Caring For Our Planet
Signature Programs That Care For Our Planet
At the heart of GreaterGood's mission to help people, pets, and the planet is a rich variety of effective, carefully-vetted charitable programs. Several of our Signature Programs focus on amplifying the good by caring for our planet.
When you click the “Click to Give” button on GreaterGood orThe Rainforest Site or play Games that Give and Trivia to Give, GreaterGood funds tree and seed planting and land conservation for habitats in need.
Learn more about all our signature programs that care for our planet below and how they are improving our environment. See updates from these important programs here.
Signature Programs
Tree Planting to Enrich Ecosystems
Trees help protect the environment and are one of our best tools in the fight against climate change. They store carbon, improve water and soil quality, and provide necessary habitat for many species. Deforestation for agriculture and development have taken many of these important plants from us. However, there are efforts to plant more to harness their superpowers.
We're contributing to such efforts in a variety of ways. Among them is an annual commitment to fund the planting of nearly 100,000 trees with the American Chestnut Foundation, PASA/Ngamba, and Forest for Monarchs. These organizations focus on planting trees to restore habitat, tackle the issue of greenhouse gas emissions, and improve forest health.
The American Chestnut Foundation aims to return that specific tree to its historic range. PASA is working to protect native primates by restoring trees to the Chimpanzee Sanctuary and Wildlife Conservation Trust in Uganda, an effort that was helped along by a Greater Good Charities grantto plant 240,000 seedlings. Forest for Monarchs, meanwhile, reforests lands within Monarch butterly habitat to help the struggling species.
We work with additional organizations that use your donations to plant trees. Based on the level that you'd like to contribute, you could help cover the cost of seeds, supplies related to each project, or getting volunteers to the site. To see the possible ways you can contribute,click here.
Habitat Protection
The Payunia Provincial Reserve in Argentina is home to the largest protected guanaco population within the species' range. Darwin's rheas, Andean condors, and pumas roam its lands, as well. The endangered Andean cat has even been making appearances in recent years. Unfortunately, livestock production leads to competition for precious resources on the reserve, as producers still have grazing rights there.
To minimize these conflicts, we teamed up with WCS Argentina to compensate retiring livestock producers for the resignation of their grazing rights in the reserve. With these resignations, the province has agreed to ban livestock on these lands, which are then incorporated into the preserved core area of the reserve. We're working to expand this action on additional lands in the area.
Limiting livestock has helped guanacos avoid competition over food and water and protected their breeding range. It's also helped save endangered Andean cats from retaliatory killings due to goat predation.
Over the years, our habitat preservation efforts have also extended to projects with the Rainforest Trust. We've contributed to their mission of purchasing rainforest land and developing new protected areas in the process. This has largely focused on endangered species habitat or areas with high biodiversity.
Conservation Expeditions
The Madrean Sky Islands, which run from southern Arizona and New Mexico to northern Mexico, are a unique ecosystem consisting of 57 mountains. The area has an exceptionally high level of biodiversity because it's the meeting place of four vastly different biological regions: the Sonoran Desert to the west, Rocky Mountains to the north, Sierra Madre Occidental from the south, and the Chihuahuan Desert to the east.
Though surrounded by grasslands and desert, the islands themselves are isolated, forested mountains with a variety of wildlife. At any given time, you could find migrating and resident pollinators like bats, bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds, as well as plenty of mammals. This special place faces challenges, however, and it's important to understand its inner workings to create the most effective conservation plans.
That's whereMadrean Discovery Expeditionscomes in. This program brings in scientists, students, photographers, and nature lovers from across the globe to record the region's plants and animals. All this information is made available in anopen-source database that everyone can access. The goal is to use these resources to preserve this ecosystem.
Of the 57 islands, 20 have already been documented. We hope to add on the other 37 in the future. To find out how you can help, click here.
