WORLD MONUMENTS FUND INC

World Monuments Fund uses heritage conservation to drive positive social change in communities around the world. By maximizing the social and economic benefits of conservation, we help develop sustainable communities to ensure their long-term success. Specifically, our goals are to: 1) build community resiliency; 2) create economic opportunity; 3) strengthen social bonds and cultural memory; and 4) promote mutual understanding across boundaries and borders. This framework helps us identify projects with the greatest need and potential, ensuring that we can meaningfully contribute to the communities where we work.

World Monuments Fund uses a range of interventions at cultural heritage sites, from research and advocacy campaigns to training and on-site conservation treatments. We collaborate with local partners—including community groups, government agencies, and charitable organizations—to provide financial and technical support using innovative and proven techniques in preservation, helping to build capacity for long-term stewardship.

Our priority initiatives reflect the breadth of conservation needs and opportunities worldwide. World Monuments Watch is our signature, biennial program that lifts grassroots preservation initiatives to a global stage. Since its launch in 1996, the Watch has highlighted the critical conservation needs of 814 cultural heritage sites in 130 countries and territories, and has mobilized $350 million in investment for protection and conservation. The program, which was launched as a call-to-action for imperiled places, has repeatedly demonstrated the power of heritage conservation to catalyze social change. The Watch has led to the majority of our long-term conservation efforts around the world, with two-thirds of our projects developing from the program.

Some of these renowned, large-scale conservation projects include our ongoing work at Ishtar Gate in Babylon, Iraq and at Chankillo Archaeological Site in Casma, Peru. These are multi-year projects that invest in building local capacity to ensure the long-term sustainability of communities and their cultural heritage. To this end, many of our projects include conservation training for local residents. Of note are our current programs in Jordan, Ethiopia, China, and New York City that teach preservation skills and crafts—generating a skilled workforce to address current and future conservation needs.

The breadth of our activities—including research, advocacy, conservation planning, training, site interpretation, on-site conservation interventions, and more—help create transformative economic, educational, and cultural resources for their communities. These activities have a high return on investment because they build community interest and grassroots advocacy, spur public and private investment, promote resiliency, and develop local capacity for sustainable stewardship. Outcomes at previous World Monuments Fund sites include: new government regulation for increased site protection, environmental sustainability, leveraged funds and resources, workforce training and job creation, improved tourism management, and increased community engagement.

Headquartered in New York City, World Monuments Fund employs 30 professionals and has offices and affiliates in Britain, India, Peru, Portugal, and Spain. Our team has been recognized as some of the brightest and most capable minds in heritage conservation, and we work with up to 200 consulting conservators worldwide. Nearly all of these individuals are locally-based to build in-country capacity and local workforce management.

Since our founding in 1965, World Monuments Fund has worked on over 600 projects in more than 120 countries and territories, spanning the monumental temples of Angkor in Cambodia to the historic neighborhoods of New Orleans damaged in Hurricane Katrina. In addition to investing $250 million in heritage conservation, our work has helped leverage $400 million in additional investment from other agencies. In a typical year, WMF's work employs more than 500 people worldwide.

Launched in 1996, World Monuments Watch is our central programmatic approach to delivering social and economic impacts through heritage conservation. To accomplish this at all Watch sites in each two-year program cycle, we will make key investments in the program in the coming years. This includes extending our reach through enhanced network development for Watch nominations, which will enable us select sites that are geographically diverse and align with our social impact goals. We will invest in our digital communications to support grassroots advocacy work. We will also conduct program evaluation to better understand and measure our impact. At the same time, we are expanding our public programming in New York City to build our audience and engage the public with heritage conservation issues.

In the coming years, we will continue to advance our long-term legacy projects across the world. At Angkor Archaeological Park in Siem Reap, Cambodia, we will continue to train local conservators and conduct documentation at major temples in this complex. At Chankillo Archaeological Site in Casma, Peru, we will develop a site management plan and stabilize the 13 earthen towers of this ancient solar observatory. We also have ongoing projects in China, Thailand, India, Egypt, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Spain, France, and more than a dozen additional countries.

To continue building local capacity for heritage conservation worldwide, World Monuments Fund will run training programs—both at our long-term conservation projects and select other locations. In response to the ongoing war in Syria—which has created innumerable threats to communities and their heritage sites--we are running an 18-month conservation training program in Jordan for Syrian refugees and Jordanian citizens. The program teaches stonemasonry skills, which will be essential to restoring Syria's damaged cultural sites. We are also expanding World Monuments Fund's Bridge to Crafts Careers program in 2018, which is our in-depth preservation program for low-income New York City youth that teaches stonemasonry skills and has resulted in job placements for nearly all participants.