How to Start Your Environmental Activism Journey

Medium Jun 5, 2018
This article is deemed a must-read by one or more of our expert collaborators.
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Giving Compass’ Take:

• On Medium, CallHub’s Saurav Pathak discusses ways that aspiring activists can get involved in environmental issues, from diving deep into research to uniting like-minded people.

• How can we all start putting our ideals into action? These are some good, basic steps — but it’s up to everyone to forge their own path.

• Looking for some impact investments? Here’s why environment-related bonds are catching on.

For most things in life, from keeping a bug collection as a hobby to putting a satellite into orbit, taking off is the hardest part. The same happens even for activities people are really passionate about. There are a lot of people around the world right now who feel they need to get involved in environmental activism but put off the effort for tomorrow.

Here are some ways to get involved.

Stick to the facts. Every time an issue or bill related to the environment comes under discussion, the furore is caused by skeptics who tend to downplay the impact. They would cite the lack of concrete evidence or turn to misinformation to strengthen their position. At such a situation, it is natural to want to take them head-on and prove them wrong. Fighting the naysayers is not worth your time. Reach out to the undecided individuals and get them to participate.

Contest for an influential role. It is likely you would feel insignificant to affect policymakers’ decision on a matter on your own. If the issue is a local one or affects your community, you should gear up for a position where you can influence change. Stand for election to your city council or a position in your municipal board.

Reach out to decision makers. Even if you cannot commit to contesting for an election or organizing a public event, you could still do a bit every day for the environment. That is you can call your local congressman’s office to let them know your position on the issue. The opinion of their home constituents matters for representatives and senators because they face re-election every few years.

 

Read the full article about how to get started with environmental activism by Saurav Pathak at medium.com.

Learning and benchmarking are key steps towards becoming an impact giver. If you are interested in giving with impact on Advocacy and Policy take a look at these selections from Giving Compass.

  • This article is deemed a must-read by one or more of our expert collaborators.
    Click here for more.
    Attack on university endowments would undermine philanthropic freedom

    Are endowments characteristic of nonprofit activity? It’s probably true that only a minority of charities have endowments, but it’s hardly unknown – nearly every nonprofit college and university has one, not just the elite schools at issue here, including Hope College (a little over $200 million). And the Chronicle of Philanthropy just last week published an article reviewing nonprofits with endowments. Many of them are colleges and universities, but museums, hospitals, historical societies, the American Cancer Society, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Knights of Columbus Charities, and the Rotary Foundation all have endowments, and the Chronicle article reviewed 1,600 nonprofit institutions with endowments. Even if endowments weren’t characteristic of nonprofit activity, would that prove anything? If one believes that all charities have to look more or less the same, then perhaps. But such a framework would stifle innovation in how philanthropists and charities go about their good work. For example, I suspect few charities have what amounts to a private equity fund that invests in mission-directed companies, but the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation has exactly that, as The New York Timesrecently reported: [Mr. Johnson] and his wife gave $1 million to a new nonprofit organization, the foundation’s T1D Fund, which invests in companies doing research into Type 1 diabetes. Any financial returns are used to make more investments….   Structured like a private equity fund, the T1D Fund has a minimum donation of $500,000. The fund, which received $32 million in seed funding from the foundation, has a goal of reaching $80 million. It already has $55 million. Unusual? Definitely. Evidence that the JDRF or T1D aren’t really nonprofits? Hardly. Read the source article at Alliance For Charitable Reform

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