Good thoughts. This is a theme for a lot of erstwhile financial investors who believe that social causes can self-sustain. Partly true and for some causes (education, microcredit, employment, etc.). A lot has been attempted on these grounds. At some level, wildlife conservation is a core and basic cause and needs to come from public money (to deliver a scale effect) without an expectation of return. There are some available opportunities to sustain conservation - tourism being a good example, especially on private lands, but since conservation is meaningless without scale the capital needed becomes unattainable. Procuring even a few acres outside a tiger reserve in India can run into millions - payout models won’t work. Anyway, just my 2 cents. Will be glad to hear more specific ideas and re-applicable models for India.
No doubt Ramki that the solutions for wildlife require intervention on a lot of levels - public money being one of them. Governments more or less do things that they feel will get them re-elected, so using private sector approaches to engaging massive audiences with wildlife conservation can improve the likelihood of public funding and policy change as well. If we continue to rely entirely on government and charity though, things will remain very much as they are today. So let’s put some attention on finding the next breakthrough, rather than 100% of our resources in doing what we always have.
You should check out Ivory Ella. The founders of this company explicitly wanted to give back to wildlife conservation, and in their short existence they’ve now given nearly $500k to conservation and are now the single largest donor to Save the Elephants. http://ivoryella.com/
Also, Zynga.org has been using their massive gaming audience to generate some significant resources not only for wildlife, but for a broad swath of causes. http://zynga.org/results/games-for-good/
Hi Dave - thanks for the links and definitely great that Disney does so much to support conservation and WCN. This article was definitely not an indictment of Disney at all - they have a right to do what they want with their profits. I actually admire how they can benefit so much by recognizing the way in which people connect with animals.
Dear Gautam, A very thoughtful article. I would enjoy talking to you sometime about a conservation program we have implemented to help drive the mission of the 3.5 million acre goal of American Prairie Reserve. The for-profit is Wild Sky Beef. (http://wildskybeef.org/) I think it meets all of your requirements for a very different way of thinking about how to drive conservation with products people want and will buy. We sell $300,000 worth of beef per month. Profits go to driving the goals of the APR. How does one get ahold of you?
Dear Gautam, you touch on precisely our problem. Mars Omega is a micro company that has provided our intelligence software to 33 conservancies in Kenya for the last 5 years as a CSR project. We cannot afford to go on doing this, yet as a prize-winner at the USAID Wildlife Crime Technolgy Challenge we have a huge opportunity to expand access to a successful and effective system worldwide - but no business model yet to sustain the capability and evolve it. Thank you for a very thoughtful piece. We would like to help.
Idea like this very important for wildlife conservation, technology and unique ideas is key to support conservancy, i’m planning to earn some billion dollars to support conservation but not with traditional way, we need very unique and effective ideas and great technologies, we will meet soon Gautam.
As they say, “Money is what makes the world go ‘round”. Unfortunately, the people with money would rather spend that money on expensive and very environmentally wasteful things, than help preserve what little of nature we have left. We need to find a way to appeal to them to open up their wallets for conservation.
Being on the southern tip of Africa, we’re unable to subscribe to this newsletter, so I’ve come to this conversation by way of a link referred by the Wildlife ACT Organisation; one of the many organisations in South Africa for whom our company Flint Sky, has successfully raised funds - and awareness - by deploying this line of thinking.
“Sell a product or service that the public values and will buy”
Bags4Good are reusable shoppers, themed round a specific cause & sold in a national food chain, at a premium, which forms the customer’s donation to the cause. Customers align with the cause when buying the bag, while the food chain pays the cause the premium on each each bag sold.
“Generate revenue directly investible in conservation outcomes”
Through a QR code on the shopper, the customer accesses a mobi site offering info on the cause’s project and its predicted outcomes; also allowing the customer to follow project milestones.
