Wonder

Research Proposal

Prepared for Gavin B. | Delivered November 9, 2020

Individual Waterfowl Conservation Contributors

Goals

The goal is to compile a list of individuals who donate/contribute to supporting wetlands and waterfowl. After the list is built, further information needs to be provided as a basic profile of each potential donor.

Early Findings

Our research appeared to be fruitless, and an additional half-hour of research was given to eventually yield a membership list of donors to the Audubon Nature Institue. This provides us with a better and clear research path to narrow down the requested information.
RESEARCH PATHTo begin, we sought out websites specific to waterfowl conservation in hopes of finding conservation or donation pages that would provide us with a list of the top contributors. Initially, the Waterbird Society looked promising and in the end did not include any actual donor names. Failing this approach, we expanded to wetlands, and then to bird conservation in general. In the end, this path proved futile and we had to readjust our course. 

The next path involved searching out specific conservation agencies and looking for lists of donors to them. We again attempted Audubon's website looking for a potential list of donors but did not prove successful. We included in our search Wildlife.org and Duck's Unlimited and, in a rather desperate attempt, waterfowl hunting websites in the hopes of finding those who are interested in preserving the habitat of waterfowl.

We also tried to locate specific state and smaller chapters of conservation agencies. Included in this research strategy were governmental agencies and programs that support waterfowl and wetland conservation. The thought here is that if we could isolate some names of advocates, then we could potentially link them to donations to other agencies. This research path, while intensive, did not yield the desired results.
Donor / Patron List UnearthedNot wanting to give up on this research, we attempted one final push for the desired information. At last, we were able to locate a list of patrons and contributors to the Audubon Nature Institute through their 2018 annual report. We did not have the time to review the entire list to see if waterfowl or bird conservationists were included/broken out in the donor list.
ResourcesThe following is a sampling of the resources we checked while conducting the initial research and is not an exhaustive list.
The Bird Conservation Alliance lists 220 organizations that support it financially but does not provide the names of individuals who donate.
 Audubon provides a donation page and a monthly giving page, but neither provides a list of supporters.
The Audubon year-end report does not provide a donor list.
The Denver chapter of Audubon does not provide a list of contributors.
 Finanicial records for Audubon chapters only provide information on the employees and not individual donors.
The EPA included resources for the protection of waterfowl, but the "joint ventures" were always with organizations and not individuals.
An attempt to find journals associated with waterfowl conservation was successful; however, finding donors was not.

Prepared By

Stan R.

1946 assignments | 5.0