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Birth Announcement of
Endow-Bio, Inc., the First National Endowment for Biodiversity
Andrew H. Williams
Here is something absolutely new. Not only is this all-volunteer
public charity brand new, but the manner in which we run our business is novel
as well. We are starting up this enterprise with nothing more than our
knowledge, convictions, integrity, hope and energy. This is the birth
announcement of Endow-Bio, Inc., the First National Endowment for Biodiversity.
Truly, Endow-Bio is unique. We are pioneering a cooperative business model, in
contrast to the competitive business model we all know and accept as the norm,
in which an organization raises money for its own narrow mission, money it then
uses to further that mission. Endow-Bio raises money to give to other
organizations to further their various narrow missions, and thus our own
mission is very broad.
We are activists. Our mission is to expose the full breadth of our
environmental problems, to show there are good-hearted people working to solve
these problems, and to provide a simple and inexpensive social mechanism to
support them. We think the current fraction of charitable giving in the U.S.
that goes to conservation, about 2%, is woefully low and we're doing something
about it. The crisis of biodiversity is the distillate of our many
environmental problems. We make the public more aware of this crisis, to which
our governments and our media scarcely pay any attention.
Endow-Bio does only three things:
ONE Each year, we raise money for a different, chosen few organizations,
various non-profits and government agencies that are working to solve our
crisis of biodiversity. We raise money and give it away on an annual cycle and
our members vote to determine the percentage of our Program funds at year's end
that goes to each of these chosen agencies. Each year, we begin anew with a
different set of charities.
TWO To accomplish this, we are building a directory of suitable
organizations. We provide free access to this ever-expanding directory on our
website, so that any visitor can quickly link to these other organizations'
websites to learn more about what they do. We encourage the public to support
these other organizations with donations and through volunteering.
THREE We allocate 15% of members' gifts to our endowment, building an
ever-growing revenue stream to support this annual giving, and so we are the
First National Endowment for Biodiversity.
In an effort to draw more people to participate in conservation,
we've set our membership fee absurdly low. We want young people, especially,
to be able to contribute toward a better future for us all. Every donor has an
equal opportunity to participate in our work through voting — one vote per
donor per year. Cost of membership is a barrier to no one. We practice
grassroots philanthropy: Anyone can fully participate in what we do for as
little as $1.00.
We engage the public to join us in supporting other agencies'
efforts relating to rare species management, scientific research, environmental
education, environmental law, land acquisition, habitat management, advocacy,
wilderness, wildlife rehabilitation, family planning and other social issues
relating to conservation of biodiversity. In this, our first year of public
fundraising, we are fundraising for four charities, but over time we'll raise
money to support hundreds of charities and government agencies working to solve
our crisis of biodiversity. Please visit our website at endow-bio.org to learn
more about just how we do what we do and why we do it.
Conservation, like any human enterprise, is plagued by quarreling among
particular sub-groups. One such division is the hook and bullet crowd vs. the
birdwatchers and wildflower people — consumptive vs. non-consumptive
conservationists. Another is government vs. nonprofit. Another is family
planning vs. no family planning. We are trying to serve all these groups as a
unifying influence. In the context of family planning, Endow-Bio does not fund
abortion services, but does fund reproductive education and clinical services,
which we believe lead to fewer abortions. This is the common goal we offer the
public. Human over-population and the folly of an ever-expanding human economy
are key problems that Endow-Bio seeks to publicize and to address as these are
fundamental to significant conservation progress.
Our standard use of gifts is 70% to Program funds, to be disbursed
in early January when the current year is finished; 15% to our Endowment, which
generates income that goes entirely into our Program funds each year; and 15%
to Operating funds. But any donor may alter these percentages at their whim.
If you don't like to support endowments, for example, then simply tell us you
want 85% to go to Program and 15% to Operating funds, or even 100% to Program.
But we cannot let any donor cherry pick among the organizations for which we
are fundraising or our simple accounting would quickly get scrambled and our
democratic mission subverted. Your vote is not for where your gift goes, but
for where the sum of our Program funds at year's end goes. As our Endowment
grows, this serves to decrease the typically disproportionate voices of the
powerful few and to increase the voices of the majority of interested people.
I confess to a decade's experience running another biotic,
all-volunteer, public charity. That is Prairie Biotic Research, Inc., at
prairiebioticresearch.org. I urge you to visit that website, as well. These
are both very simple businesses. I encourage your feedback and participation.
Contact me by email at either [email protected] or
[email protected]. Thank you!
