We decided to do a Thanksgiveaway instead of a Black Friday sale this year. Part of the festivities include donating $1500 on “Giving Tuesday” that will be split between a few of the following charities that we’ve carefully vetted.
Then we let our online communities vote for which cause they most wanted us to support.
This page includes information and links to learn more about each charity in the running.
UPDATE: This event took place when Fern CX was still known as “Customer Delight Team,” so you’ll see that name show up on the images below. We’re not taking credit for someone else’s efforts, we simply rebranded in 2024.
And the winners were…
Native American Rights Fund is our Grand Prize winner of a $1000 donation!
Native American rights won by a landslide 50% of the votes, showing that our community is very passionate about giving back to the people who continue to protect nature. I hope our donation can help strengthen this cause and raise awareness.
The 2nd most voted-for cause was almost a tie with 25% of the votes going to wildlife protection and 24% of the votes going to clean water and planting trees. So we added a plot twist to the Thanksgiveaway and donated to both causes.
As promised, we split the 2nd place donation of $500 between Rainforest Action Network and Center for Biological Diversity as our wildlife protection winners. Both charities had donation matching on Giving Tuesday so our donations of $250 each became $500 each. Win-win!
And we donated an extra $500, split between Trees For The Future and Alaska Wilderness League. Trees For The Future had a dollar for dollar match going on so our $250 donation became $500. And Alaska Wilderness League had triple matching for Giving Tuesday, so our $250 donation became $750 total! What a treat!
In the end, we donated $2000 to Native American rights, wildlife protection, and planting trees. After donation matching it came to $3250 of impact for making the world a better place.
THANK YOU to our wonderful community and everyone who participated!! You made this possible with all your engagement and support all year long!
Click a title to jump to a specific section:
Rainforest Action Network
Center for Biological Diversity
Trees For The Future
Native American Rights Fund
Waterkeeper Alliance
How to enter our Giving Tuesday Thanksgiveaway 2022
Rainforest Action Network
Links to learn more:
“We use people power to challenge business as usual, and we win.”
~ Rainforest Action Network
RAN is one of my all-time favorite nonprofit organizations since I first discovered them in college in the early 90’s.
Back when we got their daily missives via fax and pagers were the norm.
RAN runs an efficient and effective machine that fights for climate change, social justice, indigenous rights, and corporate responsibility.
They’re A-rated on Charity Watch (a charity watchdog group), their top 3 officials make less than $200k/year, and they use the rest to go up against some of the world’s most recognizable brands.
✊ When you want to fight the power, but you’re too busy making that scrill, Rainforest Action Network will make sure your donations count.
They’ll also keep you up to date on rallies and protests happening near you, for those times when you want your voice to be heard.
As they like to say, “We are a global network that supports and works closely with frontline communities.”
My kind of people!
And all donations made between today and Tuesday (Giving Tuesday, Nov 29, 2022) will be MATCHED dollar for dollar.
So whether you can only give $1 or $1000, RAN is a solid investment.
Rainforest Action Network website
Center for Biological Diversity
Links to learn more:
Center for Biological Diversity website
Charity Watch assessment
1% For The Planet Profile
“Take Action” page ~ Whether or not you can afford to donate anything at this time, please check out all the ways you can take action to protect wildlife and wild spaces on their “Take Action” page.
“We want those who come after us to inherit a world where the wild is still alive.”
Center for Biological Diversity
I have to say, I genuinely enjoy following the Center. They’re a consistent source of delight for their customers and it really keeps them top of mind whenever I’m building one of these lists.
And I can say from personal experience that the reason they spend more on overhead than most of the charities on this list (16% according to Charity Watch) is because they send free gifts in the mail (calendars I actually hang on my office wall, stickers, and the like).
And if I didn’t actually use the things they send, I’d tell them to stop. But every touch point brightens my day. Maybe that makes me a bad environmentalist, because I know I don’t need those things to love them and donate to them.
But I truly appreciate when they alert me to changes in legislation that affects the wolves I love so much, or how we’re currently experiencing the worst spate of species die-offs since the loss of the dinosaurs.
But more importantly, it’s incredibly effective!
Edward Humes described the Center For Biological Diversity in his book, “Eco Barons: The New Heroes of Environmental Activism” (or, in hardback, “Eco Barons: The Dreamers, Schemers and Millionaires Who Are Saving Our Planet”) like this:
“[The Center’s] unparalleled success rate has quietly transformed the American landscape, safeguarding hundreds of millions of acres of wilderness. The center has taken down off-roaders and off-shore oil drillers, developers, and Detroit automakers, wolf haters and condor killers, and an entire alphabet soup of government agencies from Washington state to Washington, D.C., and as far away as Okinawa. The Center for Biological Diversity has fashioned itself into the most effective environmental organization you’ve never heard of, routinely outperforming the better-known and more moneyed conservation organizations in exposing corruption and official lawbreaking, then bending local governments, multinational corporations, and even presidents to its leaders’ will. . . . It’s no exaggeration to say that the modern American environmental movement has been reinvented by the center.”
So if you’re the type of person who wants news like this to be delivered in a way that feels like there’s actually something you can do about it (instead of yet another stressful headline), then the Center for Biological Diversity is the charity you’ve been looking for!
Trees For The Future
Links to learn more:
“You can’t buy change, but you can plant it.”
Trees For The Future
TFTF does so much more than just plant trees.
