When you make a gift to American Forests, it supports our distinct and innovative approach to trees as a climate change and social equity solution. Your contribution supports a holistic and collaborative approach to reforestation that ensures the right trees are planted in the right place at the right time. You can’t buy that in a store! The fact is that climate-resilient reforestation is about much more than the number of individual tree seedlings that are planted, and when you make a gift in honor or memory of a loved one, your gift now shares that full story.

Yes, by giving to American Forests in honor or memory of someone special, you can show your appreciation by contributing to our efforts to restore and sustain forests for future generations. When making your gift online, select the option to “make this gift in honor of someone special.” Just as before, you have the option to personalize the message to your honoree and create a certificate to share (if you’d like) as your tribute gift.

Yes! Our programs and tree planting initiatives haven’t changed. Every gift to American Forests supports our wraparound care for trees, from root to canopy – our programs are creating healthy and resilient forests, from cities to large landscapes, that deliver essential benefits for climate, people, water and wildlife. Learn more about our work by visiting www.americanforests.org.

American Forests is an exempt charitable nonprofit organization as described in Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, meaning that your donation is tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law. Our tax identification number is 53-0196544.

With a donation of $25 or more, you will become a member of American Forests. Benefits include an annual subscription to our award-winning magazine that is published three times per year, periodic updates about the impact of your membership and invitations to online engagement opportunities.

To make changes to your monthly gift, call us at 202-370-4520. To cancel a gift, you may call us or send an email to info@americanforests.org.

After submitting your donation online, our form may take a few seconds to process the transaction. Please wait until you receive a final confirmation screen to be sure that your gift was successful. In addition, you will receive immediately an automated e-mail with your gift receipt as soon as the transaction is complete. If you have not received a confirmation message, you may want to attempt your donation again. Feel free to contact your bank or credit card company to verify if the initial transaction was successful.

Trees usually are planted in the spring and fall when the weather is cool and/or the seedlings are dormant. In some regions we also plant in summer to track seasonal rainfall patterns.

Our project locations are constantly changing and expanding. To learn more, check out our projects map.

The survival rate is based on the specific conditions of that planting site and the tree species being planted. On average, survival rates for our projects exceed 90%. In cases where survivability is a cause for concern, we often will plant extra saplings to make up the difference, either at the initial time of planting or during subsequent monitoring we do for the first three to five years following the initial planting.

The vast majority of tree species are native to the area where they will be planted. However, in cases where climate change is shifting the traditional ranges of certain species, we may opt to plant species that we believe, based on our climate-informed scientific research, will thrive on that site. Additionally, in the case of our urban forestry planting projects, in some cases we will opt to plant hardy non-native species in cities because they are more resilient in the harsher urban environment. However, our preference is always to use native species where possible.

In large landscapes, we only plant seedlings. In some of our urban forest tree-planting projects, we plant trees that can be three- to six-feet tall to improve the likelihood that they will survive and thrive.

We primarily plant trees on public land, such as state and national forests and parks, so we can ensure the right trees are planted in the right places and managed in the right way.

When forests become too dense, they can become unhealthy and raise the risk of extreme wildfire. To address this, it may be necessary to remove some trees to bring back into balance the number of trees that can be supported on that land.

In 2011, American Forests transferred the program, which sold the descendent stock of historic trees, to American Heritage Trees. American Heritage Trees is a nonprofit organization that promotes educational and environmental development by providing saplings of trees from important places throughout the United States that can be purchased by individuals, schools or organizations.

In 2010, American Forests closed its CityGreen program. We now use the i-Tree assessments tools for our urban tree assessments. i-Tree is a state-of-the-art, peer-reviewed software suite from the U.S. Forest Service that provides urban forestry analysis and benefits assessment tools. i-Tree Tools are in the public domain and are freely accessible.

In 1940, American Forests launched Champion Trees to locate and preserve the largest living specimens of American trees for future generations. After a period of evaluating American Forests’ goals and the mission of the Champion Trees Program, the decision was made to move the program to a new home in the School of Natural Resources at the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture in Knoxville. Here it will begin a new era of science, discovery and education at one of America’s leading research universities. You can visit the new registry and program website at https://nationalchampiontree.org/.

We maintain an online archive of our magazine issues dating back to 2011. Issues produced prior to 2011 currently are unavailable to the public. You can find our magazine at https://www.americanforests.org/american-forests-magazine/.

We believe in using paper responsibly. So, when possible, we use recycled paper or paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council or Sustainable Forestry Initiative. We do not support eliminating the use of paper, given that doing so could create an economic hardship for forest landowners who sustainably harvest wood for paper production. That hardship could result in selling the land for non-forest use. We prefer for the land to remain as a forest as long as it is managed sustainably, so people and wildlife can benefit from everything forests offer.

We have a Gold Seal rating on GuideStar and a three-star rating on Charity Navigator. We do not have a higher rating on Charity Navigator because we are part of a co-op with other nonprofit organizations that share donor lists to help reduce the overall costs of our fundraising efforts to acquire new donors. Charity Navigator also reduces the ratings of organizations that invest in staff growth — which is the core source of our ability to do our work and execute our mission — because they see that investment as additional overhead costs rather than as capacity building for increased mission delivery.

No. However, you can learn more about how to get involved with our work by visiting our Action Center, signing up for our mailing list, making a donation or letting others know about our organization.