Grant Making Information Meeting October 6th

Have you been intrigued by the idea of engaged group philanthropy but don't know how you can participate?  Come find out on October 6, 2009, from 5-6:30 PM at the Sustainable Path Office.  You'll learn about our grant making process and ways in which you might take part.  Please RSVP to Nora at (206) 443-8464 or by email if you'd like to attend. 

A Win-Win with Citizen Science Programs

A well run, scientifically rigorous citizen science program certainly seems like a win-win situation.  Professional scientists receive valuable assistance that otherwise might not be affordable, while volunteers gain knowledge, learn new skills, and have the satisfaction of contributing to a worthy endeavor. 

Through our grants program this year, Sustainable Path Foundation is proud to sponsor two excellent citizen science projects, one from Seattle Audubon Society, the other from Reef Environmental Education Foundation.  Both utilize volunteers to survey wildlife in the Puget Sound region.

On the first Saturday of each month (Oct-Apr) bird-watching enthusiasts gather data for Seattle Audubon Society's Puget Sound Seabird Survey.  These trained volunteers observe and count seabirds at over 50 sites in the Puget Sound region, from Penn Cove on Whidbey Island to Olympia's waterfront in the South Sound.  This extremely popular program will begin its third season next month.  There are still a few volunteers spots open, and the volunteer training is next week.  

Likewise, REEF taps into the passions of volunteers, amateur SCUBA divers, with its Volunteer Survey Project in the Pacific Northwest.  To increase levels of expertise, REEF offers free training classes in fish and marine invertebrate identification and survey techniques to volunteer divers.  REEF collects the data from the volunteer surveys and after analysis makes them available to scientists, marine conservation organizations and other interested parties.

Citizen Science is the Next Idea Club Topic

Does the concept of citizen science interest you?  Perhaps you've been a participant in a citizen science project.  Join us at the next Idea Club on September 28th for a discussion of this topic.  This month, Phil Mitchell from 2People will share insights gleaned from his work with citizen science projects.  In the past, Sustainable Path has funded 2People's Climate Dialogues Project and is currently funding the Earth Portal project, a collaboration between 2People and the Pacific Science Center. 

All with an interest are welcome.  As usual, it will be held from 5 to 7 PM at the Sustainable Path Foundation office suite.

  An Interesting and Invigorating Idea Club

We discussed Sustainable Urban Farms at the Idea Club in August. It was very well attended by a lot of people who had a strong background in urban farms, as well as many who simply grow their own vegetables. The conversation was particularly wide-ranging, covering food in people's backyards to growing agriculture in high-rise buildings.

The expertise and interest was dazzling, as was recognition of the problems to be faced. It was a real joy to watch a roomful of strangers come together for an intense dialogue about a difficult problem. It exemplified the systems thinking approach that Sustainable Path Foundation is attempting to foster.

Walking the Walk with Socially Responsible Investing (SRI)

Although Sustainable Path Foundation is a public charity and must raise money in order to support our programming, we do have a small reserve fund.  Since it is important to the Foundation to be as sustainable as possible, our assets are invested for good through Socially Responsible Investments at Newground Social Investment, with oversight by the Sustainable Path board.

The Social Investment Forum, the national professional organization for SRI, defines socially responsible investing as "the channeling of personal, community, or workplace capital toward just, peaceful, healthy, environmentally sound purposes and away from destructive uses."  Therefore both money management and investment decisions are made according to ethical criteria. This type of investing is generally considered as a form of social action.

Board member, Lowell Ericsson, made the followng observation:

"I have been pleasantly surprised how well SRI funds have done during the global financial crisis, both during the down swing and now apparently in the upswing. Many SRI fund managers have commented on how SRI funds initially minimize poor financial and unethical decisions and have thus avoided the worst outcomes of the present recession. Let's hope that Sustainable Path's investments maintain the highest ethical standards and that by doing Good we also do Well."