World Monuments Fund

World Monuments Fund is an international nonprofit dedicated to safeguarding the world's architectural and cultural heritage. It was founded in 1965 by Colonel James A. Gray as the International Fund for Monuments, reportedly inspired by the engineering crisis facing the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and adopted its current name in 1985. Headquartered in New York's Rockefeller Center, WMF works through partnerships with local communities, governments and cultural institutions rather than acting unilaterally, reflecting a people-first philosophy toward conservation. Since its founding the organisation has undertaken preservation projects at hundreds of sites across more than a hundred countries, ranging from Ethiopia's rock-hewn churches of Lalibela to Venice's flood-damaged monuments and numerous UNESCO World Heritage Sites. WMF also maintains international field offices, including in Cambodia, China, France, India, Peru, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom. Its biennial World Monuments Watch programme draws global attention to endangered heritage sites and mobilises technical and financial support for their rescue, making WMF one of the largest and longest running private organisations devoted exclusively to heritage conservation.