A heart warming thought for a cold winter day.
When the Friends of Scotchman Peaks Wilderness formed as a group almost 5 years ago we decided at the start that we wanted to be different from many organizations. We choose, very deliberately, to not require donations to be a member. Heck, we didn’t even want the psychological barrier of having to “join” something limit people from becoming supporters so we tossed out the word and the concept of membership.
All that we ask to become a “Friend” is that someone support the concept of wilderness for the Scotchmans. There’s no other obligation, requirement, action needed. There’s no donation required, no forms need be fill out. We don’t send out renewal notices or require anything ever be done again. We believe in “Friends for life”!
Occasionally things occur which validate that this approach is working. One of those things happened recently. We received a handwritten note from a retiree from a small town in our area who expressed their strong support for our cause but were on a very limited, fixed income and could not contribute. They included their address to make sure they would get our newsletter. We are very grateful for these kind of supporters and have contacted this person to make sure they feel very welcome. These are the kind of people who are unable to join “traditional groups” and whose voice is then lost to many a good cause. These are the kind of supporters who have swelled our ranks. These are the kind of supporters we want more of.
We know our method is working since we are now have a bit over 2,700 “Friends” as supporters, certainly a strong voice for our communities! And, the interesting thing is we have more voluntary donors among those supporters than we likely would have had if we restricted our group to “membership” and relied on membership fees. So, if you know someone who would support the Scotchmans as Wilderness and who is not already receiving our newsletter (via email of postal service) then ask them to support us by signing up as a friend and receiving our newsletter. It’s as simple as going to our newsletter page – it’s free to subscribe:
