Long before it became a foundation, the philosophy behind the Colcom Foundation began as one woman’s personal cause. Cordelia S. May was only 23, in 1952, when concern for the natural world and human quality of life pushed her toward supporting family planning. It was an unusual position for the era, but May treated it as a matter of clear-eyed observation rather than controversy.

She had noticed something most people overlooked: incremental population growth is nearly invisible day to day, yet its cumulative weight can overwhelm ecological systems over time. That insight became the throughline of her charitable life, and it eventually became the founding premise of the Colcom Foundation itself.

From Personal Conviction to Institutional Mission

May created the foundation in 1996 at age 68, giving formal structure to convictions she had held for more than four decades. After her death in 2005, the organization received the funding needed to carry out grantmaking on a lasting scale, turning a personal cause into an ongoing institutional commitment.

The Colcom Foundation’s mission statement reflects that same population-first lens. Its stated purpose is to foster a sustainable environment so that Americans can maintain quality of life while addressing the causes and consequences of overpopulation on natural resources. Conservation, environmental projects, and cultural assets in the surrounding region receive the bulk of its regional support.

The foundation also frames May’s early advocacy within a longer historical pattern, noting that reformers ahead of their time, from suffragists to civil rights leaders to early scientists, were frequently misunderstood before later generations recognized their contributions. It is a comparison that positions May, and by extension the Colcom Foundation, as part of a lineage of foresight rather than fringe thinking. Colcom Foundation supports several special programs, including the Conservation Catalyst Fund, which grants conservation organizations working to protect threatened species and habitats.

That lineage matters to how the Colcom Foundation describes its own present-day work. Rather than distancing itself from May’s original, and at times controversial, focus on population, the foundation leans into it, treating habitat destruction, pollution, and biodiversity loss as direct outcomes of the imbalance she spent decades warning about. Grant recipients working in conservation and environmental protection are, in effect, continuing an argument May began making publicly more than seventy years ago. Refer to this article for additional information.

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