the near term. The Secretary-General's report makes clear that methane action is now an implementation test. Governments, companies, financial institutions and civil society must show how they will turn better data, stronger commitments and growing momentum into immediate, measurable reductions. * The report sets out a broad methane agenda across fossil fuels, agriculture and waste. Fossil fuel methane remains the fastest, most measurable and most cost-effective near-term opportunity. Leaks, venting and flaring waste a valuable resource and increase climate pollution. Cutting oil and gas methane is also part of credible transition implementation: reducing avoidable pollution from today's energy system while the world accelerates the shift to cleaner energy. * Agriculture is also essential to the methane delivery agenda. We can produce food more efficiently, more sustainably and with lower emissions. Practical solutions - including improved productivity, manure management, and feed supplements to lower methane in cow burps - are ready for on-farm adoption. Technical assistance, supportive policy and targeted finance must help make these solutions affordable and actionable for farmers. Together, these enabling conditions will ensure that we reduce methane while supporting food security, rural livelihoods and farmer resilience. * The challenge now is to convert momentum into delivery. That means stronger standards and nations plans from governments; methane cuts across oil and gas operations and supply chains; practical solutions in agriculture and waste; capital directed toward methane abatement; and civil society engagement to strengthen transparency, accountability and follow-through. * EDF will continue to focus where we can make the greatest contribution: science and technology that make methane pollution visible; policies and standards that drive reductions; market and finance tools that reward real methane performance; partnerships with companies, investors and national oil companies where action can reduce emissions quickly; livestock and agricultural methane solutions that support food security and rural livelihoods; and accountability work with the International Energy Agency, UNEP's International Methane Emissions Observatory, OGMP 2.0, governments and civil society. EDF also recognizes the important role of the Global Methane Hub in supporting the broader ecosystem needed to accelerate methane action worldwide. With more than 3 million members, Environmental Defense Fund creates transformational solutions to the most serious environmental problems. To do so, EDF links science, economics, law, and innovative private-sector partnerships to turn solutions into action. edf.org