Yesterday we introduced our latest conservation initiative, the 10,000 Birds Conservation Club and the emails and comments flooded in (well, actually, they didn’t - but it was a Sunday in November, so we’re not disheartened quite yet!).

What we didn’t do yesterday - the post was getting very long as it was - was to tell interested readers how they can join, details of what they’d be joining, how we intend to spend the membership fees (supporting conservation of course, but I’m sure readers want more specifics than that), how you can enter our first Conservation Club ‘give-away’ competition (the THREE superb ‘Sound Approach’ books donated by the ‘Sound Approach’ team - scroll down for the competition), and other questions we probably haven’t even thought of yet…

So, let’s not waste any more time and get down to the details.

As we explained yesterday the 10,000 Birds Conservation Club, simply put, is a way of raising and distributing funds for conservation through the 10,000 Birds blog.

The Club was developed and is managed by Charlie Moores, Mike Bergin, and Corey Finger - the three owners of 10,000 Birds.

The Conservation Club has an annual (365 days starting from date of joining) membership fee of 25USD (or currency equivalent) payable via a PayPal account and receipts will go to providing small amounts of funding to small-scale conservation projects (preferably working on Critically Endangered/Endangered birds) that would benefit from rapid funding.

NB: Join anytime in November 2009 and your Membership will automatically extend to January 1st 2011 - that’s 13 months membership for 25USD!

Obviously that’s all blinking wonderful, but I’m sure you want a few more questions answering before you hit (the strangely stretched - and, sorry, we’ve no idea why that is happening!) Subscribe PayPal button thoughtfully scattered throughout this page, so here is a selection of FAQ’s that we (mainly) didn’t answer yesterday…NB: There is a fuller list of FAQs on the blog at 10,000 Birds Conservation Club FAQs

Q) Okay, I see the PayPal button but why should I join?

Ah, the 25 dollar question!

We regularly receive books/birding products etc to review, and rather than keep them ourselves we often run ‘give-aways’ - free competitions where we offer those items to our readers.

• Our aim now is to create a closer relationship between 10,000 Birds, Conservation Club Members, and product donors and make these ‘giveaway competitions’ more rewarding for everyone involved.
• We are therefore approaching potential donors (lots of them!) for products for selected ‘give-aways’ that are specifically open to Club Members ONLY.
• Thus for 25USD (or currency equivalent) our Conservation Club Members will have numerous opportunities over twelve months to win books/DVDs/optical gear/annual subscriptions to conservation organisations or get reduced prices on tours/stays at wildlife lodges etc while funding conservation work.

What’s not to love about that eh - support conservation and have the chance to win lots of good stuff for a whole year!

Competitions:

Q) Who can enter a Conservation Club ‘give-away’?

• Conservation Club Members ONLY. Non-members can join the Club up until THREE days before the closing date of any new competition and then be eligible to enter that and all succeeding competition for the next twelve months.

Q) How will you stop non-members entering a competition?

• Entries to our competitions will be by email only. The entry MUST come from the email address a member used to join with via PayPal. An entry from an email address that doesn’t belong to a Club Member will be deleted.

Q) How will competition winners be picked?

• 10,000 Birds has the one and only jammy finger on the team - and winners will be chosen totally at random by said jammy finger.

Q) How will winners be notified?

• By email, using the email address you joined with.

Q) How many competitions a year will you be running?

• We honestly don’t know yet. We could make a guess now but until the Club gets going we really can’t be sure, and as a matter of policy we prefer to be upfront at all times.

Q) If I win a competition can I then enter other competitions as well?

• During the twelve months of your membership you can enter as many competitions as you like…and the best of luck to you every time you enter!

Q) As the Conservation Club gets more members won’t there be less of a chance to win anything?

• Actually, no, because we’re confident that the more members we get the more donors we’ll attract - we’ll end up with more things to give-away in more competitions, in other words.
• Also, it’s likely that not all Members will be interested in every product we offer (if it’s a book we’re giving away some Members may already have it and not enter that particular competition for example).
• …and, hey, even if you don’t win you’ll have had a bit of fun for a year AND given to conservation at the same time!

Q) “Hey, 10,000 Birds I have a product I’d like to have you review and ‘give-away’ - who do I contact?”

• That’s great. Please contact us through the blog in the normal way, or mail Charlie Moores at charlie10000birds@gmail.com and I’ll get back to you asap!

Donations:

Q) What will the money raised by the Conservation Club be used to fund?

• We have stated that the money raised should preferably go to projects supporting Critically Endangered or Endangered birds. That’s not a ‘hard and fast’ rule, but Members will be joining on the expectation that’s what we’ll be supporting.

Q) Who decides where the money raised will go?

• What we propose is that 10,000 Birds (Charlie Moores, Mike Bergin, Corey Finger) will draw up a short list of projects requiring funding and then submit the list to Members - the project which receives the most ‘votes’ will receive the funding.
• Members can suggest projects themselves at any time by emailing charlie10000birds@gmail.com. Once we have full details of the project and confirmed it is both a) active, and b) would like to receive funding from us, the suggestion will then be copied to all Members. They will then vote whether we support it or not.

Bear in mind though that - to begin with at least - the ‘pot’ of funds will be very small as we will only have Membership receipts to donate.

Q) What projects have you supported so far?

