"Last year, the Missoula Community Foundation took the initiative to join the Give Local movement and we made the commitment to support them as a major funder and sponsor," said Mary Rutherford, Montana Community Foundation President and CEO. "It was a tremendous success and we decided to take the lead in organizing and sponsoring a much larger Give Local effort across Montana partnering with local community foundations. We are thrilled with the turnout and participation of so many Montanans. Our hope is that the program will continue to grow year after year, building momentum and raising money for the charitable organizations that are so vital to our local communities."

In 2014, communities participating in Give Local America raised more than $53 million for local communities. This year, Give Local America raised more than $68 million.

"I have been visiting the North Fork since I was just a few years old, and in many ways it's more home than the town in Ohio I grew up in. My only memory of my grandfather is playing horseshoes in front of the main cabin in Montana. All my best memories of my grandmother are from the ranch fishing, walking in the woods, cooking on the wood stove and spending rainy days playing cards in front of the big fireplace. I learned to drive on an old 1958 Willies Jeep that is still there, although not running anymore! As a kid, whenever I was stressed or worried, my mom would tell me to close my eyes and think of Montana to calm me down...I still do that to this day! I shared that with my wife who has grown to love the ranch as much as I do and she does the same thing! I've learned so many things about how to improvise and be more self-sufficient by spending time in the woods, and I can't imagine how different my life would be without having been privileged to spend time in such a beautiful place."

Because the natural values of the land had been appreciated by the Foreman family for generations, when Jason's mother and uncle learned about conservation easements, they felt a responsibility to preserve the family's remote North Fork property as their parents would have wanted. In fact, Jason's grandfather was a founder of the North Fork Compact, one of the first land-use planning agreements in Montana, formalized in 1971. The compact grew out of the concerns of some residents about the threat of subdivision and potential environmental harm that could come with no land use plan in place. This compact that was created from Jason's grandfather's vision is still in effect today with slight revisions.

But, even with a common conservation value, how did a family trust with 13 heirs come to an agreement about the future of their property? Jason explained, "We've always wanted to keep our property in as close to a natural state as possible, because it is in the center of important grizzly habitat and adjacent to a Wild and Scenic River corridor. My mother and uncle negotiated the easement details, making sure that we would have the ability to do what we needed to in order to manage the forest for fire safety, but with the idea of having as light an impact on the land as possible. They shared the terms with the rest of us and I think we were all on board with it. I don't recall any debate or dissent as we all recognize the natural value of the land is far greater than the financial value. The benefit to us of the easement is peace of mind in the knowledge that no matter what happens with our family and our ownership of the land, the land will be protected for many years to come."

"I regard the easement as the best thing we have done as a family for several reasons," said Jason. "The first reason is that with it, we have protected a small but important piece of property for the future. I'm proud that we chose to do that, and I think my grandparents and my great great uncle Vaught would be pleased. The second reason I'm glad we have the easement is that family trusts, by their very nature, are tricky. The more people that own something together the harder it is to maintain. While everything is going well currently, as time passes and more people become owners, things can get very complicated and the possibility that the property will no longer be able to stay in the family becomes more likely. Thanks to the conservation easement, we know that no matter what happens down the road related to ownership, that we've done everything we can to protect the land for the future."

I would start an organization that took troubled Native American youth into the backcountry as part of their healing process and as an alternative to court orders.  

I spent a year in the Republic of the Marshall Islands without power or English. The experience deepened my focus on supporting community as a tool for positive change and cultural perpetuation.  

Coffee, laughter and family.

My wife Reagen and I moved from Boston to Boulder, CO for her to attend graduate school. I taught for one year in Boulder and then transitioned to the American Indian College Fund, the largest Native American non-profit organization in the country. I started at the ground level writing grants to smaller family foundations. When I left seven years later I was the vice president managing five departments and raising over $18 million annually.  

MCF is a brilliantly balanced organization. On one hand MCF has the intellectual assets on staff and on the board to tackle any issues or changes in the nonprofit sector, while on the other hand MCF is gracefully embedded into the many communities throughout our great state. 

My favorite place in Montana is my family's small one room cabin on the west side of Flathead Lake. A close second is on the trail in the Mission Mountains.  

My family. And the fact there is at most two degrees of separation when meeting any new person in Montana.