What is the impact of your donation?

Staff Time

While most of our organization is made up of dedicated volunteers, we have two very important professional positions that keep us a well-oiled machine! Our AmeriCorps member (serving through Washington Service Corps) and our program coordinator/Extension educator (serving through WSU Extension) work as a team to ensure that all of our operations are running smoothly. The largest portion of our budget goes toward paying for this professional time — which includes mentoring a new generation of environmental professionals through the AmeriCorps program.

Our professionals manage and coordinate all our events, classes, educational resources, volunteers, external communications/websites, and more! When you make a donation when taking one of our classes, that contribution goes directly to offsetting the costs of bringing you a great learning experience! When you make a general donation, that contribution goes toward supporting all the educational and action projects we undertake each year!

Nursery & Work Truck Expenses

Our organization operates a small but mighty native and water-wise nursery, directly supporting thousands of individual projects throughout our region that are planting for native wildlife and to improve water quality and conserve water quantity. Our nursery also grows hard-to-find plants for green stormwater projects (such as rain gardens), ecological restoration projects, and beneficial demonstration hedgerows for local agricultural providers.

Keeping our plants happy and healthy is no small expense: soil mixes, plant stock and seeds, tool upkeep, organic fertilizer, plant tags, and more are all important to keep our nursery functional. Our nursery and plant-salvage operations are supported by two older work vehicles that require upkeep and maintenance throughout the year.

Online Infrastructure

Between our website, document maintenance, metric tracking, and email services, keeping our online resources up to date and our communications regular can cost a pretty penny! Multiple systems of online infrastructure are a necessity for successful non-profit operations.

Volunteer Gear, Tools & Outreach

We have a large volunteer base, and we like to ensure everyone is able to participate, whether they are new to us or not! We maintain (and replace) a large inventory of hand tools of various types; and communal gear, such as gloves, rain gear, knee pads, and more, to ensure everyone has the gear they need to help us carry out our on-the-ground projects. We also have expenses related to marketing and supplies for educational and outreach events, such as new tents, tables, displays, etc. The small things that you may not think about are often the ones that add up the most!