HORIZONS JULY/AUGUST 2018 | Page 25

worst outdoor karma ever, but we have to go this route because of legal technicalities. That said, we do check in on each and every applicant as best we can on social media and through our nonprofit network. While the dollars and donations from businesses really help conservation efforts, the real legwork is done by volunteers, and that is the power in our individual certifications. So far, in 2018, our individual members have donated >10,000 hours of their time. Those hours cover hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars of work that conservation groups and game agencies don’t have to pay for. We are also very global. We have individual members donating their time and money on every continent - save Asia…yet. We are growing quickly, which bodes well for the future of fish and wildlife. How does 2% help conservation groups and conservation projects? We help groups and projects in a few ways: 1) We encourage membership and volunteer retention. To keep your certification, if your in-come grows, so must the value of your donation. You also must continue to give at least 21hrs every year. This is invaluable to conservation groups. 2) We connect needs to funds/hours. We often receive calls looking for help with expenses that were not budgeted for. If a conservation group needs a helicopter or boat for a day to go inspect a suspected disease outbreak, we can call up business members in their area and across the world to connect them quickly for those funds. If they need volunteers for a stream cleanup or a wildlife survey, we can wrangle together a couple dozen volunteers from our database of members. Connecting the groups with the certified is not part of our primary mission, but it is having an impact. 3) We raise awareness for local causes. Many people have no idea of the work being done on behalf of fish and wildlife in their area. The certification and use of it’s logo on products, ve-hicles, trade shows and business windows helps bring conservation needs into the light. How can people get involved? The easiest way is to go to fishandwildlife.org. Yeah, we got lucky with that URL, but every-thing you need to know as a business owner or individual that wants to get certified is in there. If you request info for your business, we typically respond within 12hrs. We are a movement, and we want you to join us! ###