That Reason is You

Each December, nonprofits of all shapes and sizes spend a lot of time and energy communicating with their communities about their accomplishments and the work ahead. The reason is clear. Nonprofits raise upwards of 30% of their total annual donations at year-end. In fact around half of US nonprofits earn the majority of their annual revenue over the last quarter.

The Environmental Defense Center is no different. While you may be the lucky one to get a call from Beth or Linda or me between January and September, (and when you do, I sure hope you take the call) but more than half of contributions from individual donors come through our door during the year-end fundraising period.

By extension, this could mean if EDC decided to close our offices from October through December, then for the next year, we might only be able to keep the lights on for half the day, EDC attorneys might only be able to drive half way to client meetings and we could have choose between clean water and protected open spaces, since we couldn’t work for both.  This is of course not how this actually works, but beyond the absurdity of the above scenarios, we are in no such danger. This is because of the wonderful, extraordinarily generous supporters that make our work possible year after year.

As the days wound down on 2015, EDC (relatively) quietly enjoyed one of the most successful fundraising years ever.  We started the year with what appeared to be an impossibly high goal for our year-end, but thanks to three exceptionally generous supporters, who each contributed $25,000 in matching funds, we have exceeded our fundraising goal and actually raised over $200,000! Normally, one might think that nothing short of hiring a leg-breaker could have gotten us where we needed to go, but through the support of generous individuals giving anywhere from $5 to more than $1,000 at a time, we were able to earn all three dollar-doubling matches!

As I look back on 2015, I am still quite overwhelmed with emotion and gratitude. The amount we were able to accomplish together for clean water, to protect endangered steelhead and sea otters, to help combat climate change and stop irresponsible oil drilling, and to respond to the devastating Plains All American Refugio Oil Spill  is worthy of celebrating. But what deserves even more notice is the reason we were able to do these things. The same reason we are excited to announce today that we exceeded our year-end fundraising goals and begin 2016 ready to do even more to protect our local environment. That reason is you.

Thank you and Happy New Year!

Owen Bailey January 7, 2016 Our Stories

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