It's the sixth day of my 12 Days of Charitable Giving. Readers have suggested deserving charities over the past few weeks and I’ll be posting one a day for – well, 12 days (I’m clever that way). Today's charity is National Geographic's Big Cats Initiative.
National Geographic's Big Cats Initiative was founded in 2009 in an effort to halt the decline of big cats in the wild: today, as few as 3,000 tigers, 7,500 snow leopards, 10,000 cheetahs, and 30,000 lions likely remain in the wild. Decline occurs for a number of reasons, including a disappearing habitat and hunting expeditions (remember Cecil the Lion?).
The Big Cats Initiative attacks the problem in three ways:
- The Big Cats Initiative assesses and maps current populations of big cats worldwide in order to best determine how to protect them. Click here to see the assessment of lion populations in Africa.
- The Big Cats Initiative supports conservation projects where big cats live.
- Finally, together with Nat Geo WILD, the Big Cats Initiative spreads the word about the decline of big cats in the wild through an awareness campaign called Cause an Uproar.
So how can you help?
To make a one-time donation via credit card, you can click over to the website. You can also make a recurring donation.
You can also sign up to participate in the Build a Boma campaign. Every dollar raised will go directly toward building and maintaining livestock enclosures called "bomas" in Kenya and Tanzania. A boma costs only $500 to build and $25 a year to maintain. It's a proven way to decrease the killing of lions since protecting livestock from predation helps protect big cats from retaliatory killings. Donations to help build a bona can be one-time or recurring.
To find out more about the work of the organization, sign up to receive email updates here.
As always, you want to make sure that your donation is going to a qualified charitable organization. Like similar organizations, Big Cats Initiative can be found under an umbrella organization: in this case, it's the National Geographic Society. A search using the IRS’ Exempt Organizations Select Check reveals that National Geographic Society is on the list. To find out more about the Big Cats Initiative, check out their website, like them on Facebook or follow them on Twitter.
Remember: submissions to the 12 Days of Charitable Giving are made by readers and in most cases, I can’t personally vouch for the good work that these folks do. So be generous. But be smart. Do your homework.
For more on making charitable donations, check out this prior post.
For other charities in the series:
- Wounded Warrior Project
- PACT For Animals
- Family Hope Foundation
- Cops For Kids With Cancer
- Liberty's Promise
For information about 2015 tax rates, click here. For 2016 tax rates, click here.
