Dulcie became executive director of Montgomery County Lands Trust back in 1993, motivated by her passion to preserve land in this fast-growing county outside of Philadelphia. 

She began as an activist who worked with a broad coalition to get the County Commissioners to dedicate $100 million to land preservation over 10 years. She was tapped to head up the new land trust, and she criss-crossed the county to build relationships and trust with a broad group of stakeholders.

Dulcie’s participation in the Schuylkill Learning Community, a four-year ICL-led project to support learning and networking in the Schuylkill River watershed, reinforced the collaborative nature of her leadership. “It really resonated with my innate feeling that building, strengthening and nurturing partnerships at each level of your work will bring in different types of resources to enrich the work that you do,” she recalls. “I am a great believer in banking trust. When you build up trust, and keep it in the bank of ongoing relationships, you can utilize it to overcome obstacles in more challenging times.”

Dulcie also participated in ICL’s Complete Fundraiser program where she “got to learn fundraising essentials, assess the organization, integrate the ideas, test them in the marketplace, bring them back and review with consultants, and talk with peers confidentially about challenges in fundraising.” As a result, Montgomery County Lands Trust changed the way they approached membership and solicitations, included all staff in the fundraising work, and increased their revenue from individual donors.

Over time, Dulcie’s relationship-building has paid great dividends as well. In 2003 when the initial County funding had been exhausted for land acquisition, the County pushed the funding decision to a referendum. Montgomery County Lands Trust led the campaign that won the referendum: 78% of residents voted to increase their taxes to preserve land, and this level of support spanned the entire county. “The most distressed, most elite, and most rural areas all voted yes!” reports Dulcie. “People might not remember who you are but they will love the places you protected for generations.”

“ICL has their ear on national trends, has connections, and provides resources that we would never know about without them.”