“Don’t have a negative impact on the environment”
The design of the recyclable shopper attracts customers who align with the cause and purchase the bag in order to donate. This in turn prevents the purchase of 1-use plastic bags
“Don’t rely on donations or grants”
The many organisations for which we’ve successfully deployed Bags4Good since 2009, have collectively received in excess of ZAR10m as a result of bag sales alone. Should a customer feel compelled to further donate to the cause, a link on the mobi site allows them to do this.
I’m open to discussing our work and sharing insights with anyone out there 😊)
I am really like the innovation of turning conservation into business idea, most people do not like to be involve into conservation because of lack of funds. Incorporating technology as well will make the preservation of our natural environment a success for the future generation. Am a nature conservation student at Tshwane university of technology am currently studying Btech. Conservation is my life time, I was born in rural areas whereby the community was depending on substantial poaching for survival some killing snakes for superstitions reasons. I think business together with technology will make conservation a success.
Thanks for this interesting read about business wildlife conservation. I’m glad you mentioned that for a business you should look through the eyes of the customers when it comes to finding people to engage. This seems like a good way to open the eyes of others and get more people to learn more about conservation.
Personally, I strongly agreed that to preserve wildlife is and will in the near future continue to expensive sometimes due the expected highly prospects to be realized after misusing nature. In Africa, in addition, we don’t seem to appreciate the importance of maintaining the environment peaceful for both man and wildlife.
Given the chance of governance, many paportedly investments will not run. thanks.
COMMENTS
BY Ramki Sreenivasan
ON April 12, 2016 09:16 PM
Good thoughts. This is a theme for a lot of erstwhile financial investors who believe that social causes can self-sustain. Partly true and for some causes (education, microcredit, employment, etc.). A lot has been attempted on these grounds. At some level, wildlife conservation is a core and basic cause and needs to come from public money (to deliver a scale effect) without an expectation of return. There are some available opportunities to sustain conservation - tourism being a good example, especially on private lands, but since conservation is meaningless without scale the capital needed becomes unattainable. Procuring even a few acres outside a tiger reserve in India can run into millions - payout models won’t work. Anyway, just my 2 cents. Will be glad to hear more specific ideas and re-applicable models for India.
BY Gautam, Internet of Elephants
ON April 12, 2016 10:18 PM
No doubt Ramki that the solutions for wildlife require intervention on a lot of levels - public money being one of them. Governments more or less do things that they feel will get them re-elected, so using private sector approaches to engaging massive audiences with wildlife conservation can improve the likelihood of public funding and policy change as well. If we continue to rely entirely on government and charity though, things will remain very much as they are today. So let’s put some attention on finding the next breakthrough, rather than 100% of our resources in doing what we always have.
BY Dave Cortright
ON April 13, 2016 03:26 PM
You should check out Ivory Ella. The founders of this company explicitly wanted to give back to wildlife conservation, and in their short existence they’ve now given nearly $500k to conservation and are now the single largest donor to Save the Elephants.
http://ivoryella.com/
Also, Zynga.org has been using their massive gaming audience to generate some significant resources not only for wildlife, but for a broad swath of causes.
http://zynga.org/results/games-for-good/
BY Dave Cortright
ON April 13, 2016 03:29 PM
Also, I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that Disney is a great support of wildlife programs. They’ve given over $30 million to date and have been a very generous supporter of my organization, Wildlife Conservation Network.
https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/disney-conservation-fund-supports-wildlife-around-the-world-with-annual-grants-surpasses-30-million-giving-milestone/
BY Gautam, Internet of Elephants
ON April 17, 2016 11:44 PM
Hi Dave - thanks for the links and definitely great that Disney does so much to support conservation and WCN. This article was definitely not an indictment of Disney at all - they have a right to do what they want with their profits. I actually admire how they can benefit so much by recognizing the way in which people connect with animals.
BY Sean Gerrity
ON May 14, 2016 01:24 PM
Dear Gautam, A very thoughtful article. I would enjoy talking to you sometime about a conservation program we have implemented to help drive the mission of the 3.5 million acre goal of American Prairie Reserve. The for-profit is Wild Sky Beef. (http://wildskybeef.org/) I think it meets all of your requirements for a very different way of thinking about how to drive conservation with products people want and will buy. We sell $300,000 worth of beef per month. Profits go to driving the goals of the APR. How does one get ahold of you?
