Dale Druckrey Action Fund

Dale Druckrey was an active and engaged conservationist who understood, and even relished, the interplay of politics and conservation. He acted on his convictions through many conservation organizations, from Trout Unlimited and Clean Water Action Council to WI League of Conservation Voters and the River Alliance. 

Dale was a regular participant in River Alliance business, checking in occasionally with executive director Denny Caneff (whom he quizzed and cajoled), attending fund raising and paddling events, and making donations totaling a few thousand dollars.

Dale died in a house fire in the fall of 2010.  He created several funds at the Natural Resources Foundation as a legacy for some 22 conservation organizations Dale supported over the decades.  The River Alliance was a beneficiary of Dale’s bequest, with a gift of over $69,000 to be paid out over four years. 

Though Dale certainly appreciated concepts like saving one’s seed corn and marshaling one’s money carefully, he liked and wanted to see action. Keeping alive Dale’s legacy and spirit would be well served by investing Dale’s gift to us in positive, aggressive, grassroots-engaging and grassroots-building action.

In that spirit, the River Alliance created the Dale Druckrey Action Fund, a fund created from the Druckrey bequest to foster and take direct and meaningful action, either on our own or in concert with others, to defend and protect Wisconsin’s waters.

Some of the activities that may be supported through the fund include:

• A local groups advocacy grants program that provides support for groups planning to engage in policy advocacy at the local or state level.
• A legal fund giving River Alliance the flexibility to participate in legal actions (e.g. citizens suit of EPA or DNR, contested case hearing) or contribute to actions with other groups.
• An issue campaign that could benefit from a small expenditure to give it extra polish or do media buys.
• The ability to take an ongoing project to the next level of advocacy at particularly opportune moments.