Their work in farming communities is breaking the cycle of poverty and environmental destruction that affects the entire planet.
Without farms, we’d all starve.
But farms are also one of the top causes of deforestation in the world!
Most farmers cut all the trees down to make room for acres and acres of crops.
Instead, Trees For The Future is training farmers and rebuilding farms that embrace trees instead of clearing them.
The result is a sustainable and equitable food system, economically thriving farming communities, and a positive impact on climate change.
So when we “plant a tree for every new customer (and 2 for referrals!)” one of the ways we do that is by sponsoring trees to be planted by Trees For The Future. And those tree-loving farms are helping to end world hunger and poverty.
And yes, reforesting the planet too!
Click the links above to learn more about Trees For The Future and consider adding them to your donation cycle.
Native American Rights Fund
Links to learn more:
NARF Website
Charity Watch assessment
1% For The Planet Profile
“The Native American Rights Fund (NARF) holds governments accountable. We fight to protect Native American rights, resources, and lifeways through litigation, legal advocacy, and legal expertise.”
Native American rights are near and dear to my heart, not only because many of us live (and work) on stolen land, but also because most of the time you see indigenous people in the news it’s because they’re standing up to another evil corporation who wants to destroy the environment.
Indigenous peoples’ rights are both a social justice issue and an environmental issue.
The world doesn’t need another oil pipeline or telescope, no matter how high gas prices get.
We need to reverse climate change so that the next 7 generations have a place to live on this planet.
And indigenous people have been at the front lines of this issue for thousands of years.
So it seems fitting for the Native American Rights Fund to be a major contender for our Giving Tuesday donation.
Our ancestors have done a lot of damage, both to the people and the planet. It’s our messy job as descendents to clean up as much as possible and heal those wounds.
In addition to supporting a staff of more than 20 attorneys who handle more than 60 major cases at any given time, NARF’s physical offices are also leading the way towards environmental sustainability and corporate responsibility. (Check out their website for more info about that.)
Waterkeeper Alliance
Links to learn more:
Waterkeeper Alliance Website
Charity Watch assessment
1% For The Planet Profile
“Our goal is drinkable, fishable, swimmable water everywhere.”
Waterkeeper Alliance is on a mission to clean up the world’s water sources ~ from oceans to tap water and everything in between.
And their main tactic is to hold the polluters responsible.
💪 My kind of people!
They’re A+ rated on Charity Watch and only 9% of donations are spent on overhead costs (things like direct mail & keeping the lights on in their offices). That number is so small it blows my mind! 🤯
“When a coal company discharges millions of gallons of toxic coal ash into a river, families who depend on that waterway as a drinking-water source are the innocent victims. When a developer demolishes a forest of mangroves, it destroys fisheries and devastates the local economy. When hog farms dump untreated waste into a waterway, people and marine life get sick. These are just a few examples of the battles that Waterkeeper Alliance fights every day around the world on behalf of the common good to protect everyone’s right to clean water.”
Waterkeeper Alliance has a movement of more than 300 groups that patrol and protect more than 2.5 MILLION square miles of rivers, lakes, & coasts around the world.
“Whether they’re on the water tracking down polluters, in courtrooms enforcing environmental laws, advocating in town meetings or teaching in classrooms, Waterkeepers speak for the waters they defend—with the collective strength of Waterkeeper Alliance and the backing of their local communities.”
I hope you’ll be as inspired by this as I’ve been and add them to your donations cycle! Truly a worthy investment (and counts towards your 1% For The Planet donations too!)
How To Enter To Win Our 2022 Thanksgiveaway
Note: This giveaway has ended.
Update: this event took place in 2022 when Fern CX was known as “Customer Delight Team.” So the links and info below are no longer active, but we kept them in place for historical purposes.
Pop over to our Instagram page and cast your vote on that day’s story poll between now and Monday.
The same poll will be posted daily until Monday November 28, 2022.
It only takes one minute to cast your vote and make a difference!
So please, tell your friends, share the story, and let’s come together to make the world a better place!
The fine print:
(You don’t have to be a business owner to cast your vote, but you do have to have a public-facing business with an existing Thank You page to win the bundle. Everyone is welcome to answer the poll though!)
On Tuesday, we’ll randomly select one person from everyone who votes on any of the polls and reach out to that person to make sure they’re able to use/benefit from the Customer Delight bundle:
- One done-for-you Thank You page revamp that turns buyers into brand champions (Regular price = $800)
- 100 free tickets to 2 (new, currently unavailable to the public) Customer Delight products for winner’s inner circle of biz buddies (Regular price = $44 each, $4400 total)
We’ll also randomly select 100 biz owners from the same list of voters and each of them will also get a free ticket to those 2 new, currently unavailable Customer Delight digital products. (More info about the products is coming soon in a separate post.)
That’s 101 ways to win!
We’ll notify all winners via Instagram DM between Nov 29 and Dec 2, 2022.
The grand prize Thank You Page makeover will take place in January 2023.
The workshops will be available in January 2023 and the winners will have free access to them (and any upgrades to those specific programs) for the lifetime of the workshops (you’ll have access until we discontinue them, but at this time we have no plans to discontinue them or take them down.)
And all you have to do to enter to win your own Customer Delights is answer any of the polls between now and Tuesday November 29, 2022 in our Instagram stories: Customer Delight Team on Instagram
