NOTE: If you want to become an SMC member and came to this donation page instead, click here.
Our funds allow you to dedicate funds to support the SMC overall, or to specific program areas. Donations are securely processed by PayPal (a PayPal account is not required). The Conservancy does not have access to your credit or debit card information. We do ask that you allow PayPal to share your address with us, but that is optional. (If you would like to become a member of the Conservancy and receive the associated benefits, please visit our Membership page for more information.)
If you wish to make a contribution of $500 or more, sending a check saves us the transaction fees. You may mail a check along with your address and e-mail to: South Mountain Conservancy, P.O. Box 273, South Orange, NJ 07079.
There are also a limited number of opportunities to fund memorial benches. A donors’ Conservation Walk with memorial bricks is also planned. To make a significant donation for a bench or other improvements to the Reservation, please contact chair@somocon.org. All membership fees and donations are tax deductible as the Conservancy is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation.
Finally, please consider designating the Conservancy as a beneficiary in your estate plan.
Donations to our general fund support our many programs and volunteer efforts. With your support we can continue our stewardship programs for forest regeneration, trail and infrastructure construction and maintenance, maps and signage systems, and Citizen Science. And of course, even without a physical office, we have many administration expenses: our paid part-time operations director and summer forest regeneration interns; the insurance that covers our hikers and volunteers; and our technology platforms (like Meetup, Mailchimp and this website).
The SMC has proposed a master plan to improve the infrastructure and degraded vegetation along the Rahway Fairy Trail, one of the Reservation’s most popular destinations. To support this plan and help provide funds which we hope to match with expected foundation grants for Phase 1, please click the donate button to the left.
If you are interested in donating a significant amount for a rustic bench, which can be dedicated to someone, please contact Dennis Percher at chair@somocon.org.
This dedicated fund supports the Conservancy’s Wildflower Sculpture Park program. It allows the Conservancy to augment the honoraria provided by Essex County to artists for special annual exhibits, acquire permanent pieces for display, offer public programs and provide for general expansion of the sculpture park and its maintenance. Twenty percent of donations to this fund are directed to the SMC’s General Fund to cover insurance, operations, etc. For large or ongoing gifts or bequests, please contact chair@somocon.org, or wspcurator@somocon.org.
This fund is directed toward implementing a broad ten-year Forest Stewardship Initiative (FSI) to improve the forest ecology of the South Mountain Reservation. This initiative encompasses and complements the two other current Conservancy plant ecology programs: the Forest Regeneration Corps, started in 2008, and the Citizen Science program that is creating a one-acre Pollinator Meadow near Shady Nook since 2023.
The Forest Stewardship Initiative goes further and will implement, as funding allows, a comprehensive plan to manage/eradicate emerging invasive plants throughout our 2,110-acre park. This plan is based on an $11k study funded by the Conservancy and completed in 2024 by the NJ Invasive Species Strike Team (NJISST) under the direction of forest ecologist Michael Van Clef, PhD. Funding this plan will require raising approximately $20,000 each year starting in 2025 (we hope with County support) for professionals to eradicate the dozens of non-native plants which have not yet established a significant foothold in the reservation but are putting our forest at risk. (It will also require a concerted effort to engage the community as 380 hours of volunteer effort annually is also estimated. This is roughly equal to the effort currently expended in our other two ecology programs, so it will be a big challenge.)
Our goal is to take forest stewardship to the next level by removing emerging invasive plants, cultivating native seed sources in our regeneration sites, and encouraging pollinators of all types. In this way the reservation’s canopy can grow and thrive for succeeding generations. The new Forest Stewardship Fund has been established to make this a reality. Please donate toward this comprehensive stewardship initiative.