About
I believe that chronic under-funding is the greatest challenge to wildlife conservation in developing countries where most of the world’s biodiversity resides, but where government funding for environment is understandably limited. In many of these countries, like Kenya, DR Congo and Brazil, wildlife and habitats are being destroyed at unprecedented rates.
Unless we take decisive action, future generations will lose the worlds greatest reserves of biological wealth and diversity. Having spent a lifetime fighting poaching and habitat destruction, I am convinced that it is inadequate funding that is the major challenge that we must overcome in order to secure the world’s endangered species and wilderness places.
To achieve this, we have come up with a new approach to raising funds for conservation. Using the internet, we bring supporters and conservationists together through online diaries or blogs to enable individual donors around the world to communicate directly with the people that they are funding. This is what makes WildlifeDirect unique and I believe that by making these connections we are transforming the nature of charitable giving by enabling anyone anywhere to participate, while providing real time transparency and accountability.
Through WildlifeDirect we aim to reach a global community of people concerned with the survival of wildlife in Africa, and other tropical regions. The goal is simple, to support field conservation by enabling an enormous community of people around the world to learn about the challenges and support projects of their choice with just a little bit of money. We encourage our online community to support basic field costs through donations. From rangers’ boots to their food rations; from food for orphaned chimpanzees to purchasing patrol vehicles; you can give funds for anything that directly contributes towards conservation.
The beauty of it all is that the total donation, net only of bank fees, will go directly to the project that you donated to. These funds directed through WildlifeDirect reach a community of highly competent and professional conservationists on the ground in different parts of Africa and elsewhere making it one of the most cost effective mechanisms for funding conservation.
We started off in Africa where we have made great contributions towards protecting the gorillas in the Virunga National Park and towards addressing a funding crisis in the Masai Mara. In less than one year we have grown to over 80 blogs from around the world, making WildlifeDirect the largest and most important network of field conservation bloggers in the world.
My aim is to create a multi million person community of supporters that can respond to any conservation emergency anywhere swiftly and efficiently. I call this online community a virtual endowment, a vast community of people ready to respond when called upon in a time of crisis, for example to save a forest from being felled, a park from poachers, or a disease from wiping out the last mountain gorillas. Imagine the power of just one single dollar, if one million people each gave this amount!
Through WildilfeDirect I invite you to join me in this effort to secure the future of wildlife in Africa, Asia and elsewhere.
Dr. Richard Leakey
Chairman
To empower individuals and organizations to help save the worlds wild species
- How we begun
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Who's Who
- The Board
- The Team
- Our Mission Statement
- Who We Work With
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Handling Donations
- Balances and grants
- Transferring money
- Receipts and feedback
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100% of your donation, minus a small bank fee, will go to your intended purpose.
Donations made here are safe.
How we began 
The last four years has seen the massive growth of social networking on the internet. This is now a global phenomenon that is transforming the way people conduct their working and personal lives.
In 2004, a group of committed conservationists, led by Dr Richard Leakey, became convinced that the current developments on the internet provided the best opportunity for securing a future for wildlife: an approach that could harness the collective energy of countless good conservationists and combine it with millions of individuals around the world who have a genuine concern for the future of the planets wildlife and unique habitats. These people would connect through the internet to create a movement powerful enough to produce a virtual endowment capable of reversing the catastrophic loss of habitats and species.
WildlifeDirect was conceived as a non-profit conservation organization based in Kenya along the lines of an internet startup company. The organization was built to avoid the pitfalls of bureaucracy and crippling procedures of the public sector, to secure efficient conservation management in parks and reserves througout the world.
Who's who
The Board
Dr. Richard Leakey
Chairman
Internationally reknowned paleontologist and conservationist. Formerly Director of the National Museums of Kenya and the Kenya Wildlife Service, Secretary to the Cabinet and Head of Public Service, Kenya. Kenyan, residing in Nairobi.Bill Cleary
Marketing specialist, founder of CKS, instrumental in launch of leading web brands including Amazon.com, Yahoo and eBay. US citizen, residing in California.Francois-Xavier de Donnea
Parliamentarian and Minister of State. Former Belgian Minister of Defence, Minister for International Cooperation, Mayor of Brussels and President of the Brussels Region. Belgian, residing in Brussels.Craig Hatkoff
Philanthropist from New York City, he has co-founded the Tribeca Film Festival and the Tribeca Film Institute in 2002. He has also authored multiple children's books including Owen & Mzee: The True Story Of A Remarkable Friendship which describes the friendship between a tortoise and an orphaned hippopotamus in Kenya after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake.Richard de Mayo
Former Chief Executive of leading law firm and supporter of wildlife conservation in Africa. US citizen, based in Atlanta.Sami Mankoto Ma Mbaelele
Conservationist, Director of the UNESCO Man and Biosphere Programme, Former Director of the Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature (ICCN). Secretary General of the Great Apes Survival Programme (GRASP), and President of the Central African Network of Protected Areas (RAPAC). Congolese, residing in Paris.Harold Wackman
Secretary / Treasurer
Various senior roles in Africa with international donors, including World Bank Country Director, Kenya. Canadian, residing Washington, DC.The Team
Paula Kahumbu
CEO
Mary Muthomi
Senior Finance Officer
Masumi Gudka
Conservation Programmes
Joy Omulupi
Office Assistant
Isaac Kahugu
Helpdesk Assistant
Samuel Maina
Media and Communications
Our Mission Statements
- To give those who care about wildlife the opportunity to follow day-to-day activities on the ground, to provide support to initiatives of their choice and to read about the actual results that their donations have enabled.
- To give a voice to frontline conservationists through wildlifedirect.org.
Who We Work With
Conservation Partnership
These umbrella organizations work closely with WildlifeDirect to raise awarness and funds for important field conservation projects.
African Parks
Colobus Trust
East African Wildlife Society
Frankfurt Zoological Society
Gilman International Conservation
Gorilla Organisation
Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature
Lorika Foundation
Lukuru Wildlife Research Project
Mara Conservancy
The Institute for Environmental Security
Handling Donations
Two of the major challenges that we face are getting the donations to the people in the field as quickly as possible and making sure as much of that money gets into their hands and not taken up through numerous bank charges and transfer fees. The way we have manages to plan this is described below in a little more detail.
Getting money to where it's needed quickly is a challenge in itself. There are, as I'm sure you can imagine, a distinct lack of ATM's and banks can be very slow processing transfers, meaning that the money given can take a very long time to get there and in the event of an emergency may come too late.
To deal with this problem WildlifeDirect organize a balance that sits ready to be used by the bloggers. Once that balance has depleted, we then transfer another amount into that account having double checked that all the receipts are in order.
Some organizations are understandably too small to create a sizeable balance themselves. In this case we organize a grant so they too can get access to their donation money as quickly as possible. The advantage over this way is that bank transfer fees are also minimized, as transferring one bulk sum is much cheaper than many smaller transfers.
Transferring donations is a relatively simple affair. Money is given through PayPal and tagged with the information, who for, what for etc. Then, for speed and efficiency, the blogger is notified and can take that money from their balance (see above)
As a donor, you need to know that your money has gone for what you intended, and as this is a crucial part of WildlifeDirect, we pay special attention to this.
Once your money has gone through, you, and the blogger, will automatically be notified of transfer and its details. We also encourage bloggers (although normally not required) to then write on their blog.