There are a plethora of extraordinary charities across the world making it a rather daunting task to decide “who do I donate to?” I suppose the first step to making the epic decision of putting your hard-earned cash into positive selfless use is to determine which cause speaks the most to you. Once you’re there, see who actually implements the change you want. Is that charity really putting your money where you want it to go or are they putting it into something else, such as very high paid staff or too much marketing? But what about The Gabby Wild Foundation, Inc.? How do we run?
Every charity has expenses. There is no way to avoid those, but there is an ethical way in which one can pay those expenses. For all non-animal related items (such as monthly paypal, legal fees, IRS fees, etc.) all costs are covered through sponsors, but ALL PUBLIC DONATIONS go to the animals!
If you want to save the purple frog, by golly every dollar you give to the purple frog is going to the purple frog! It is not going towards paying our incredible web designer. It is not going towards the purchase of more hemp totebags. It’s not going towards making business cards. It is going to the animal of your choice! Right at this moment, we are saving 12 threatened wild animals. You can choose to save one or save them all (with the funds then being divided 12 ways).
So what does it mean, though, that you’re money would be going to directly saving a specific animal? Here’s how it works:
1) Different accredited research groups, charities, causes, NGO’s, etc. submit their missions to me asking for help. Once, I approve of them, I help!
2) 9/12 animals we are saving have sustainable projects conducted by the Zoological Society of London’s EDGE of Existence Programme (UK). The Kakapo Parrot is being saved by Kakapo Recovery (New Zealand). The red wolf is being saved with Red Wolf Coalition (US), and the blue morpho butterfly is being protected by Ya’axche Conservation Trust (Belize).
–> This gives us plenty to work with for the entire year: one per month!
3) Then we beg for donations and do as heavy of a media campaign as we can! Who is the media marketer? You guessed it: Gabby (moi). It’s not a one-woman band, though. I have amazing volunteers in the charity that always lend a hand, plan fundraisers, and even write and submit press releases. This summer, for example, we have 14 interns working in PR alone!
–> And may I applaud our PR girls by saying that we made it into the Huffington Post last week: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hooplaha/endangered-species_b_1703957.html
4) At the end of the campaign, we give all your donations to the animals.
None of this actually answers the title of this post. So really where do your donations for the animals go? Once you’ve made that amazing decision to save one or all of the animals in the GWild Foundation, here is where your donation goes, broken down for each animal:
Amur Leopard:
- Population monitoring need to measure the effectiveness of our ongoing conservation strategies.
- Wildlife diseases monitoring of leopards and their prey to ensure a healthy population and detect disease that may pose a risk to existing wild leopards.
- Fire fighting activities aimed at protecting existing leopard habitat from wild fires that occur each spring season.
- Anti-poaching aimed at protecting leopards and their prey from poachers.
Asian Elephant:
- Increase national and international protected area network.
- Create corridors to facilitate migration and minimise conflict between elephants and humans.
Bactrian Camel:
- Education programs.
- Law enforcement, which is needed to prohibit encroachment and illegal mining in the reserves. Often, some camels migrate across from the Mongolian reserve to the Chinese border where they are then killed by hunters or die by eating vegetation poisoned with potassium cyanide, a by-product from the illegal gold mining in this area.
- Establishment of a second reserve in China.
Blue Morpho Butterfly:
- Protection and extensive biodiversity monitoring of 115,000 acres of tropical forest, including IUCN Category I protected reserve.
- Creation of additional habitat on community lands through agroforestry and reforestation.
- National-level advocacy to promote forest corridors and connectivity.
Chinese Giant Salamander:
- Surveys to establish the location of viable populations.
- Establishment of highly protected areas enclosing this species’ range.
- Community conservation and education initiatives.
Ganges River Dolphin:
- Surveys to assess distribution, abundance and availability of suitable habitat.
- Further research into the main threats.
- Public awareness programmes.
- Creation of additional protected habitat.
Kakapo Parrot:
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- Intensive Monitoring.
- Regular Health Checks.
- Predator Control.
- Supplementary Feeding.
- Artificial Incubation and Hand-raising of chicks.
Research:
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- Artificial Insemination.
- Kakapo Genetic Studies.
- Supplementary Feeding Trials.
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Technological Developments
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- The Nest Kit (gadgets used to best preserve, monitor, and tend to kakapo eggs and chicks).
- The Snark (a portable tracking device).
Purple Frog:
- Work with local people to encourage ecologically sensitive farming techniques.
- Due to this being a newly discovered species, we need to conduct more research on this elusive species to develop a long-term Conservation Action Plan.
Red Panda:
- Continued research into the ecology and distribution of this species in order to protect its habitat and lifestyle.
- Quantification of the extent and intensity of current threats to effectively manage the current population.
Red Wolf
Your donations will help the Red Wolf Coalition provide direct benefit to the animals themselves. Your commitment to the survival of the red wolf will help us with the following:
- Assistance to on-the-ground efforts of the Red Wolf Recovery Team. Red wolves are so rare that every effort is made to help them survive in the wild. Wild-born pups are vaccinated against rabies, canine parvovirus and distemper. We need veterinary supplies and money for veterinary services for the wolves. A portion of the adult population is outfitted with radio-tracking collars, and some with GPS-tracking collars so their movements can be monitored by the biologists on the Red Wolf Recovery Team. Red wolves being held temporarily at the Education and Health Facility must be fed a nutritious diet designed for wild canids. Your donations will help cover these significant costs!
- Costs associated with the live wolf exhibit. These costs include enhancements for the captive ambassador wolf habitat and can be anything from gnawing bones, to large boulders to climb on, to “carnivore logs” for tasty treats!
- Enhancements for the Red Wolf Coalition education programs including a web cam, print materials and distance-learning equipment.
Rondo Dwarf Galago:
- We need a headcount!!! Thus funds for this animal will involve surveys to determine population size in the remaining forest patches.
Sumatran Tiger
- Tiger Human Conflict: support of a wildlife crime unit which resides in an around Jambi to work with the local community to reduce the potential for Tiger Human Conflict and antipoaching.
- One of our associate tiger researchers, Dolly Priatna, has a tiger collaring programme to assess how tigers adapt when they have been removed from a conflict situation and translocated to a new area.
- Tiger population management: coordination with the Ministry of Forestry and tiger conservation groups in order for Indonesia to meet it’s commitment to the Global Tiger Recovery Programme. The goal of the Global Tiger Recovery Programme is to establish wildlife – tiger forest corridors through an agricultural landscape, using protected area management to assist in preserving two national parks Berbak and Sembilang located in the South East of Sumatra.
- Tiger Health and Handling: working with local vets through-out Sumatra to undertake training on how to deal with wild tiger populations.
