Successful completion of 2022 Crowdfunding!
When we launched our crowdfunding campaign on Christmas Eve 2021 we were not entirely sure what to expect. Over the years we have received endless words of encouragement and appreciation. However, asking people to match that appreciation with financial contributions is something else, and past attempts to raise donations have not been as successful as we hoped. Nevertheless, believing in the value of our work, realising that we had little other funding options left, and counting on the generosity of the birdwatching community, we decided to set an ambitious goal: to raise 20.000EUR before the call for volunteers would be published. Now, we are very happy and proud to say that we did even better! We raised over 23.000EUR in a little over 3 months. Added to our reserves from 2021 means we currently have 28.840EUR to invest in raptor monitoring in Batumi. What a delight!
The whole crowdfunding endeavour has been hugely exciting to the BRC team. As soon as we published the crowdfunding campaign donations started streaming in, and by 29 Dec we had crossed the mark of 10.000EUR. This was probably the moment when many team members started to believe we could really reach our ambitious 20K target. By mid-February the counter stood at 16K. At that point the rate at which donations were coming did slow down a lot. Fortunately, however, we still had an ace up our sleeves...
Behind the scenes OSME had taken notice of our efforts, and kindly offered to match up to 2K in donations to help boost the crowdfunding. We cooked up a plan to launch a joint campaign on March 1st, the day that our 3rd and final spring count started (also funded by OSME btw!). A few days before that the war in Ukraine started. Nevertheless, we decided to stick to our plan. After all, and as we wrote before, projects like the BRC, where people from all creeds come together to work towards a common goal, and form friendships across cultural and national borders, are precisely what’s needed to help build a peaceful future in this crazy world.
The response to our joint campaign with OSME was amazing. By March 8th we hit the 20K target, and donations kept coming in even after that! Swarovski Optik pitched in with a donation of 1000EUR, and we were informed that around 2000EUR of donations had arrived to our project account at Natuurpunt, which facilitates tax-deductible donations for our Belgian supporters.
All together we now have 28.000EUR in reserves, plenty to fund the 2022 autumn count, and nearly half of the budget we’ll need for 2023. The enthusiastic response to our crowdfunding campaign has made us feel hugely supported by the international birdwatching community, and we hope we will be able to rely on that support in years to come. After all, and despite ongoing efforts to secure more structural funding, our monitoring work will continue to depend on your generous support for the foreseeable future.
That said, thanks to your support the immediate future looks bright, and we are excited we’ll be able to organise another outstanding count with many old-time counters and new volunteers next autumn. Didi madloba!
Donation Doubling Days!
Dear friends and followers of BRC,
Today – March 1st 2022 – marks the start of our 3rd and final spring count in Batumi. A historic day, which also marks the start of our final sprint to complete the crowdfunding for the BRC autumn count of 2022. Of course, it feels strange to make this announcement while Ukraine is suffering an invasion from the same aggressor that invaded Georgia during the summer of the first Batumi Raptor Count in 2008. However, it is precisely by celebrating our common values, such as the love for nature and birds, that we can create strong friendships across national and cultural borders, and build a more peaceful future.
Since we started our campaign late December, we have been fortunate to receive 192 donations totalling 17.200EUR. That means we are tantalisingly close to reaching our 20.000EUR target. Close … but no count just yet!
In order to help us reach our fundraising target, our long-time friends at the Ornithological Society of the Middle East, the Caucasus and Central Asia (OSME) now generously offered to match all donations made between March 1st – 15th, up to a total of 2000EUR!
In other words: by making a donation in the coming days, you can make every euro you donate count double! More than ever, now is the time to step up and support your favourite raptor migration project.
The BRC community already showed great strength by helping us get so far in our crowdfunding efforts. But we do need to reach the 20K target in order to continue our long-term raptor migration monitoring in Georgia – which offers a unique tool to monitor raptor populations in the East African-Eurasian flyway, and remains the backbone for all the other good work we do in Georgia. The sooner we reach our fundraising target, the sooner we can guarantee the autumn count for 2022, and the more energy and time we can invest in additional efforts to counter raptor persecution in Georgia.
Yours in raptor research and conservation, for the love of birds and people,
The Batumi Raptor Count team
Count Coordinators for Autumn 2022
We are still raising funds, but preparations for the BRC Autumn Count of 2022 have started. The count will run from the 12th of August until the 21st of October. We are searching for brave count coordinators to lead the team of raptor counters in one of the most magnificent bottlenecks in the world.
If you are interested in the position, please continue reading for more information and submit your application by the 31st of March.
PS. Applications to volunteer counter positions will be opened in April.