Our 2021 Year in Review
from 2% for Conservation Executive Director, Jared Frasier
Typing these up is always a bit of a challenge, and it ain’t getting easier.
Providing a synopsis of an entire year’s work by us and our membership only gets more involved as we all grow and the landscape changes. This year was exceptionally busy for us as an organization, but I’d like to get something clear out of the gate.
We are painfully aware of how fortunate and privileged we are as an organization that 2021 was another solid year of growth.
Once again, for the 4th year in a row, we nearly doubled our membership. We now have over 100 business members across North America, the UK, and Australia - with a dozen more in the pipeline at any given time. One week in August, I sent out Certification onboarding packets to 9 businesses. It’s an incredibly rewarding time to be working with thousands of people across over 1,500 conservation causes, our members that support them, and their employees and community connections.
But, we’re in a unique spot, as a conservation non-profit.
A key way we measure success is the expansion of support provided to other conservation groups — not just our membership numbers or staff or programmatic outlay.
When we help conservation causes succeed in fulfilling their missions, that is a sign of peak performance to us. It proves that we’re doing the job our mission statement has laid out for us. We exist to help dollars and volunteer time head to the groups doing real work for wildlife.
So when 2021 ended up not coming “in like a lion and out like a lamb” as so many predicted, we knew we’d have our work cut out trying to help conservation non-profit groups.
Our collective foot was on the gas from 2020 and we still haven’t eased up.
As spring turned to summer, our inboxes continued to overflow with causes, both small and large, looking for any extra help that might be available. We had to become more effective, and more efficient, without any large influx of cash for major programming or operational expansion.
Well, we did just that.
The first step was to increase our Brand Coordinator’s involvement. Kalvyn Ferronato has been working part-time as the sole other employee of 2% since she was our 2019 summer intern. We doubled her hours and pay at the beginning of the summer, and if you just heard about us this year, it’s likely her branding/marketing work that brought you to us. Right now, she’s starting her 16 weeks of maternity leave (fully paid, as it should be), and she’ll be greatly missed until she comes back in the late spring of 2022.
Secondly, we launched two programs to automate assistance to our membership and the conservation causes they support the most.
It took the better part of the year to coordinate the logistics, but on September 1st, our “Community Partner” program launched.
The Community Partner program does two key things:
Recognizes conservation causes supported by our membership that do good work for wildlife. If you are investigating a cause to support, all you need do is look for the “2% Community Partner” badge on their website (or see them listed on our page).
Helps prospective members of ours find causes and their chapters more easily. Both by the type of work they do, and geographically.
Figuring out how to list organizations on the page in a useful and user-friendly way was a challenge, but I think we nailed it. At present, a couple dozen of the causes supported by our membership are on there, but we’re onboarding vetted causes nearly every week. Well before we have all 1,500+ causes and chapters added, it will be the largest online database of conservation causes and their chapters in existence. What is especially unique about it is that it has current contact info for specific chapters and roles within organizations.
Oh… and we developed it in-house, for free.
Involvement with the program is 100% free for conservation causes. Our only requirements are that you put the “2% Community Partner” logo on your website and that your conservation work has been vetted by us for our membership. If you want to get your organization or chapter involved, hit us up!
The second major program we launched this year came on October 1st, the 2% Job Board.
***The 2% Job Board was shuttered in the spring of 2023.***
The 2% Job Board is FREE for all, but posting jobs is the exclusive privilege of 2% Brands and Community Partners.
As with all the programs we launch, this came from a need we repeatedly saw. Every week, we received emails and messages on social media from folks looking for careers with our membership or conservation groups. That has been the case since I came on staff. I was on the job for no more than a week before someone reached out, asking for career opportunities with our membership.
Posting a job, gig, or contractor position is super simple. Just fill out the simple form on the page and we’ll get the job posting up within 24hrs! We also post about the position to our social media and have automatic email updates go out to job board subscribers.
This, as with everything extra we offer our members and Community Partners, is completely free, to all, forever.
One last large programmatic update was a pivot we made for our 2% Committee Program.
The 2% Committee Program is now the 2% Advisory Council.
When it launched in 2019, my goal was to use these titled volunteers and employees of conservation causes as a conduit for businesses and individuals looking for places to give back. Hailing from all over North America and representing over 100 conservation causes between themselves, they performed this role exceptionally. Many helped connect businesses to causes they would have had the opportunity to know of, much less partner with.
