Inside Protect the Wild: why did we create the Protecting the Wild Equipment Fund?

To empower our supporters and front-line activists to protect wildlife.

All of us here at Protect the Wild are dedicated pro-wildlife activists, but as an organisation Protect the Wild has never claimed to be what might be termed ‘front-line’. Individually we get out and about rather more than many people might think, but at work we are necessarily largely office-based. We know how vital front-line activism is though, so we wanted to develop a way to provide support to the monitors, sabs, pixies, and ‘eyes in the field’ putting themselves between animals and the hunts, shoots, and cullers trying to kill them.

How might we do that? Many of those individuals or groups are volunteers, using their own vehicles and their own cameras etc. So not only are they putting themselves in harm’s way they are paying for the privilege too! That’s an unfair burden we could surely help lift a little…

Indeed we could, and that is where the Protecting the Wild Equipment Fund comes in.

Protect the Wild (and before it Keep the Ban, the organisation we developed from) has always supported groups, but on a somewhat ad hoc basis. It worked well, but we wanted something that would put our funding on a more formal (and regular) footing and which would lay the groundwork for longer-term relationships with all the groups we fund (we have big plans which we're looking to announce in the Spring).

We also - crucially - wanted to be as transparent as possible. We wanted to clearly explain the process of ‘collection and distribution’ to our supporters every step of the way.

Test flight for a drone provided to the Cheshire Independent Monitors

Substack - a gamechanger

While we were thinking about how best to set up and run the Equipment Fund we were also discussing a move onto Substack. A cross between a blogging platform and a newsletter service, Substack - we realised - would allow us to collect paid subscriptions which we could send straight into the Equipment Fund pot while telling supporters exactly what we were doing. In fact, we could even ask the groups we funded to write a few words for us that we could include in the very newsletters we sent out.

Now, Protect the Wild content has always been free to anyone who wants to access it. We want our ideas and messaging to reach as many people as possible and a paywall barrier has never been (and never will be) an option - especially when times are so hard economically. So how could we make paid subscriptions acceptable to our audience?

First, we would ensure that there was no requirement to take out a paid sub - it would always be up to our audience to make that choice, but the content would be accessible anyway. Secondly, we would ensure that it was affordable for as many people as possible - no starting rates set way out of reach. And thirdly, we would always explain how their subscriptions were being spent - no ‘black holes’ here!

The response has been fantastic.

A Roaming Sab with one of the four radios and bodycams we provided the group

Our pot is growing all the time, and in just a few short months our supporters have helped us send A bundle of kit to protect wildlife in Shropshire, get a Trail cam and night vision optics to Derbyshire, provide a Body cam for the wildlife heroes on Salisbury Plain, bought a video camera for Recording hunts across Yorkshire and Humberside, put a drone up over Cheshire, and donate to a wildlife hospital in East Yorkshire.

In fact, we’ve responded to requests from hunt monitors, wildlife protectors, and anti-badger cull groups from Somerset to North Yorkshire: we'd love to send equipment to Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and all parts between as well - give us time and we will!

Is this the best way to support groups?

We’ve been asked a few times (and seen the odd snipe on social media) whether it wouldn’t be simpler to give directly to the groups themselves?

That’s a fair question on the face of it, and the Protecting the Wild Equipment Fund is most definitely not meant in any way at all to replace donations someone might want to make to a favourite group.

Instead what we are looking to do is to aggregate a lot of donations in one place so everyone is contributing to a much larger pot than most people could afford to set aside on their own, and to ensure that the support we provide is targeted and goes exactly where it’s needed.

In practical terms, we’re taking the ‘guesswork’ out of giving. So we always speak in person with the groups we fund, we make sure that they’ll be getting the right equipment, and we make sure they know how to use it properly (and legally).

That's very important to us, and we know from feedback that it's very important to you too.

Video camera provided to York Anti-Hunt League

What next?

We're nothing if not ambitious (you have to be if you want to actually achieve anything), and we would love to be in a position to do even more. For example, many monitors drive hundreds of miles and fuel costs are astronomical these days - wouldn't it be great to fill up their fuel tanks at the start of each season? What if we could give a drone to every group that wanted one - they're expensive bits of kit but are wonderful tools for recording wildlife crime and wildlife persecution. What if we could give every wildlife rescue vital equipment to help protect and rehabilitate even more animals?

We can do more if we can reach more groups, so we intend - hopefully with your help - to reach out to as many groups as can next year. No one is too small (or too large). We could even build a network of groups so they know in advance that they will be funded…

Too big a pipe dream? We don't think so. Our tagline is ‘Empowering people to protect British wildlife’. We try to do that in as many ways as we can, but in the Protecting the Wild Equipment Fund we think we have found an ideal way to empower our supporters and those heroic front-line activists at the same time!

That’s ‘having an impact’ in action. Real animals being protected by real people. Of course we will dream big - and we don’t think you would have it any other way!

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Help us support activists on the ground!

Our content is free but if you choose to take out a paid subscription you’ll be helping activists on the ground take direct action to protect wildlife. Every penny we receive tops up our Equipment Fund to support those in the field. Our pot currently stands at £1100/month, can you help us reach our goal of £1,500/month?