“To love a place is not enough. We must find ways to heal it.” These words by Robin Wall Kimmerer from her book, Braiding Sweetgrass, speak directly to our mission of promoting the benefits of native plants to the public. Our task is a big one and it’s time sensitive: pollinator and wildlife populations are steadily decreasing because of climate change, loss of habitat and food sources. We need to act fast to re-establish more wild places.
It is imperative that we convince many more people to adopt landscaping practices that will bring wildlife activity to their yards and community spaces. The good news is when people hear our message, they are eager to make impactful changes!
The need for our programs and resources is growing fast! Recruiting, training and providing support to volunteers to offer effective programs requires many funds from donations and memberships. Making sure we have adequate resources of volunteers and funding has been and continues to be our biggest need.
“Will you make a gift today so we can reach more people with our urgent native landscaping message?”
Your dollars provide support to invaluable volunteers like our seedling founders. You can hear in their own words below how eager and energized they are to get our message heard:
“I love that the focus is not just appreciating natural spaces, but bringing them into suburban/urban areas. Wild One’s message fills me with hope. ‘Nativizing’ my yard empowered me; having a visible, tangible change outside my window helps relieve the crushing powerlessness associated with climate change. I kept thinking, ‘if people just KNEW this was possible, they’d happily change their yards too!’ Then lo and behold, here is an organization focused on introducing this life changing concept to the populous!”
“After reading Nature’s Best Hope by Douglas Tallamy I couldn’t keep the message in. I immediately wanted to share this hopeful and empowering message with everyone who would listen. I made a new friend who was enthusiastic about native landscapes, and we started to devise a club to educate and learn from people like ourselves. She encouraged me to check out Wild Ones. The first time I looked at the website it was a no-brainer, this is the structure that will help us get our vision off the ground!”
With your help, we can love and heal the Earth, create a more fulfilling human experience and a healthy coexistence for all forms of life.
Environmentally yours,
Jen Ainsworth,
Executive Director
Wild Ones
P.S. Read below to see how we effectively used your past donations this year to move our mission forward.
In 2022, Wild Ones delivered on our urgent mission by
- supporting the operations of 76 chapters and 26 seedlings across 29 states; this year alone, 26 seedlings launched, and 11 chapters chartered.
- cultivating community with our 8,000+ members (3,000+ new members this year!).
- hosting 6 free, public educational webinars that reached over 15,000 viewers.
- expanding our Native Garden Designs program by introducing 10 new ecoregion-specific designs and publishing a free “Climate Resilient Landscapes” guide.
- awarding $9,500 in Lorrie Otto Seeds for Education grant funds to 24 youth-serving organizations in 19 states.
- publishing our quarterly electronic Journal, featuring informative and engaging educational material for individuals at all stages of their native landscaping journeys and making prior issues freely available to the public.
- re-evaluating our brand to solidify ourselves as leaders in the native landscaping movement and ensure our brand reflects who we are and resonates with current and potential members.
- developing our cultural competency to effectively engage people with differing views, identities, experiences, cultures, beliefs, abilities and financial means.