What marine conservation groups deserve divers' $$$?

[OceanOpportunity]

Our org, Oceans of Opportunity is a grassroots non-profit involved in a myriad of projects. We welcome interested folks to visit our website. Being a small organization, 100% of donations go to support our programs. We have no overhead, such as salaries, as we are run by volunteers, yet make a very strong impact at a community level with our programs.

Thanks in advance for visiting our site!

 

[Papa_Bear]

I like the idea of low overhead and more bang for the buck! I also like Reef Ball, this type of reef rebuilding and restoration is good for all concerned!

 

[earthdive]

There are many deserving conservation groups working tirelessly to help protect our earth's most important asset. Many of which request donations.

I am the founder of Scuba diving for marine conservation. We do not ask for financial donations but instead, ask divers to donate a dive or two!! We have created and online Global Dive Log where divers can share their dives and underwater observations. We collect this observational data to help create a global snapshot of our ocean's health.

The site is fully interactive so divers can also search all this data to find the best dive sites, dive centers and view individual divers logs.

So helping to protect our oceans doesn't always mean putting your hand in your pocket. Just a few memories can now go a very long way!

 

[stillhope]

Good point! Another easy thing to do that doesn't involve $$ is to contact your local public-access cable station -- if they don't already air the series "SEA-Inside: Pacific Northwest," I'll be happy to send it to them. This will provide all cable subscribers in your area with a bi-monthly show of underwater video. It focuses mostly on the Pacific Northwest, but also has some tropical segments too -- after all, they're all connected.

It's now on 40 stations from Vermont to S. Calif, from Florida to British Columbia. More at:

http://SEA-Inside.org

 

[Underwater Ogre]

I have to agree be careful about putting money into organizations that are supposed to be non-profit. I prefer to give my time to helping with beach clean ups and helping raise money that goes directly to a project...no one taking a salary from it.

Good Luck,
O

 

[stillhope]

I agree it's a good idea to look into "good causes" before contributing to them to make sure they are really something you want to support. But I'm not sure why you are objecting to salaries.

There are many reasons why people working for non-profits should make salaries or wages -- one major one is that some projects require more people or different skill sets than can be found as volunteers. The Seattle Aquarium, for example, has lots of volunteers, about 500 if I recall correctly. And I imagine if they could fill their scientist slots and other staff positions with volunteers they would, but they do pay scientists, administrators, and probably even janitors to make the aquarium successful.

And even if there is a spectacularly successful non-profit with no paid staff, there may still be people making salaries/wages from the non-profit's income. In Deep Throat's words, "follow the money." If money doesn't go to staff, where does it go? Does it go to big foreign for-profit corporations like Sony when cameras are purchased? Does it go to Costco/Wal*Mart when buying plastic bags or shovels or pencils or pieces of environmentally vicious PVC? Does it go to Subway/Dominos/Starbucks shareholders? Does it go to wage-earners at Hewlett Packard who make specialized equipment for testing for PCBs in whales, or whatever?

I'm suggesting that a salary or a wage don't disqualify a project from being non-profit or from being worthwhile -- in fact salaried employees can actually make a non-profit project more effective.

Disclosure: I bring in neither salary nor wage. I have been on the boards of 2 non-profits and volunteered with several others. And I operate a non-profit project with the fiscal sponsorship of a non-profit organization that supports my work in spirit, but can't provide any financial support unless I flush it out -- which doesn't happen nearly often enough.

 

[highdesert]

As the OP, I'm afraid I deserted this thread, largely as a result of not wanting to clutter my e-mail box with notifications. Perhaps it's time to dedicate a different e-mailbox to scuba! I am impressed by the posts I've read ... the earnestness of the writers in lobbying (in the positive sense) for their respective causes.

We are not people of significant means ...which is a polite way of saying that whatever we donate to a cause will be but a pittance ... which to me is greater impetus to be sure it's well-utilized. I have been reading about the Coral Reef Alliance ...

The Coral Reef Alliance - Home

... and have thus far been impressed. So I pose this question ... is there any concrete reason (other than lobbying for your own worthy cause), that anyone knows of, why I should not donate to this organization? Again, I am looking at "bang for the buck". And many who have posted here may work with organizations who do well in that respect. But as some have said, it's all for the greater good of the world's reef systems, and this organization, at least on paper, has in mind what I see as valuable, in terms of their policies. Not to mention, they are very active in Indonesia, which to me is heaven on Earth ...

Wow, for what little I can afford a year, I've probably already burned too much energy writing this. Thanks to everyone!

PS - And for the record, drbill, we live between the high mountains and the sandstone desert in southwest Colorado ....

 

[<*)))><]

I've been very impressed with Oceana and REEF. There are many other worthy organizations.

 

[dpbishop]

I'll put my 2 cents in for the San Diego Ocean Foundation. San Diego Oceans Foundation
They do education, conservation, reef monitoring, clean up dives and other things on a very low budget. They are not radical kelp huggers; they were the prime movers in sinking the Yukon as a dive site and they are also involved with the White Sea Bass restocking project.

They are having a Dive-a-thon in August, you can donate here Dive a thon 2008 - Home

 

[drbill]

I'd look towards organizations which, in addition to having good conservation programs, also have great educational programs. Even if all the divers in the world were advocates of conservation (and they aren't, believe me as I know divers who poach and engage in other destructive activities), to gain the political support needed for good conservation measures we need to reach a larger percentage of the non-diving public which may, or may not, have a current interest in marine conservation.