How do you raise funds for over 5000 trees in less than 6 months?

You get creative!

Greenpop’s Trees for Zambia project in July will see over 5000 indigenous and fruit trees planted in and around Livingstone by school children, farmers, local businesses and volunteers. The trees are being grown at the Zambezi Nkuku nursery in Livingstone and others... but where do the funds come from for Greenpop to buy the trees, compost and other inputs?

Lauren O’Donnell from Greenpop says, “We have various fundraising campaigns happening; we’re approaching companies for corporate funding relating to carbon compensation, we’ve started a crowd funding campaign on IndieGoGo, we’re selling trees through our website... and last month, we started our Trees for Zambia Ambassador fundraising campaign, which is proving to be really exciting.”

The Trees for Zambia Ambassador fundraising campaign sees people from all over raising money for trees for Greenpop’s upcoming reforestation and eco-education project in Zambia, the country with one of the highest deforestation rates in the world. Twenty five Tree Ambassadors have already signed up and they are coming up with tree-mendous ways to raise trees, all the while competing to win a free trip to Zambia alongside several other cool prizes.

how it works:

Every helping hand and every tree counts – so everyone who wants to support the project at their own pace and budget can become a Tree Ambassador for Trees for Zambia. To sign up, ambassadors create an activist profile on GivenGain to raise funds for trees. They get their own online portal that feeds to Greenpop and can think up their own tree raising campaigns of any sort. With their individual URLs and projects for trees, they can see messages from their friends who’ve gifted trees and track their progress. Personal URLs can be shared through email and social media.

The possibilities of how to sell trees are endless. We proposed all kinds of ideas from corporate events and valentine’s gifts to parties and raffles but these suggestions turned out to be unnecessary – the ambassadors have come up with a host of their own creative ideas.

the competition

There’s a list of great prizes to add extra motivation to the ambassadors with the top prize being a free trip to the Trees for Zambia project for 3 weeks free of charge, where they’ll be a part of the tree planting, attend lectures from notable speakers, enjoy workshops, music, entertainment and lots more. Charlotte Brausepulver from Greenpop says, “This campaign has taken off so successfully, I am really amazed at the motivation our ambassadors have shown and all the creative ideas for tree raising. In the first week alone, they managed to raise 125 trees!”

the prizes

As an incentive to raise trees, Greenpop has arranged a list of prizes with first prize being a free trip to Zambia this July. The competition ends on 30 April 2012 and the ambassadors who have raised the most trees will be in line for these great prizes:

• A free trip to Zambia for our “Trees for Zambia” project from 1 to 21 July 2012
• A 2-night stay for two people at the 5-star POD Hotel in Camps Bay
• A 2-night stay for two people at Dongola Guest House with a bottle of Constantia Valley Wine
• RVCA hamper & a dinner for two at Royale
• Matblac Hamper & a dinner for two at Royale
• g-mo pair of handmade shoes & a dinner for two at Royale
• A case of Constantia Uitsig wine & a dinner for two at Royale
• A massage at En Masse
• BOS Ice Tea hamper

If any companies or individuals would like to add prizes to this awesome list. We are looking to inspire our ambassadors even more!
how they’re doing it:

Most of the ambassadors started by contacting their networks including all their friends, family, acquaintances, colleagues, former colleagues, friends' friends, family friends, and friends' family - and it worked! Viv Connell managed to get an old friend of hers in Canada who is the head teacher of a primary school to buy Valentine's trees for his school and the school gets the GPS coordinates of where their trees are growing! She is also going to establish a partnership between the Canadian school and a Zambian school that includes a pen-pal project and numerous fundraising ideas that the children in Canada will be running with the support of their teachers. Natalie Spires asked her friends to give her a trees for her birthday at the end of February and she’s also going to run half of the Two Oceans Marathon on Easter weekend to raise trees.

Lee Shacksnovis, who has sold 24 trees so far says, “I composed an email that I sent out to everyone I know and the response has been amazing” “It's quite fun asking people to donate money for trees. One just puts it out there and waits. And then you fall in love with the people who actually DO send a donation!” says Viv Connell, who has already raised 19 trees.