Yet, as our membership grew, so did their needs. And so did the number of causes supported by our members. The Community Partner program now fulfills this role that this committee addressed.
But, I’m really happy to say, we’re keeping most of them around, and in a new role: As advisors to 2%.
These people are the cream of the crop of conservation volunteers and professionals, and now, we get to leverage their collective brainpan for our membership and the causes they support.
We’ve split the 2% Advisory Council into 5 groups, all providing advice in their particular areas of expertise:
2% Lifestyle - what living out the 2% Standard can look like.
Media Award - helping us find and elevate more conservation-focused media.
Business Members - employees or owners in our membership, guiding our programs to help them join in our mission.
Events - keeping us and our membership current on events we should be at, or supporting in more effective ways.
Wildlife Policy - making sure we and our membership are in the know when it comes to wildlife management and wellbeing trends and policy changes.
We’ll be listing these key Advisors on our Team page, starting in January, and I can’t wait for y’all to meet them!
Coming in 2022…
New role:
As mentioned earlier, we’re still on a pretty aggressive growth clip and our Brand Coordinator will be on maternity leave until well into Q2. So, we’re bringing on a business intern! Presently, we’re working with Montana State University to ensure that the internship is not only academically accredited, but provides great value for whomever we are fortunate to have come on through the winter into the summer. More details on this in the coming weeks once we have things solidified with MSU!
2% LinkedIn Community Page:
We’re launching a community page on LinkedIn specifically for our business membership, Community Partners, and their employees to network and collaborate. We have been shopping around for the right platform for this kind of moderated program for a few years now, and we have happily settled with LinkedIn as the place for it. Participation will be entirely free and optional but will be incentivized by giving our Business Members an additional 2% off their annual dues for joining.
Most community gathering places on social media have devolved into in-fighting, policy bickering, and the like. This place will not have any of that, with a sole focus on giving our network a place to communicate with each other safely and efficiently.
Also, if you haven’t already, give us a follow on LinkedIn. The content we share there is (and will continue to become more so) oriented towards businesses and conservation professionals.
Quick Tips & Tricks from Advisors:
Part of the volunteer help that the 2% Advisory Council will provide is DIY pointers for businesses and individuals looking for the best ways to support conservation with their time and dollars. These “professional volunteers” will be sharing their tips for everything, from road-side habitat cleanups, to incentivizing employee participation in giving back, to how to set up a community meeting about your local ecosystem, how to get kids involved, and everything in between.
We have a few other sizable projects in the works, as well as programs like our Conservation Media Award and Community Conservation Day continuing with vigor. But, you’ll have to wait for those details!
A personal “thank you”:
The average tenure for a non-profit Executive Director is 4 years and 10 months. For conservation non-profit groups, it is closer to 3 years and 6 months. I am presently sitting at 4 years and 4 months… but I nearly cut it short, back in January.
I’ll spare you the details, but essentially, when you put Lyme’s disease and COVID into a banged-up 34 year old body, it’s not good. In my case, I had a minor heart attack, an ambulance ride to the ER, and a bunch of side effects that kept the doctors scrambling with tests to figure out what was wrong with me. We didn’t receive a diagnosis until March, and until then, I was laid up and couldn’t drive myself anywhere. I am proud that we (the 2% team) did everything we could to keep the organization running smoothly for our membership while this “distraction” was at its most consuming. I even got a few podcast episodes recorded and businesses Certified while sitting in the hospital. :)
Hopefully, this is the first and last time you’re hearing of it!
That said, my family and I are especially thankful to those in our membership who, when they found out, not only got the word out for our support needs, but many sent financial and practical help. In particular, the folks at Randy Newberg’s Fresh Tracks TV, Smile Outside, Flint Ridge Rifles, the GVLT Next Gen Board, and a few dozen individual members who created, shared, and supported a fundraising and meal planning page on our behalf. I’d especially like to thank my friend and 2%’er, SJ Keller of “Queers and Camo” for setting up the fundraiser (unbeknownst to me) and meal-planning. The medical bills were… substantial. More than I earn in two years.
I cannot thank you enough for the love and support you showed me and mine during that time!