It can be hard to find anything good to say about a global pandemic. But we’ve found a few positives:
1. Decreased Air Pollution – Few people traveling and fewer factories actively producing means air pollution is dropping – especially in major cities. We’re based in Denver and our “brown cloud” often seen over the city skyline is now hard to find.
2. Greenhouse Gas Emissions Dropping – The slowing economic activity and stay at home orders have significantly decreased driving and demand for oil. According to the Washington Post, peak daily emissions globally dropped an unprecedented 17 percent in early April.
3. Animals Roaming More Freely – Social distancing humans are spending more time isolated indoors and are less of a threat to animals in the wild. Worldwide, animals are exploring/roaming more freely. It’s amazing! The canals with jelly fish flowing through them in Venice, Italy, to wild turkeys showing up for school in Oakland, California. In Colorado, mountain lions have been spotted in Boulder. Not totally unusual to occasionally see mountain lions, but maybe there are a few more of them than usual?
While these are positive signs for the environment, environmental nonprofit organizations are seeing significant drops in fundraising in the past few months.
Philanthropic donors have been incredibly generous during this time – with social service and health organizations seeing the largest benefit. However, this also means that other types of nonprofits are not seeing the expected funding that they had hoped for.
According to a recent poll by the University of San Diego’s School of Leadership and Education Sciences, 22 percent of respondents said they had given to an environmental nonprofit prior to Covid-19. Since then, only 15 percent said they either plan to give or have given to an environmental nonprofit. Ouch!
Are you concerned about the long-term impact for environmental causes should fundraising significantly decline? If you have a favorite environmental organization, and are able to support them financially or through a permitted volunteer effort, please, please continue to do so. If you’d like to support an organization but aren’t sure which one to choose, we thought we’d share our top picks for both local/Colorado and national/international organizations to inspire you:
Colorado:
Institute for Science and Policy
Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado
National/international:
Institute for Science and Policy
Finally, if your nonprofit is currently facing fundraising challenges, click here to visit our resource page focused on grants and other potential funding opportunities.