Dear Friends,
For more than 16 years, Channel Islands Restoration has worked on more than 90 habitat restoration projects on the Channel Islands and on the mainland! We have done this with the help of an astonishing 9,506 volunteers, and nearly 2,300 of them have been school children from low income neighborhoods.
We have also done this with the financial help of about 100 supporters, most of whom contribute $50 or less to our organization.
Imagine that, of the thousands of people who contribute their time to CIR, only about 100 contribute financially to support our work!
Friends, we are in a new era! The new federal government is against spending on conservation projects. Federal dollars are drying up, but with your help, the native habitat restoration can continue!
Increasingly, we need to rely on private donations to pay the bills and to continue our work. If even HALF of the nearly 5,000 people who are on our email list
CIR has grown more than 30,000 plants in nurseries we built on the Channel Islands. Funding for the Anacapa project in 2016 came from private sources like REI and Patagonia, plus individual donors. contributed a mere $10, we could fund many restoration trips to Anacapa or Santa Rosa, or we could introduce hundreds of kids to the experience of viewing ocean wildlife and helping with restoration on the islands. Grant funding (when available) only covers part of our operating costs.
From now until December 31st, two generous donors have pledged to match your contributions up to $2,000, dollar for dollar!
If you contribute between now and January 1st, your donation will be matched! Take advantage of the opportunity to become a CIR member or renew your membership. Your contributions will allow us to carry the work on important restoration projects where federal funding is disappearing.
And now, we can accept recurring monthly donations!
Monthly donations allow for easy and convenient, sustained giving. Rather than one lump sum, you can sign up to automatically donate small amounts each month. We are extending a special offer for the month of December. If you pledge a monthly donation this month, we will award you a membership as if you had given at that rate for the entire year.
For example, if you pledge to give just $3 a month to CIR before January 1st, we will immediately welcome you to the CIR donors' circle as an Island Scrub Jay member, with all of the benefits listed below. With a pledge of just $8.50 a month you will become a Goldenbush member (usually a lump sum of a $100 donation), with an invitation to our $100+ Donors' CIR Social, a free cap or t-shirt of your choosing, a personalized CIR name badge, and more. This special offer is only good for December, after which each monthly donation will be considered an individual gift and memberships will be given after the cumulative year.
There has never been a better time to become a sustaining contributor to CIR!
For the price of just a regular cup of coffee a month you can become a member (or add the cost of one croissant a month you can get a Goldenbush membership!) and you will help replace the vital funding we have been relying on to do our work!
It Costs Money to Raise Money for Restoration Projects!
In the past year, support from donors has given us the capital to pursue grants for new and exciting projects and to continue work where federal funds have been eliminated. Plus, donations have helped us further our education outreach and bring underprivileged kids into nature and onto the islands, and it hasallowed us to expand our efforts to restore special and important habitat on the Central Coast. To those that have given at other times in the past year: THANK YOU, and please consider sustaining or upgrading your membership through monthly donations. Now through automatic monthly donations, there's no need for reminders or alterations in your monthly budget! However, regardless of how you donate, and regardless of how much, we sincerely appreciate your support. Without donors, we wouldn't be able to continue the mission of CIR.