How to use Standards to find Accreditation Requirements

The Alliance has a wealth of training and information to support a land trust as it implements the Standards. The background information on and resources for each of the indicator elements for accreditation can help your land trust be successful in the accreditation process. Importantly, the guidance documents for the indicator elements have call-outs with more information specifically related to accreditation.

Let's walk through an example of how you can use the Standards to find and understand the accreditation requirements (Requirements).

Note: To access the Standards, please log-in to your Land Trust Alliance Resource Center Account. To access a copy of the Commission's Requirements Manual, please visit the Resources Page on our website.

For this example, we're going to use Standard 6: Financial Oversight to learn about what the Commission requires of accredited land trusts pertaining to operating reserves.

1. Standard 6: Financial Oversight includes five practices. Since we want to learn more about operating reserves, first navigate to Practice 6A: Fiscal Health.

2. Practice 6A contains five elements; those demarcated with a filled in circle are an accreditation indicator element. By reviewing each of the five elements, we see that 6A4, build and maintain sufficient operating reserves to sustain operations, will have the related information.

3. To review guidance covered in Practice 6A: Fiscal Health, scroll down to "Featured resources, How to implement this practice" and select the practice, then since select view practice for Practice Element 6A4: Building and Maintaining Operating Reserves.

4. While reviewing Practice Element 6A4, a green infinity symbol indicates the connection between the practice element to the accreditation requirement. For example, under the section, "How to calculate your net operating reserves," the guidance includes the calculation with a table that illustrates the concept:

Below the guidance and table, the green infinity symbol connects how your audited/reviewed/compiled financial statements will be used to help calculate the operating reserves as part of the accreditation process.

This is only one example of how to use the Alliance's resources to find and understand more about the accreditation requirements. Remember, not all practice elements are used in the accreditation process; the key is to look for the filled-in circle for what are accreditation indicator elements and then the green infinity symbol in the guidance for each practice element. We hope this example will inspire you to delve into the guidance for the Standards and gain a deeper understanding of the Requirements.