Makulinski Family Foundation Impact: The Nature Conservancy

Image courtesy of Bill Robertson
The Makulinski Foundation was created in part to promote environmental conservation and stewardship across the nation. Since 2015, the MFF has proudly supported the country’s most dedicated ecologists, scientists, and environmental philanthropists by contributing over $300,000 to The Nature Conservancy.
Thanks to the support of millions of passionate members, The Nature Conservancy is known as the world’s leading conservation organization with operations in all 50 states and over 70 countries abroad.
Why The Nature Conservancy?
Since 1951, the Nature Conservancy has partnered with individuals, businesses, and agencies across the globe to protect the natural land, plant, and animal life on our planet. The Nature Conservancy first jumped into action on a snowy Christmas Eve of 1954.
Residents of a 60-acre forest in the state of New York were suddenly asked to make a choice - bid on their wooded ravine or else see the woods developed by the highest bidder.
Working together with their Mianus River Gorge neighbors, the Conservancy saved the 60-acre hemlock forest. The efforts to protect that natural land marked the first official charter of The Nature Conservancy in Eastern New York.
Throughout the 1960s, the organization spread throughout the United States, acquiring thousands of acres of protected land from California to Connecticut.
By 1989, the Conservancy went international, offering support through the Parks in Peril program that reached 50 million acres of land in Central and South America. With membership surpassing 1 million by 1999, the amount of support and awareness for natural conservation had spread exponentially across the world.
The Conservancy has since helped develop a 50-State Climate Change Strategy to test and adapt climate actions nationwide and has even worked alongside First Nations to conserve 19 million acres of the Pacific coast.
MFF Beneficiary Highlight - South Carolina Nature Conservancy
One of the chapters supported by the MFF is the South Carolina chapter of The Nature Conservancy. They continue the work of protecting the integrity of our natural environment through several exciting initiatives, such as building living shorelines, restoring bald eagle habitats, and protecting vulnerable marshland preserves.
The Boyd Living Shoreline
South Carolina’s shorelines thrive with life, including marsh grasses, oysters, and shrimp. These natural materials can stabilize the shore from erosion to provide stable habitats for aquatic life such as fish, crabs, oysters, and turtles by creating living shorelines.
A living shoreline uses naturally occurring, nature-based materials such as oyster shells, reef blocks, shells, shellfish, and plants to protect shorelines from erosion. The Nature Conservancy hopes to reduce and reverse erosion while also providing a dependable habitat for the native wildlife.
In 2021, the Conservancy launched a project to build the Boyd Living Shoreline at Morgan Park and acquired the necessary permits and contractors to start the living shoreline. Construction is expected this year, with Coastal Carolina University conducting baseline monitoring. By 2023, the Conservancy expects the project to be complete.
Bald Eagle Restoration
Over twenty years ago, Bald Eagles were removed from the federal endangered species list. Years of hunting, habitat description and environmental pesticide poisoning threatened to drive the species extinct. By 1963, there were fewer than 500 pairs of bald eagles documented in the wild.
Through efforts to ban harmful chemicals and prioritize eagle habitat protection, the active bald eagle nests have nearly tripled since the late 1970s. Bald eagles like to live and hunt near slow-moving water with fish and waterfowl, making the streams on Otter Island and the ACE (Ashepoo-Combahee-Edisto) Basin a critical habitat for the nation’s birds.
With the support of its donors, The Nature Conservancy of South Carolina was able to purchase 403 acres of prime bald eagle habitat on South Fenwick Island. The total geographical impact of the Conservancy’s efforts include more than 77,000 acres of marshland habitat.

Image courtesy of Bill Robertson
An Exciting Partnership Expands Support
The Makulinski Family Foundation often works side by side with Rotary International to increase support for the nation’s most impactful organizations. Rotary International is a global network of 1.4 million neighbors, friends, leaders, and problem-solvers who see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change.
This year, MFF and Rotary International are teaming up to match gifts from Rotary Clubs across the nation investing in Nature Conservancy projects in South Carolina, Ohio, and Michigan.
In addition, supporting Rotarians will have an opportunity to engage with the Nature Conservancy’s local and international work through volunteering and supporting initiatives in their local communities.
The partnership aims to create lasting changes in the way humans impact the environment to preserve the water and lands on which life depends for future generations.
- Article by Amanda Kern (March 2022)