INDIVIDUALS

Individuals concerned about Australia’s environmental degradation can help the rapidly-developing but under-resourced conservation movement in many ways.

For example, all of The Thomas Foundation’s conservation partners welcome financial support, and also have programs where you can give practical support.

Financial support can be given as single or monthly donations that are tax deductible.

Bequests can take many forms, including specific amounts of money, a specific gift of property, or a percentage of your estate. Such bequests may be capital gains tax exempt.

Employers or employees may initiate workplace giving. Under such arrangements, donations may be collected by regular direct payroll deductions from individuals, consolidated where there are like-minded people in the same business, and then forwarded by your employer to your selected conservation beneficiary. For employers, such workplace giving may involve matching donations (or better). Tax exemptions may apply to both.

Our partner conservation organisations generally operate volunteer programs where individuals can assist in a wide variety of activities. These may range from field activities to office support.

To see how you can be involved, The Thomas Foundation recommends you visit one of the following sites for information of ways in which you can provide financial or practical support:

The Nature Conservancy (www.tnc.org)
The Australia Wildlife Conservancy (www.awc.org.au)
Bush Heritage Australia (www.bushheritage.org.au)

The Trust for Nature (www.trustfornature.org.au)

Greening Australia (www.greeningaustralia.org.au)

The Thomas Foundation does not have the administrative resources to administer the collection, consolidation and distribution of donations.

Rather, to raise new funds for conservation it works with the established conservation organisations. For example, The David Thomas Challenge pledged to give $10 million of its own funds to conservation projects, provided matching grants from individuals or other foundations were identified. The Nature Conservancy took the lead in this process, co-ordinating matching donations and funding applications from other conservation bodies. The response and process has been outstandingly successful.