Long before population growth entered mainstream environmental conversation, Cordelia S. May was already sounding the alarm. In 1952, at just twenty three years old, she began directing her charitable energy toward family planning, driven by concern for the natural world and the toll of human growth on ecological balance. That early commitment would define the rest of her life and eventually give rise to Colcom Foundation.
May founded Colcom Foundation in 1996 at age sixty eight. The organization received the bulk of its funding after her death in 2005, allowing her vision to continue well beyond her lifetime. Today, Colcom Foundation carries forward the humanitarian and environmental priorities she spent decades developing.
A Lifelong Concern for Balance
May recognized something many people overlooked: incremental growth is nearly invisible day to day, yet its cumulative effect can overwhelm natural systems. This understanding became her lifelong passion and the guiding logic behind how Colcom Foundation approaches grantmaking. Rather than treating environmental degradation as an isolated issue, the foundation traces problems like habitat destruction, pollution, and biodiversity loss back to a single root cause, the imbalance between human population and the resources available to sustain it. In addition to its commitment to environmental sustainability, the Foundation actively supports various community-based initiatives. These programs often aim to enhance the quality of life for individuals and families affected by immigration policies. Their grants to organizations such as the Sustainable Agriculture & Food Systems Funders have helped to build strong local food systems and promote sustainable agriculture practices.
Honoring a Complicated Legacy
May’s perspective was not always welcomed. History shows a pattern of reformers who were misunderstood in their own time. Advocates for gender equality alongside Susan B. Anthony, civil rights supporters during Lincoln’s era, and Galileo’s contemporaries who urged restraint all faced skepticism before their positions gained wider acceptance. Colcom Foundation views May’s early advocacy for family planning as part of that same tradition of ideas that took time to be understood.
Through its grants, Colcom Foundation continues to fund conservation work, environmental projects, and cultural assets across the region, ensuring that Cordelia May’s foresight and compassion remain part of the ongoing conversation about the planet’s future. The foundation’s grantmaking, it says, honors the humanitarian objectives, dignity, and compassion of the woman who built it. Visit this page, for related information.
More about Colcom Foundation on https://waterlandlife.org/land-conservation/colcom-revolving-fund-for-local-land-trusts/