NFWF and Walmart Foundation Launch Great Plains Grassland Fund with Funding from McDonald’s USA and Key Suppliers

With support from the Grassland Resilience and Conservation Initiative, a new open conservation fund combines $18 million commitment to conserve vital grasslands for the benefit of native wildlife, ranchers and rural communities across the Great Plains.

Washington, D.C., Oct. 07, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --  The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) today announced a $9 million grant from the Walmart Foundation to launch the Great Plains Grassland Fund, a public–private grant fund that will protect and sustainably manage intact grasslands across the U.S. Great Plains.

The $9 million grant from Walmart Foundation will establish the fund, which will also be supported by $9 million in aligned investment from McDonald’s USA and several of its key suppliers through existing contributions made to the Grassland Resilience and Conservation Initiative.  

The commitment represents a major conservation investment by the Walmart Foundation. The effort brings together two founding philanthropic funders around a shared goal: supporting ranchers, as members of the communities that steward these lands, in protecting and regenerating the native grasslands of the Great Plains and the fish and wildlife habitat they provide, while building a durable source of conservation funding that additional funders can join over time.

The Great Plains Grassland Fund will pair voluntary land protection strategies with technical and financial assistance for ranchers. Using tools such as conservation easements, the fund aims to permanently protect 150,000 to 200,000 acres of high-conservation-value grasslands at potential risk of conversion, while helping ranchers enhance regenerative agriculture management practices on an additional 150,000 to 200,000 acres through voluntary public and private conservation programs – with landowners who participate keeping ranching as the primary use of their land. Altogether, the effort is designed to build a lasting funding mechanism for pooling public and private funding in support of community- and rancher-led conservation across the region.

“Healthy grasslands support an extraordinary range of wildlife while sustaining ranching families, rural economies and vital food supply chains,” said Jeff Trandahl, executive director and CEO of NFWF. “With this critical investment from the Walmart Foundation, McDonald’s USA and its suppliers, the Great Plains Grassland Fund establishes a framework where stakeholders and other public and private funding partners can provide additional support for advancing conservation throughout the Great Plains.”  

Grasslands provide essential habitat for birds, fish and wildlife, sustain ranching economies and America’s beef supply, connect migration corridors, and help filter and conserve water. They also form the economic and cultural foundation of many rural communities across the Great Plains.

Yet these grasslands are among the most threatened and least protected ecosystems in North America. Roughly 2 million acres of Great Plains grasslands are converted to cropland each year, and only about half of the region’s grasslands remain intact. Once intact grassland is plowed, the soil health, wildlife habitat, water-filtering capacity and grazing value it provided cannot be readily restored.

Much of what remains of the Great Plains grassland ecosystem is privately owned and stewarded by ranching families, who often find it difficult to compete economically with the potential returns from converting land to row crops or development. As grasslands disappear, so do the ecological benefits, rural livelihoods and beef supply chains they sustain.

The Great Plains Grassland Fund will address these challenges by giving ranchers the tools and resources needed to keep working lands working and grasslands intact, continuing a legacy of land stewardship that ranching families have carried forward for generations.

“For Walmart and the Walmart Foundation, regeneration is a long-term commitment to the natural resources and people our business and communities depend on,” said Julie Gehrki, SVP, Walmart and President, Walmart Foundation. “Two decades of work with NFWF through Acres for America have shown the value of sustained investment in critical habitats. We’re building on that experience to support healthy grasslands, ranchers, and a more resilient beef supply chain. This Walmart Foundation investment puts that work into practice in the Great Plains.”

The new fund builds on the Grassland Resilience and Conservation Initiative, launched in 2025 by NFWF, McDonald’s USA, some of its key beef and beverage suppliers, including Cargill, Golden State Foods, Lopez Dorada, OSI, The Coca-Cola Company, among others, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. The initiative seeks to improve the health and resilience of 4 million acres of grasslands over seven years.

“The Walmart Foundation has been an important strategic funder for some of our farm-level resilience efforts, and we’re thrilled to deepen the impact of the Grassland Resilience and Conservation Initiative with them,” said Cesar Piña, Senior Vice President and Chief Supply Chain, North America at McDonald’s USA. “Since the initiative launched last year, it has supported two rounds of grantees advancing voluntary conservation practices across U.S. grasslands. Our support for the Walmart Foundation’s Great Plains Grasslands Fund reflects the kind of partnership that’s crucial in strengthening ecosystems, supporting ranching communities, and building a more resilient U.S. beef supply chain.”

The Great Plains Grassland Fund will prioritize projects that:

• Protect intact grasslands at potential high risk of conversion to cropland or development
• Conserve habitat with high value for fish, wildlife and plants
• Connect protected lands and maintain important wildlife migration routes
• Improve water quantity and quality through grassland conservation
• Support ranching livelihoods and local economies
• Demonstrate strong community leadership, engagement and support

Projects will build on locally led efforts and may use voluntary conservation easements, grassbanks, grazing associations and other community-based models that keep grasslands intact and sustain their value to ranchers, wildlife and business alike.

To help measure conservation outcomes, NFWF will work with implementation partners to track progress related to grassland protection, biodiversity, water resources and ranching livelihoods.  

NFWF will issue a competitive initial Request for Proposals through the Great Plains Grassland Fund. Up to $10 million is expected to be available for projects through this funding opportunity, and awards are expected to be announced in 2027. Additional eligibility information, program priorities and application instructions are available here.

About the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation 
The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) works with partners to foster sustainable and impactful conservation solutions so that people and nature thrive together. Chartered by Congress in 1984, NFWF has grown to become the nation’s conservation foundation. NFWF works with the public and private sectors to sustain, restore and enhance the nation’s fish, wildlife, plants and habitats for current and future generations. Since its founding, NFWF has supported more than 7,200 grantee organizations and funded more than 23,900 projects that have generated a total conservation impact of more than $12 billion. Learn more at nfwf.org.

About Philanthropy at Walmart 
Walmart.org represents the philanthropic efforts of Walmart and the Walmart Foundation. The Walmart.org team works to tackle key social and environmental issues relevant for the retail sector in collaboration with others to spark long-lasting systemic change.

About McDonald’s USA 
McDonald’s USA, LLC, serves a variety of menu options made with quality ingredients to millions of customers every day. Ninety-five percent of McDonald’s approximately 13,500 U.S. restaurants are owned and operated by independent business owners. For more information, visit www.mcdonalds.com, and follow us on social: X, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.

Attachments

• Northern pintails fly over a prairie pothole in South Dakota
• A herd of pronghorn crosses the frozen prairie during winter in Colorado

Matt Winter
National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
202-857-0166
matt.winter@nfwf.org