WILD

WILD Continues Work for Wilderness, Wildlife & People

Dear WILD family,

As you know, The WILD Foundation is committed to protecting wilderness worldwide in an efficient and effective way. We do this by forming strong partnerships, selecting our programs and projects carefully, applying a keen eye to our finances and keeping administrative costs low. This operating philosophy is increasingly important as we begin to see the full impacts of the global economic downturn.

WILD is also committed to transparency and accountability. We are monitoring closely the impacts of the weak economy, have made necessary adjustments, and our core programs continue strong. In fact, because of purposeful budgetary savings and targeted investment of staff resources, we’ve retained every one of our small and focused staff, and we’re actually growing a bit in order to meet important, strategic goals associated with WILD9, the 9th World Wilderness Congress. For your information, here are some of the adjustments we’ve made:

• Staff salary – All staff salaries remain at the 2008 levels, though I’ve pledged that if WILD meets its 2009 budget and project targets, staff will receive performance compensation that honors their commitment and hard work.
• New partnerships – We’ve confirmed several new collaborations with conservation organizations in the US and abroad that help reduce expenses and increase revenue.
• Travel – Careful review and savings in our travel budget. Some of the work previously done via site visits and face-to-face meetings will be done via email, phone and video conferencing.
• Oversight - More frequent meetings of our financial team (staff and board) to monitor cash-flow, incoming contributions and expenses.
• Accounting System – A revised accounting system that allows us to more accurately track core expenses, and better see the positive impacts of our program work in relation to expenditures.

WILD’s mission is critical for the future of our planet and for a healthy human society. We’re doing good work, operating at capacity, and seeing the results. The months ahead hold both challenges and opportunities, and WILD is well-positioned to meet them.

We deeply appreciate your ongoing support of WILD in the coming months and years. With your help, we pledge to continue to use your donations efficiently and effectively to create real and lasting impacts for wild nature and human communities.

Many thanks…onward!

Vance G. Martin

PS: any comments, ideas, questions, contact me personally…vance at wild org (spelled like this to avoid the web robots!

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