The Nature Connection Inc.

The Nature Connection (NC) was founded in 1983, in Concord, MA with the purpose of supporting the human spirit by offering and building connections between people and the natural world. Today, NC’s mission is to improve the wellbeing of individuals and communities through the therapeutic use of nature. NC works with those members of our community in Middlesex County, MA with limited access to nature and the outdoors. NC provides opportunities for youth at risk, elders with Alzheimer’s, and people with disabilities to experience the transformative presence, therapeutic influence and educational power of animals and nature.

Thriving communities that are connected with and find rejuvenation in the nature around them.

Goal One: Offer small group nature-based therapy at our facility in response to the current mental health crisis.

Goal Two: Provide one-time and every-other-month programing for elders in memory care facilities for dementia/Alzheimer's.

Goal Three: Improve cross communications between donors, volunteers, program partners to better inform about different aspects of organization so organizations resources are used to their full potential.

The Nature Connection provides ongoing learning opportunities for all staff, interns and volunteers in the form of quarterly external speakers being brought in to speak on topics relevant to the organization. Most recently a workshop on "how to respond when someone gives you the wrong answer to a question", and a training on domestic violence basics and boundary setting. Additionally, the executive director and volunteer coordinator are apart of networking and leadership groups that meet regularly.

Although The Nature Connection faced imminent closure over the summer of 2022 as the financial toll of COVID and economic recession piled up against our small non-profit, supported in large part by individual donors, The Nature Connection community at large took nature’s lessons of resiliency and cycles to heart. An outpouring of support came through and a rescue board stepped up to save everything:  “[The community] worked brilliantly and was sort of this ad hoc rescue team that came together and... Pooling resources, financial commitment, experiences, contacts, connections, creative energy... working very well together, it was really inspiring to see us all moving in the same direction, trying to figure out what we could do...” – Ian Agranat, Board Chair, at Annual Meeting 2022. You can view a recording of the 2022 Annual Meeting on The Nature Connection’s website where Ian gives a full explanation of the financial situation leading to closure. One thing Executive Director, Taylor, points out for FY23 is that we are starting to see a bounce back in revenue from program fees as we get some more distance from the 2020 COVID shutdown. In FY20 (Aug ‘19 - July ’20), The Nature Connection received $47,549 in program service fees, 21% of the revenue for that year compared to only 7% this past fiscal year. “Being able to offer a sliding scale program fee lets us remove the barrier of cost for our participants to access nature. It has been critical the past few years, and our donors have carried the weight and the impact of being able to keep others connected to nature and this community; I don’t think we’ve communicated that enough,” says Taylor. Excerpt from The Nature Connections Fall 2023 Newsletter available on their website.