Canadian site calls for more donations to climate change issues
Howard Lake | 3 November 2008 | News
“Only one quarter of a cent of every dollar donated in Canada goes to counter global warming”. That’s the headline on a new website from Natasha van Bentum, Director of Outreach with PowerUP Canada, Canadians for Climate Leadership.
“Even a small increase in its share of the “philanthropy pie” would translate into millions to put towards combating climate change”, argues globalwarmingopportunitiesguide.org.
The site is directed at existing supporters of charities, urging them to consider supporting work to combat climate change as well as their existing commitments. “As philanthropists, we can do more than have buildings named after us”, says van Bentum.
She presents a graph showing the breakdown of donations to Canadian nonprofits by type of organisation including religion, health, international, and arts and culture. She points out that global warming does and will affect all these activities so requires a higher priority.
She says that she’s not asking donors to stop supporting charities and redirect all their support to environmental charities. Instead she suggests “by applying a ‘Global Warming Filter’ to your philanthropy, you can make a big difference.”
By this she means: “Focus on projects that take into consideration global warming, ask organisations you support are revising their mandates to include climate change impacts”.
Van Bentum, formerly Director of Gift Planning for Greenpeace Canada and Development Director at the Victoria Symphony, has set up several philanthropy resources over the past decade or so, including SeniorsinCyberspace and VenturePhilanthropyGuide.
She has started a blog to accompany the new website.
http://globalwarmingopportunitiesguide.org
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.