Matching Funds for Parrot Conservation

Jamie,  I have been studying the Parrot Action Plan, trying to find a way to help the WPT with the small amount that I have to donate.  I have a few questions for you:

1.)  Recently a couple donated $15,000 and the “campaign” they ran on was to match whatever donations the other WPT trustees could donate.  Happily, that amount was raised and they matched it. This basically doubled their contribution to the WPT (in a sense).  It was a great way to raise funds.  If I wanted to donate somewhere between one and two thousand dollars, is it possible to do something like that?  How would I go about it?  Do I need to contact someone, in particular, get it put on the WPT website, in the Psittascene magazine, or what?

Cindi Eppers

Dear Cindi,

Great question!  We were thrilled with the initial donation and the fact that it inspired so many people to contribute, effectively doubling the outcome.

And yes, by all means, simply contact us at any of our branches by either email or telephone and we’ll work with you on how best to proceed.  To set up a matching campaign like this requires a bit of work, so it really only makes sense when the added value more than compensates for the staff time required to set it all up and to get the word out.  One thing that works very well is for supporters to talk to their good friends who care about nature conservation in general, to see if they can make the initial pledge more significant from the get go.  There are few things more convincing than someone making a compelling case for something and for them to be putting their own funds forward to support the cause in question.  So the idea my be that you can grow your initial sum by several fold, then take that sum and use it to catalyze a matching funds campaign. 

Please let us know if we can help with more details or suggestions along these lines, and thank you for your enthusiastic support!

All best wishes,

Jamie