Edge Pledge TV Ep 32

The weekly Edge Pledge update is here. Welcome to Edge Pledge TV episode 32 where we take you deep into the world of a wildlife-fundraising platform and we unpack all we are doing as we try to end extinction with you and have some laughs along the way.

1. 50/50 progress We have over 20 schools signed up for the pilot in March this year. Scouts Australia are very interested as well as groups who focus on getting kids out and enjoying the environment

We are developing our communication documents so we can easily explain how this 50/50 program works.

I was speaking with our web developer yesterday who says that the layout and flow of the 50/50 concept is nearly done.

The way it will work is that kids, teachers and parents do a challenge, and 50% of funds go to the school and 50% to local wildlife projects. We have a kids challenge generator so we can find age appropriate challenges for the students easily and we are supplying a years worth of environment-focused curriculum to schools that sign up.

What schools need to do to sign up - Basically they just need to get comfortable with how this will work, think about how they can integrate it into their programs. Then we sign a fundraising agreement that our environment partners have all signed, setup a payment gateway so all funds go straight to them, load up their school on our system and it's all ready to go.

1. Isaac Busuttil interview Isaac, who is our 9-year-old 50/50 ambassador, interviewed me just before Christmas. He is developing an interview series with environmental champions across Australia and the world. So it was an honour to be interviewed.

We are now working to head hunt all the best people for him to interview. We are so confident that the is going to be a big leader in the environment over the next 10-20 years. Imagine being able to create videos at his age like he gets to!

1. 2018 Plans Here are some thoughts on what we would love to achieve in 2018 with your support:
2. A successful 50/50 pilot in March with a minimum of 20 schools
3. We roll out 50/50 across Australia with hundreds of schools
4. We have a handful of corporates participating in challenges
5. We get all of the Zoos across Australia on board
6. Our third challenge season in September (with a focus on schools)
7. Employ a staff member half time would be awesome
8. 10 more environment organisations on board
9. 200 people taking on challenges
10. $100,000 raised

11. 10 more wildlife we support

12. 2017 Review
    Here are some of the things we achieved in 2017:

13. Started these weekly updates which we have loved

14. 2nd challenge season

15. Did a Facebook Live Launch for the 2nd season

16. 1654 donors

17. 250 challenges

18. $55,000 raised since we launched

19. Reviewed how we are going to re-assess our approach

20. We got Landcare Australia on board

21. Landcare gave us a grant

22. Devised the 50/50 program

23. We have Julian on board working to launch 50/50