Rethinking Science and Conservation Funding

A movement is afoot.  

Science funding has been stagnant from governments around the world, and this has had a dramatic impact in the world as we know it. In fact, we are experiencing this impact, right now.   

Beyond the impact that lack of science funding can have on our day-to-day lives, there are few foundations able to make large-scale, long-term commitments to ecological and conservation funding.

As you can expect, this often leaves small conservation organizations and laboratories spending more time finding and writing grants than on the actual science and action. They are effectively spinning their wheels, without truly being able to get anywhere. 

Having long-term funding, especially in the fiscal environment we see today, is critical to keeping pressure on to restore and better understand the organisms in oceans, lakes, and rivers. 

And this is why, as a collective, we aim to do something different.

By partnering directly with organizations and labs that study and restore vital ecological systems, we can foment a spirit of long-term stability and funding. This, in turn, can be leveraged for other funding opportunities, making it easier to get the work done. 

And this is where you come in. 

Every time you buy a bag of coffee from Upwell Coffee, we donate funds to support these small and vital research and conservation organizations. You buy the coffee you would drink anyways, and we allocate some of the funds from your purchase to bring about change.

You may be asking (though we doubt it), why coffee?

Well, it is a part of everyday life. We love it, and our colleagues often joke that it is our silent collaborator. Because it is something we consume every day, and our customers order as a subscription, we are able to spread our donations out over the year to allow for a consistent funding stream for our partners. This consistent and predictable funding is imperative. I have been in the situation where all I needed was $5k for some equipment or some chemical reagents to make a project happen and this is why this model is so powerful. With targeted funding, those relatively low-cost projects happen. Then we have more information available for decisions about species and ecological communities; information we would not have had otherwise.

Thank you for being the motor at the core of this movement. Please follow the excellent work our research and conservation partners are doing through their respective social media channels. We found it compelling to support them, and we think you will too.

Thanks for your support.

Dr. Dave Hudson