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Donors are always wondering where their donations went and how charities use them so we decided here at CanadaHelps to find out. Join me today as I visit a charity and find out how they use your donation.
[Owen listening to Friends of Banff Park radio]
Let’s see where we are off today. Friends of Banff National Park - well, that will be very pretty.
I hope I don't get eaten by a bear. I’ll need my camping gear, though. Let's see what I got … it’s a good thing I keep this stuff under my desk.
Hat to keep the sun off … it gets chilly at night out there.
Maybe I'll make fiends with an elk. All right, off to Banff! Let’s see “Where Did It Go?”!
Friends of Banff was incorporated in May of 1990 with our charitable status.
Initially we started out with a very small store in the information centre. The idea was to sell books and maps to make enough money to fund our own programs.
We did really well with the money that we made through the retail.
The mission is to educate people about the natural and cultural heritage of the park.
We started learning more about different areas of need and services that weren’t covered by Parks Canada. And most of our funding for that was covered by our retail because our retail was proliferating and we were doing really well with it.
For us to use the retail as our main source of fundraising became something that was an impossibility. Then we started looking for other donors and partnerships and other ways of funding the programs that we were doing.
We’ve taken a lot of what Parks Canada is now doing, with doing the one on one. We are trying to stay ahead by doing technology interpretation.
What we look for in donations is for people to recognize the value in the programs we are doing. We are actually out there teaching youth programs that are really important to making strong environmental decisions.
Creating more of a level of acknowledgement so that people are more willing to give donations to programs. I think that’s very important for us.
The kids in the school system weren’t learning a lot about environmental education. There were no strong environmental education programs going on in schools.
So 12 years ago we started a program called Oikos. It’s also known as our Naturalist in Residence program.
Kids in the elementary schools are able to spend 6 weeks in the fall and 6 weeks in the spring going on field trips related to the curriculum they're studying.
They might be going to the Columbia Ice Fields and learning about water sheds, or climate change.
Today we watched a group of kids come out to this incredible viewpoint and see Mount Rundle and learn about geology, and how the mountains are formed, how rivers cut through the mountains, how the glaciers have impacted the mountains.
It gives a sense of acknowledgement about a place that we call home.
Friends organizations are really vital, I think that they’re important. I think it’s important to know that they operate in areas alongside of the government.
And that they both have similar mandates of wanting to protect the natural and cultural resources of the park. They can work hand in hand and side by side so one organization can do what the organization can’t.
And then they can have a symbiotic relationship that moves as they progress towards what their goals are.
Thanks for joining me to find out “Where Did It Go?” I hope you watch the next episode where we visit another great charity and find out how your donations help. Also, visit www.canadahelps.org and make your donation today.