BY Chris Holtom
ON June 14, 2016 12:47 PM
Dear Gautam, you touch on precisely our problem. Mars Omega is a micro company that has provided our intelligence software to 33 conservancies in Kenya for the last 5 years as a CSR project. We cannot afford to go on doing this, yet as a prize-winner at the USAID Wildlife Crime Technolgy Challenge we have a huge opportunity to expand access to a successful and effective system worldwide - but no business model yet to sustain the capability and evolve it. Thank you for a very thoughtful piece. We would like to help.
BY zubair
ON August 10, 2016 01:39 PM
Idea like this very important for wildlife conservation, technology and unique ideas is key to support conservancy, i’m planning to earn some billion dollars to support conservation but not with traditional way, we need very unique and effective ideas and great technologies, we will meet soon Gautam.
BY Larry F.
ON November 10, 2016 06:01 PM
As they say, “Money is what makes the world go ‘round”. Unfortunately, the people with money would rather spend that money on expensive and very environmentally wasteful things, than help preserve what little of nature we have left. We need to find a way to appeal to them to open up their wallets for conservation.
BY Di Botha
ON February 28, 2017 02:49 AM
Hi Gautam 😊
Being on the southern tip of Africa, we’re unable to subscribe to this newsletter, so I’ve come to this conversation by way of a link referred by the Wildlife ACT Organisation; one of the many organisations in South Africa for whom our company Flint Sky, has successfully raised funds - and awareness - by deploying this line of thinking.
“Sell a product or service that the public values and will buy”
Bags4Good are reusable shoppers, themed round a specific cause & sold in a national food chain, at a premium, which forms the customer’s donation to the cause. Customers align with the cause when buying the bag, while the food chain pays the cause the premium on each each bag sold.
“Generate revenue directly investible in conservation outcomes”
Through a QR code on the shopper, the customer accesses a mobi site offering info on the cause’s project and its predicted outcomes; also allowing the customer to follow project milestones.
“Don’t have a negative impact on the environment”
The design of the recyclable shopper attracts customers who align with the cause and purchase the bag in order to donate. This in turn prevents the purchase of 1-use plastic bags
“Don’t rely on donations or grants”
The many organisations for which we’ve successfully deployed Bags4Good since 2009, have collectively received in excess of ZAR10m as a result of bag sales alone. Should a customer feel compelled to further donate to the cause, a link on the mobi site allows them to do this.
I’m open to discussing our work and sharing insights with anyone out there 😊)
BY Tumelo Sathekge
ON January 9, 2018 05:05 AM
I am really like the innovation of turning conservation into business idea, most people do not like to be involve into conservation because of lack of funds. Incorporating technology as well will make the preservation of our natural environment a success for the future generation. Am a nature conservation student at Tshwane university of technology am currently studying Btech. Conservation is my life time, I was born in rural areas whereby the community was depending on substantial poaching for survival some killing snakes for superstitions reasons. I think business together with technology will make conservation a success.
BY Taylor Bishop
ON June 21, 2018 05:08 AM
Thanks for this interesting read about business wildlife conservation. I’m glad you mentioned that for a business you should look through the eyes of the customers when it comes to finding people to engage. This seems like a good way to open the eyes of others and get more people to learn more about conservation.
BY Peter Musonda
ON August 23, 2018 04:28 AM
Personally, I strongly agreed that to preserve wildlife is and will in the near future continue to expensive sometimes due the expected highly prospects to be realized after misusing nature. In Africa, in addition, we don’t seem to appreciate the importance of maintaining the environment peaceful for both man and wildlife.
Given the chance of governance, many paportedly investments will not run. thanks.
BY egg licker
ON November 16, 2018 07:54 AM
my pet dog died to i made it in to a casserol yummy
BY George Papazov
ON February 5, 2022 10:58 PM
There are different levels of discussion in business. Everything happens in its own way.