William L. Allen III

Senior Vice President, Strategic Giving & Conservation Services

Will is the Senior Vice President of Strategic Giving & Conservation Services at The Conservation Fund in Chapel Hill, NC. Will oversees the divisions of Marketing & Communications, Development, Freshwater Institute, Resourceful Communities and the Conservation Leadership Network. He formerly served as the Fund’s lead on strategic conservation planning and enterprise geospatial services as well as served as an instructor for green infrastructure and conservation GIS training courses.

He is the co-author, with Dr. Kent Messer, of the Cambridge University Press book entitled The Science of Strategic Conservation: Protecting More with Less. He served as co-editor-in-chief and managing editor of the Journal of Conservation Planning and has published in peer reviewed journals, trade publications, and blogs for the Fund, Jobs for the Future and The Nature of Cities. Will and his team have received planning and mapping awards from Esri, the American Planning Association, the American Society of Landscape Architects and the Friends of the Chicago River. Will is a former member of the American Planning Association and co-founder of the Society for Conservation GIS. Will holds a B.A. in Urban Studies from Stanford University and a Masters in Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

Contact: wallen@conservationfund.org   Phone: 919-967-2248   Office: Strategic Conservation Planning, National Headquarters (NC)



Selected Blog Posts:

• A Rare Opportunity to Unlock More Funding for Conservation (May, 2022)

• From 30x30 to America the Beautiful: The Land and Water Conservation Fund Remains Key to Conservation Outcomes on the Ground (May, 2021)

• Aspirations and Opportunities of the 30x30 Initiative (February, 2021)

• Don’t Blame Urban Density in a Pandemic – Inoculate with Better City Design (June, 2020)

• Four Things I Learned at Fish 2.0 Global Innovators Forum (November, 2019)

• More Conservation with Less Money? A New Book Can Help You (July, 2018)

• Houston’s Hurricane Recovery through Smart Green Infrastructure Investments (September, 2017)

• Finding a Needle in a Haystack: Land Re-Use for Agriculture in a Built-Out City (July, 2017)

• Greenspace in Megaregions: Collective Action for Green Infrastructure (October, 2016)

• Strategic Conservation Planning Really Works: Just Ask Nashville (April, 2016)

• An EPiC Journey: The Ecological Places in Cities Network (September, 2015)