How We Stretch Every Donated Dollar

The Civil War Preservation Trust has been one of the most successful non-profit organizations in America in securing federal, state, local and private matching funds to save battlefields. We then multiply those funds with money raised from our members around the world. What this means to you is that every dollar you, as a member, give to preserve America's history is multiplied many times over.

In fact, over the past six years, CWPT has multiplied our members' donations by a factor of 4 - every $1.00 spent for land preservation has been matched by outside grants and turned into $4.00

We Are Financially Disciplined

We at the CWPT believe that your donated dollars should go directly to saving battlefields. As such we pride ourselves on our financial discipline and low cost structure. A good indicator of that financial discipline can be found in our 4-Star Rating from Charity Navigator - the highest award given for financial rigor. Read the Report

Our Results are Tangible and Measurable

Simply put, we do what we say we are going to do. Compare us to other groups you support; success in our mission is tangible, measurable and verifiable. Judge our success by walking every acre of hallowed ground you help save. Our results will last forever. Since our founding, the CWPT has saved more than 25,000 acres of Civil War battlefield land.

Our Organization's Success

The Civil War Preservation Trust is America's largest non-profit organization devoted to the preservation of our nation's endangered Civil War battlefields. With the support of our members, the Civil War Preservation Trust has helped to save more than 25,000 acres of Civil War battlefields at more than 93 Civil War battlefields within 18 different states.

Some of our more notable preservation successes occurred at places like Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Champion Hill, Glendale, Bentonville, Malvern Hill, Fort Donelson and Harpers Ferry. To learn more about our preservation successes visit our website at www.civilwar.org.

Q: How much hallowed ground has already been lost?
A: According to a study done by the U.S. Congress, fully 20 percent of the hallowed ground of the Civil War has already been destroyed forever, covered by roads, housing developments and other inappropriate development. Battlefields such as Chantilly, in Virginia, Murfreesborough in Tennessee, and the battles around Atlanta in Georgia are gone forever.

Q: How quickly are we losing key battlefield sites?
A: At current rates of development and with rapidly increasing land prices, our nation loses approximately one acre of hallowed ground every hour.

Q: Does the Civil War Preservation Trust ever get involved with "taking" land or with eminent domain issues?
A: Never. We deal only with willing sellers and pay fair market value
for properties.

Q: Is CWPT "anti-development"?
A: Not at all. We recognize that communities need new economic development to remain strong, and that people need places to live, work and shop. CWPT works to ensure that such development is well planned in such a way as to protect the irreplaceable historic resource that a preserved battlefield represents for a community, as well as for the entire nation.

Preservation is the only viable choice for a battlefield; it cannot be moved or reconstructed somewhere else.

Commercial development can be moved, but we cannot change where history happened, not when so much of the story is told by the ground itself.