Give us a chance, folks, we only launched the Conservation Club this week…

Q) Is my donation tax-deductible?

• No, I’m afraid not. 10,000 Birds is neither a registered charity nor do we have tax-exempt status. If the Conservation Club becomes HUGE and we fulfill the necessary criteria for charitable status we will apply, but we haven’t done so yet. (Besides, folks, come on it’s only 25USD…)

Q) Be honest now: how much of my 25USD membership are you keeping for yourselves?

Honestly? Absolutely none of it.

• PayPal will extract a small handling fee of course (there’s no way round that), but apart from shipping costs if we need to send competition prizes out ourselves 10,000 Birds will take absolutely nothing. Nothing. Zip. Nada. No salary, no expenses, no ‘Admin Fees’. Whatever is raised through the 10,000 Birds Conservation Club will be given to conservation projects.

Why? While none of us are millionaires (hence we think it’s fair to have the Club pay shipping costs), Mike, Corey, and I are developing this project because we believe strongly in conservation: despite the hours and hours and hours of hard work [ahem] we are putting into this thing we will not be taking any of the money raised ourselves (and 10,000 Birds Conservation Club Members will be able to view how any money is spent on request).

Q) Does this mean that you’ll start charging for visiting the 10,000 Birds blog at some point?

• No way, my friend! All content on 10,000 Birds will always be free for - er, always.

Privacy:

Q) You ask for my email address. Are you going to sell it or mail me loads of stuff I don’t want?

Absolutely not. We need your email address just to verify who you are, to notify you of a new competition, or send you the (optional) Conservation Club enewsletter.

• Your email address is yours and yours alone. We will never pass it on or sell your details to anyone. We will never share membership lists - not even with other well-established charitable or like-minded nonprofit organizations.
• We have no plans to hire ‘list brokers’ or any outside agency. The only person who will have access to your email addresses is the Membership Secretary, and currently that’s Charlie Moores.
• To review or correct your personal contact information or if you have any questions please contact Charlie at charlie10000birds@gmail.com

We really do value the support of our individual members and we want to maintain a strong, trusting relationship with every one of you. That way conservation benefits.

We know that joining the 10,000 Birds Conservation Club is something of an act of faith, and we will not let you down!

One more thing:

Is it just us that thinks that this is a good idea? Of course not, but I certainly wasn’t expecting The Conservation Club to get such a unequivocal endorsement as this one from Jim Lawrence, Programme Development Manager of the BirdLife Preventing Extinctions Programme:

 

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Our first give-away - sponsored by the Sound Approach

 

“One of the most exciting elements of the BirdLife Preventing Extinctions Programme is witnessing the extraordinarily creative ways our Species Champions raise funds. With the launch of this innovative club, 10,000 Birds further prove their commitment to conservation and to the BirdLife International Preventing Extinctions Programme.” Jim Lawrence, BirdLife International. November 2009.

(Click on the images to go to our review of each book)

 

Yes, the wonderful team at the fabulous Sound Approach have given us all three of their wonderful books - ‘The Sound Approach to Birding’, ‘Petrels night and day’, and ‘Birding from the Hip’ - specifically for a Conservation Club competition and we’re going to give them to ONE lucky Conservation Club member!

25 dollars for a chance to win over 100 dollars worth of books? Fantastic eh…

And remember that’s just for starters! Members can enter every single competition we run for just that one little 25 dollar payment - WHICH GOES TO SUPPORT CONSERVATION remember - for twelve months from the date of joining the Conservation Club!

 

To enter the competition Club Members (using the email address they joined with) need to answer the following question by 24:00 GMT SATURDAY 12TH DECEMBER:

• Mark Constantine, who founded the Sound Approach, began a company in the 1970s called Constantine & Weir that sold vegetarian bath and beauty products. That Company has evolved into a globally-recognised brand sold in more than 600 stores in 43 countries. What is the name of the Company now?

  A) The Body Shop
  B) Lush
  C) EcoOils

Send your answer to Charlie at charlie10000birds@gmail.com - please use the subject line CC Competition: Sound Approach (we may well end up with overlapping competitions and that will make sorting entries out that much easier).

The winner will be notified by email no later than three days after the closing date.

And thanks again to the good folk at the Sound Approach - and to all our members of course - for supporting this fledgling initiative of ours!

 

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This post has been written as part of our commitment to supporting projects on Critically Endangered/Endangered birds and to Birdlife International’s ‘Preventing Extinctions Programme‘, which we signed up to as Species Champions in January 2009.

Species Champions are ”a growing community of Companies, Institutions and Individuals who share our concerns and demonstrate their commitment to protecting the planet’s natural heritage by funding the work undertaken by our Species Guardians”.

There are different ‘levels’ of Species Champion (requiring different levels of financial commitment). Whilst we joined the PEP at a ‘lower level’ 10,000 Birds is now officially a Species Champion along with such conservation giants as Sir David Attenborough and the British Birdwatching Fair, conservation minded businesses like Swarovski Optik (who also sponsor 10,000 Birds of course), In Focus, and WildSounds (the Species Champions for the Spoon-billed Sandpiper), and a small number of unsung individuals like Dr. Urs-Peter Stäuble, Ed Keeble, and Peter Smith.

• For a full list of Species Champions please go to BirdLife Species Champions ‘Roll of Honour’.