Center for Heirs' Property Preservation

“The form 990 is provided for review to the finance committee for a comment period. At the end of this period, questions and comments are addressed and the form 990 is officially approved for issuance.”

“The center's executive director's salary is negotiated based upon the budget. Comparability data is used to determine compensation for executive director from data on other legal nonprofits of similar size.”

“Comparability data is used to determine compensation for attorneys hired from data on other legal nonprofits of similar size.”

“The center allows pubic inspection of its governing documents, conflict of interest policy and financial statements are available to anyone who makes a request. Form 990 is on outside website at guidestar.org.”

“To protect heirs' property and promote the sustainable use of land to provide increased economic benefit to low wealth families through education, legal services, and forestry technical assistance. Heirs' property is land that is owned, in common by multiple family members. It is an unstable and risky way to own land, because it can be easily lost. The center's work helps prevent the loss of heirs' property and promotes the wealth-building asset of land ownership through sustainable forestry; forestry is a 21 billion industry in sc. The successful impact of the center's work in 2017 is measured both quantitatively and qualitatively. In the face of rampant development across sc, families are more able to keep their family land and pass it down to the next generation if it is protected and economically productive. Qualitatively, the impact of this work is revealed in changes in the attitudes, behaviors and actions taken by the families we help to improve their circumstances. Our target audience is predominantly rural, historically underserved african american landowners who have been traditionally left out of the education and program opportunities that would have helped them as landowners. In some cases, it resulted in land lost. As one of our clients once said when asked why his father didn't know more about what to do with the family land - "my father and grandfather were not welcome where they might have found out." with the knowledge and access to tools, programs and experts provided by the center, these families have greater confidence, sense of self- determination and belief in their ability to make informed decisions about protecting their land and realizing the economic benefit of landownership that their ancestors had always intended. Empowerment has been overused but, in this instance, it is 100% accurate, and it is changing the face of persistent poverty across our 15-county service area - one family at a time. The center has been able to achieve these accomplishments by using 92 cents of every dollar received to implement program activities.”

“Of those 318 persons, 220 were accepted as full or pending clients to receive direct, legal services to protect their family land. 184 wills were drafted to help prevent the growth of heirs' property and 22 titles were resolved on land with a total tax-assessed value of 2.2m.”

“234,000 in financial assistance to implement conservation activities prescribed in their forest management / conservation activity plans. - 5 hulos received assistance in submitting applications to become american tree farm certified - 5 hulos received assistance in selling their timber, which resulted in 167,192 to benefit these low-wealth individuals landowner story: a multi-legacy of land...preserved and productive in the 1920's, dennis freeman, who grew up on tom bee plantation, persuaded his relatives and friends to pool their money and buy 328 acres of waterfront and wooded property on st. Helena island to recreate, to hunt and fish, to launch boats to nearby islands, to cut firewood and to provide family burial grounds. They still own it today. It is called lands end woodlands, inc. All titles to the land are cleared and it is held by the owners as a non-profit corporation under the state of south carolina. For years, the families cut trees and organized fish fries and other social events to raise money to pay the taxes. Ultimately, there needed to be a plan, and that plan became forest management. Since 2013, they have been participating in the center's sustainable forestry program (sfp), where they received forestry education and technical expertise, and are now implementing a long term forest management plan with usda/nrcs financial assistance. The land is becoming an economic engine for this generation and the next. They are even considering placing a conservation easement on it which would protect forever the natural resources, beauty and unique ecological and historic character of the property. Who would have thought that growing trees could help preserve and honor an ancestral legacy for generations to come?”