Flower Planting to Save Bees & Other Wildlife
Much of the food on our dinner table each night is there thanks to pollinators like bees. That includes staples like berries, flowering vegetables, and nuts. Unfortunately, bee populations are declining, largely due to the loss of their main food source: pollen and nectar from flowers. This crisis has led to efforts to boost the food supply for these important insects, as well as other pollinators like butterflies and birds.
We have worked with several organizations to fund seed-planting projects that restore native flowers while feeding pollinators. The target areas are places impacted by natural disasters and those with struggling bee populations. With your contributions, we cover the cost of perennial and annual seeds, as well as the labor to get them in the ground.
Among the areas we've helped is the Madrean Sky Islands, where invasive species, landscape degradation, and drought have impacted plantlife. Planting native flowers has helped restore the landscape in this biologically diverse and unique ecosystem.
With one contribution, you can fund the planting of up to 500 square feet of flowers. Even 15 square feet can be covered with modest donations. Learn more about how to help here.
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As you can see, your actions can make a huge difference to our planet.
Remember to click daily at GreaterGood.com to continue to help with vital projects around the world. Together we change the world!
Updates From the Field
Protecting Monarch Butterfly Habitat
According to the Center for Biological Diversity, the monarch butterfly’s population has fallen 85% in just two decades. This is due in part to pesticides, climate change, habitat loss, and deforestation. Greater Good Charitiesrecently teamed upwith Forests for Monarchs, a program from La Cruz Habitat Protection Project, to help address monarch decline owing to habitat loss in central Mexico.
The Forests for Monarchs project provides tree seedlings to landowners and communities near the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve – a wintering location for millions of monarchs – and in the Highland Lakes Area in Michoacán, Mexico. The goal is to help protect the monarch’s wintering habitat by providing other trees to surrounding communities, which will also help improve soil quality, restore dried up streams, and create a sustainable livelihood through good forest stewardship.
The organization says, “Those directly affected by the deforestation of this land are both the monarch butterfly and the communities in this region. The monarchs face an uphill battle between pesticide used and commercial farming in the U.S., combined with habitat loss in Mexico, it means that every bit of old growth forest left is necessary to keep the monarch from extinction. The people of these communities are also affected by deforestation as their soil degrades, their clean water sources dry up and their land becomes too arid to farm.”
Restoring Pollinator Habitat in Florida
Greater Good Charities teamed up with Alaqua Animal Refuge in Freeport, Florida,to help plant wildflower seedson their new 100-acre facility to help bee populations impacted by 2018's Hurricane Michael. In addition to providing aid to area pollinators, the goal was to help restore the ecosystem.
Reporting back after the planting, the refuge said the new flowers have helped bring more color and nature to the area. They've also been a boon to native bees and other pollinators.
The refuge says, “Thank you for choosing Alaqua Animal Refuge to be the beneficiary of the Wildflower seed grant! We are enjoying the beauty of nature as we witness these seeds sprouting and bringing extra color and life to our property. We appreciate your generous donation and hope you know what a blessing it is to be part of saving the bees in our area.”
Planting Native Flowers in the Sky Islands
In 2021, GreaterGood teamed up with theBorderlands Restoration Network(BRN) to provide food for bees and other pollinators in the Madrean Sky Islands. This was all thanks to your generous donations.
Together, we planted two acres’ worth of flower seeds to help not only feed native pollinators, but also to promote a sustainable landscape and preserve biodiversity in this unique region. This was part of BRN's Native Plant Program, which helps restore the area’s native plants that have specific adaptations perfect for the region, including high nectar quantities.
Francesca Claverie, the Native Plant Program’s manager, says, "Pollinator species specifically rely on nectar from plants and as our landscape degrades and temperatures change, these plants aren’t found in as great abundance, and aren’t available for pollinators, with pollinators going hungry. Native plantings and seedings put appropriate species back on the landscape and in our restoration projects, making pollinator food an integral part of the ecological restoration process.”
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