January Fundraising for SALVEASERRA

Thanks to all who donated to help SALVEASERRA continue their work in the Atlantic Forest.

In total we raised $10 - which wasn't as much as I was aiming for, but will be a great help to them all the same.

One of the great spin offs from the campaign was that over the month of January donations to SALVEASERRA through their GlobalGiving project increased significantly. In the last week of January their Trees and Education Project was one of the top five most popular projects at GlobalGiving and they received over $500 of donations.

The winner of the WE ADD UP 'Plant Trees' Tee was Kimberly C. If you would like to purchase one for yourself click on this link and 10% of your purchase price will be donated to SALVEASERRA.

You can help raise funds for SALVEASERRA at no cost to you by downloading the How to Make a Difference toolbar. Its powered by Conduit and works on both Firefox and Internet Explorer. Every download raises money for SALVEASERRA!

There's Only 7% of the Atlantic Forest Left. Help Save It.

This January YOU can help save the Atlantic Forest in Brazil. All it takes is $2 - and a few minutes of your time to spread the word.

Please Digg, Stumble and Twitter this post to help us get the word out for the Atlantic Forest. Your efforts will make a difference!




Why Save the Atlantic Forest?Image via Wikipedia

In 1500, when the Portuguese arrived in Brazil, the Atlantic Forest stretched the entire 2,000 mile length of Brazil's eastern seaboard,covering an area twice the size of Texas. It was once the world's richest biological reserve; it has more plant and tree diversity in 2.5acres than the entire eastern seaboard of the United States.

Today, a huge 93% of the Atlantic Forest has been destroyed, largely in the last 50 years.

The Atlantic Forest and Amazon Rainforest really are the 'Lungs of the World'. Even with 93% of the Atlantic Forest destroyed the Atlantic and Amazon Rainforests produce 20% of the world's oxygen!

Scientists estimate 50-60 percent of plant and animal species found in the Atlantic Forest are only found in that region alone. Its an amazing treasure trove of biological diversity.

Who are SALVEASERRA?

SALVEASERRA are an NGO in Brazil working to restore degraded areas of the Atlantic Forest by promoting sustainable land use and agro-reforestation techniques through their 'Trees & Education Project' with GlobalGiving.

Since 1995 they have planted over 80,000 trees in the Atlantic Forest. They maintain a seed bank of local forest species to ensure that reforestation respects the original genetic profile of the forest.

SALVEASERRA also take groups of school children through the forest to help build awareness of its importance.

In addition to this they offer training courses tailored to the needs of local rural communities, farmers and others interested inorganic,ecologically sound farming and agro-forestry practices. In 2007250 students took part in these courses.

They also work directly to alleviate poverty in the area by training local communities on how to use forest resources to make handicrafts to help provide employment and increase local incomes.And they run a course teaching eco-friendly ways to produce organic food at home to supplement family diets and increase income from surplus production.They also prepare and donate vegetable gardens to local communities.

Donate $2 and WIN

Everyone who donates $2 or more to SALVEASERRA before the 31st of January 2009 goes into the draw to win a fantastic We Add Up Organic Cotton 'Plant Trees' Tee.

WE ADD UP is an organic t-shirt campaign that counts you in the fight to stop climate change. Each tee is custom hand-printed with a unique number. YOUR number represents your position in the worldwide count of people doing something to do their part. No two shirts are alike. When you purchase a WE ADD UP tee and join the count, you help our number grow. Our goal is to show that small changes do make a big difference and WE ADD UP.

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• Brazilians Try to Restore Atlantic Rainforest
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My 2008/09 Giving Project

Over the last few months I have been working on raising awareness - and ultimately funds - for SALVEASERRA, an organisation in Brazil that is working to reduce poverty, encourage sustainable land use and restore part of the Atlantic Forest (possibly the most engdangered tropical forest area in the world).


I am primarily using the internet to achieve my goal for this project - which is to raise the full amount required for their GlobalGiving 'Trees and Education' project - $60,000. Given that I am a fundraising novice, this is a fairly ambitious target.

I have been using Razoo without a great deal of success. It seems like a site with great potential, but is very quiet and there doesn't seem to be a lot happening there or many active members.

I have also been trying Zazengo. Its a great platform, and it also has the fantastic widget you see in my sidebar. But once again, there isn't a great deal of action/discussion/networking going on.

The other platform I have been using is Care2. I have been a member of Care2 for years and I love the site! I have recently joined several discussion groups related to both fundraising and rainforest protection. I post something at least once a week to try and stimulate discussion. I also have the RSS feed of my How to Make a Difference blog directed there.

So far, these platforms haven't generated a lot of response. But they have meant that SALVEASERRA has a much greater presence in the search engines - which can't be all bad.

I have also created a great toolbar for How to Make a Difference that links to the site and will - when enough people download it - generate a monthly donation for SALVEASERRA. You can download it here.

My other fundraising campaign at the moment is selling fantastic organic cotton t-shirts from WE ADD UP. I have signed up to their affiliate programme and have used a free Google Adwords credit to advertise. It has been moderately successful so far - but I have yet to achieve the $50 payout amount.

I was hoping to have been able to make my first contribution to SALVEASERRA (via GlobalGiving) at the end of August. But it hasn't worked out that way. However, I feel that I have made a positive start. Traffic to How to Make a Difference is increasing slowly but steadily which will help the cause even more.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Get your own Tree in the Atlantic Forest