What's Happening with Our Donations?
Announcing a new Partnership!
Since October 2018, we've been donating $.50 for every skein we sell and working closely as volunteers to benefit our local Arboretum and National Forest, through non-profit ROWIA. As of January 2020, we're changing our partnership and expanding to benefit National Forests most in need across the entire country. Through this new tree planting partnership with the National Forest Foundation, every dollar we donate will plant a tree in a prioritized National Forest that needs it most.
We're also adjusting the way we donate to include not just our yarn, but everything we sell! Starting January 2020, 1.5% of the revenue of all goods we sell will be donated to the National Forest Foundation! This will average about the same percentage of donations from Elevate overall, but will save us a LOT of time in calculating and accounting.
Sharing our Success!
For those of you following our newsletter, we've been keeping you updated throughout the year, but we'd like to highlight the success you've supported so far!
Our first non-profit partner, ROWIA, broke ground on the pollinator garden expansion at Heaps Peak Arboretum this last Fall. We finally got official approval to fund to this pollinator project with your donations. The Forest Service helped by providing a list of plant recommendations along with extra milkweed and rabbitbrush for the garden! This effort more than doubles the existing pollinator garden area and will help not only provide more habitat, but hopefully inspire and educate more visitors.
Barbara got to work alongside these great volunteers that include a couple master gardeners and a full fledged botanist. There was lots of fun chatting while they were removing invasive species, and cultivating the soil getting it ready for planting.
Our work also included supporting plant sales that got hundreds of native plants into locals' gardens! We also donated a complete website redesign (outside of the funds donated through Elevate Fibers), and worked with local expert ecologists to prioritize and plan upcoming projects to directly benefit the wildlife!
A huge success was also setting up the Arboretum with electronic means of taking payments, which helped their local booth sales increase significantly. Many visitors would want to purchase goods and passes, but didn't have enough cash on hand. Now more plants, seeds and educational goods are flowing out with visitors, and also donations and profits from the booth flow more freely into the Arboretum to support the forest.
We supported the Arboretum for over a year, and are confident that they now have plenty of funds for their current goals and projects. It's the right time to step back and find where these funds could be put to best use next, and that's where the NFF comes in! We're so excited to start making a difference by funding the forests that need it the most. As for our local forest, we'll still be helping out as regular volunteers here... it is just down the street after all!
Thank you for being a part of this work!