Following Simon’s recent blog over at our sister company, Journeys by Design, I thought it was about time we provided a quick update on all things Wild Philanthropy. For those of you who have been following our progress over the years, there have been a few significant changes over the past few months.
Our new website
It’s been a long time coming, and there are still a few bits that need finalising, but hopefully you’ll agree, our new website is a stylish and informative site that helps explain who we are and what we do a little better. Do let us know what you think!
The annual brochure
We’ve also been working on our annual brochure – this will be ready soon and will be a key marketing tool to enable us to get the word out about Wild Philanthropy. We can’t wait till its finalised and it will be available to download from the website. If you would like to receive a hard copy, please get in touch.
Travel opportunity
Our first Conservation Journey will run in Kenya from 8-20th October and has proven very popular. Friends will visit to a range of conservation projects and community-owned tourism programs spending time with local conservation partners engaged with improving grasslands and rangelands for semi-nomadic pastoralist groups. We will explore some of the significant conservation challenges and tourism opportunities in this emerging travel destination.
Do note that we will also be running two further Conservation Journeys in 2018 to explore Western Tanzania’s New Opportunities and looking at how to link the Wildernesses of Ethiopia & Northern Kenya. Please get in touch if you are interested in any of these. Also, do remember we offer bespoke travel opportunities – complete our travel enquiry form if you are interested in this.
The Wild Philanthropy model
We’ve been working on our 10 year strategy, which will help guide us over the next few years as we roll out our travel driven conservation model to the core ecosystems we aim to support. The strategy is broken down into 3 key streams of work: Conservation Journeys is our travel offering which opens up the frontiers of travel and conservation for our donors in a way that few others, if any, can provide; Enterprise is our investment arm providing finance and technical support to marginal ecotourism business with potential to flourish; and Philanthropy is our work supporting of conservation and community project, operated by partners on the ground, which deliver significant conservation and community impact.
The Kara food security emergency appeal
As part of our strategy planning, we have decided to initially focus our efforts on Ethiopia, really building on the work we have done there to date. With Wild Expeditions Ethiopia (our first enterprise investment) thriving ,the time is right for supporting the business in becoming Ethiopia leading safari operator. One of the key elements to Wild Expeditions is the Lumale tented camp on the eastern banks of the Omo River. As well as a unique travel experience, the area is home to the Kara river communities, 20 of whom are employed by the camp. The gradual but continual reduction in rainfall, together with the effect of the Gibe hydroelectric dams (which have stopped seasonal flooding) has led to the failure of the communities crops for the past 2 years. They are in urgent need of support to help with managing their food security in the future.
Wild Philanthropy has long term plans to support the communities, but we also have the immediate need to support future crops through implementing an irrigation system for a 10ha plot of land. This small project would make a huge difference to the Kara communities in terms of food security. We’ve had the works required costed out by a contractor and the amounts of money needed are not significant – in order to commission the work, and support the communities, we are establishing an emergency appeal to raise the $100,000 needed to complete the project. The project would be managed on site by Lale Biwa ,with support from Graeme Lemon and the broader Wild Philanthropy team.
How to donate
In the UK, donations to Wild Philanthropy are eligible for Gift Aid as we are a registered charity allowing us to claim 25p from the government for each pound donated. In the US, Wild Philanthropy Inc is able to received tax deductible donations as it’s a registered 501(c)(3). Donations can be made via the website donations page. If you would like further information on the proposed project, then do get in touch with either Will or Paul. We welcome donations from individuals, couples, families and businesses. Please, join us. Time is of the absolute essence.
Onwards and upwards
Thanks for taking the time to read this blog Do feel free to get in touch and feedback on any of the above. Also, keep your eyes peeled for the next blog, where will be looking forward to 2018, which we think is going to be a very exciting year for Wild Philanthropy.
