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Fundraising
Right now during the month of December, your donation to Channel Islands Restoration is doubled. An anonymous group of donors have pooled their money and pledged to match every dollar we fundraise with a dollar of their own - up to $6,500. If we don’t raise a matching $6,500, then we’ll only receive a respective percentage of the match.
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.
Who helps fund the un-fundable restoration projects, the orphan projects and the important environmental and education work even when limited and short-term grant funding runs out?
CIR volunteers remove fennel (Foeniculum vulgare).
Fennel, which has taken over large areas on
Santa Cruz Island, is fortunately not common
on Santa Rosa Island.
It is a priority of the
NPS to keep it from spreading.
Channel Islands Restoration continued working on Santa Rosa Island this year, in a project funded mostly by CIR donors and our volunteers with support from the National Park Service (NPS).
We held four trips in 2013 to remove fencing, plant natives, remove invasives and to work in the native plant nursery.
The fencing had been erected to protect sensitive plants and habitats from browsing and trampling by non-native grazing animals.
Since these animals are no longer on the island, the fencing is now an unnecessary eyesore and a potential hazard to visitors and native animals, so it is now a priority to remove it.
Often located in remote areas difficult to access, the fencing can be a challenge to remove.
Volunteers also removed invasive fennel and iceplant in several island locations and planted island-grown
Dudleya
(a native succulent) at China Camp on the island’s southwest side.
Although volunteers put in long hours, they also had the opportunity to visit parts of the island that are not easily accessible.
Although removing the fencing and the restoration work are priorities for the NPS, budgets are tight, so there is no funding to pay for these projects.
Working with NPS Restoration Ecologist Sarah Chaney,
CIR volunteers work in the native plant
nursery on Santa Rosa Island.
CIR developed a program where volunteers paid for a portion ofthe needed funding, CIR paid for the rest, and the NPS provided staff support, on-island transportation and camp sites.
While CIR spent more than $5,000 on the four trips, this project would not have happened without the generous support of volunteers and CIR donors.
Volunteers camped at the NPS campground at Water Canyon, and on one occasion, stayed at the bunkhouse that housed island ranch hands when the island was privately owned.
The bunkhouse is now part of a new research station run by California State University Channel Islands, and CIR is grateful that we received special permission to stay there.
CIR volunteers use special jacks to remove fence posts at East Point.
Volunteers also remove invasive iceplant at East Point.
CIR volunteers plant natives at China Cap on Santa Rosa Island
NPS Restoration Ecologist Sarah Chaney shows volunteers the work location near Carrington Point.
Volunteers removed fencing at the work site, which was located several hundred feet below the pictured location.
Although CIR staff and volunteer board members spend countless hours writing grants to many different funding agencies, much of the work that we do is completely unfunded by any agency.
In these cases, CIR relies on individual contributions to help carry out these important projects.
As an example, CIR board members and other individual donors raised a big portion of the funding needed to purchase and construct a shade house on Anacapa Island as part of the nursery project there. Although we are glad to work with our partners in the Park Service and Patagonia to help fund the nursery, individual donors helped make that project possible.
Also, CIR regularly contributes staff time (and the associated wages) so that adults can volunteer on the Channel islands.
Contributions from CIR supporters help fund these types of projects.
Funding is often available for targeted schools to work with us on the Channel Islands, but many other schools must raise the money for the boat and other costs.
In those cases, CIR often donates the pay for our staff person to join the group and lead them in a restoration project.
Although CIR is a non-profit organization, we still need to pay the costs of doing "business" like for-profit companies.
The difference is, we operate on a near break-even basis, and we work on many projects because of their ecological or educational value and not their monetary value.
CIR is required to pay considerable overhead expenses in order to work on our restoration projects.
These include workers compensation and liability insurance, accounting fees, rent for equipment storage and an administrative office, equipment purchases and maintenance, and staff time to administer a wide-ranging and busy organization.
As a percentage of our budget, these expenses are relatively low, but there is no funding available to pay for these costs other than contributions from our supporters.
We are always proud to announce that we have received grants from foundations or other agencies, but it is important to remember that CIR must raise a great deal of our funding from individuals to keep operating.
That is why we ask for contributions, and we hope that people who support our work will also support us financially.
Please join CIR today!
