A million dollars is a lot of money, I know. But if you stop to think about the costs associated with NOT taking action to reverse climate change, maybe it is not so expensive, after all.
Our first milestone to reverse climate change
Today CCPP met a milestone! I got its first official donation. The Evaluation Capacity Development Group, a 501(c)3 organisation, dissolved itself and transferred its remaining assets to CCPP.
Before working for a UN agency, I managed evaluations for the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. When I separated from Kellogg, I started an evaluation consulting business called Programme Planning and Evaluation. I also started a non-profit organisation called the Evaluation Capacity Development Group.
Our strategy
The strategy was that by having a business AND a non-profit, I could diversify my revenue streams: I could accept contracts to conduct evaluations and I could receive grants to help organisations to develop their evaluation capacity.
When I retire, I want to devote my full attention to reversing climate change. Therefore, we are dissolving ECDG and the remaining assets of US$1,132.65 will go to CCPP. I think that it will take about US$1,000,000 to get CCPP up and running. This means that we only have to raise another US$998,867.35.
How will we spend USD 1 million?
On what will we spend a million bucks? First, we want to build a solar powered, multi-functional building where the Permaculture Incubator Program (PIP) trainees will clean, process and store the produce from their 2-acre plots.
We need to construct a high fence around all five, 2-acre plots or the deer will devour the trainees’ gardens in one night. A gravel road must be constructed from the multi-functional building to the county road.
We will have to buy lots of organic compost, a soil amendment, to repair the soil that has been degraded from years of traditional agriculture (before we bought the farm). Lastly, we will need to buy a couple of BCS two-wheeled tractors and implements for the trainees to share.
For its part, Russon Family Farms will construct a barndominium on top of an old stone foundation, sometimes referred to as a Michigan foundation, to house the trainees (which will probably be a quarter of a mil) as well as taking 10-acres of farmland out of production for the PIP plots.
Final thoughts
We believe that USD 1 million will provide CCPP with enough funding to realize all the projects it set out to do in the hopes of reversing climate change.
If you have any funding ideas, please share them with me at info@climatechangepermacultureproject.org I look forward to hearing from you.
