Engaging private landowners to achieve landscape-level conservation is widely practiced; however, established mechanisms to encourage voluntary conservation practices are lacking. White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginanus) management is an increasingly popular conservation tool. Deer management cooperatives (DMCs) represent a novel approach to engage private landowners and hunters to improve deer herd and hunting quality for broader conservation use. DMCs are a group of landowners and hunters voluntarily working together to improve the quality of wildlife (white-tailed deer), habitat, and hunting experiences on their collective acreage. We evaluated 45 DMCs across five U.S. states: Georgia, Michigan, Missouri, New York, and Texas; surveying member attributes and motivations, and compared DMC landcover to the surrounding landscape. We report higher amounts of multiple wildlife centric land cover types in DMCs across states, and lower amounts of agriculturally centric land cover in three of four states. Land cover differences illustrate DMC benefits to broader landscape conservation.