PLATINUM2022

PERCEPTION INTERNATIONAL

Promoting biodiversity, cultural diversity and perceptual diversity worldwide

El Prado, NM   |  http://www.perceptionintl.org

Mission

PERCEPTION INTERNATIONAL promotes biodiversity, cultural diversity and perceptual diversity through storytelling. We believe that the loss of perceptual diversity, cultural diversity and biodiversity are interrelated. Perception International manages innovative projects that allow storytellers to speak out and be heard. Our storytellers use a variety of media and other creative art forms to share their stories, such as journalism, creative writing, photography, video, podcasts, and art.

Ruling year info

2001

President

Dr Tara Waters Lumpkin

Main address

PO Box 2160

El Prado, NM 87529 USA

Show more contact info

Formerly known as

Perception Inc

EIN

22-3713906

NTEE code info

Media, Communications Organizations (A30)

Natural Resource Conservation and Protection (C30)

Anthropology, Sociology (V21)

IRS filing requirement

This organization is required to file an IRS Form 990-N.

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Communication

Programs and results

What we aim to solve

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

PERCEPTION INTERNATIONAL promotes biodiversity, cultural diversity and perceptual diversity through storytelling and archiving photos and film. We believe that perceptual diversity, cultural diversity and biodiversity are interrelated. When one area decreases, the other areas also decrease. When one area increase, the other area increases. There is a direct correlation. Our non-profit’s goal is to educate the public about this issue, to help them share their different perspectives via creative writing, media, film, and the arts, and to document the myriad of perceptions via archiving photos and films from the past.

Our programs

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?

Voices for Biodiversity

Voices for Biodiversity builds a diverse story-sharing community to save biodiversity.

Voices for Biodiversity expands the reach of grassroots voices speaking out on behalf of biodiversity. We do this by encouraging storytellers to find their individual voices and by helping them craft and edit their stories about nature and other species for publication. After mentoring, we publish their stories on our multimedia platform, which amplifies their voices and highlights their grassroots efforts. In addition, we also provide our storytellers and readers with the opportunity to connect with each other and the public through our robust social media.

Population(s) Served
Adults
Children and youth
Ethnic and racial groups

Global Diversity Film Project documents the myriad modes of perception in cultures worldwide, both traditional and innovative.

GDFP documents the myriad modes of perception in cultures worldwide, both traditional and innovative. We learn from indigenous peoples and cutting-edge thinkers, creators, and doers who live and work on the ever-shifting borders between science and spirituality. Through creative visual media, we seek understanding, compassion, connection, and integration between ideas and lifeways that may appear to be in conflict or even opposition. We explore possibilities for bridging worlds based on varying perceptions—human-to-human, human-animal interspecies communication, and human-to-ecosystem relationships.

Population(s) Served
Adults
Children and youth
Ethnic and racial groups

Where we work

Awards

Anthropology in Media Award 2014

American Anthropological Association

First Place for Best Website by a Nonprofit Organization 2015

New Mexico Press Women

First Place for Best Website by a Nonprofit Ogranization 2015

National Federation of Press Women

First Place for Best Website by a Nonprofit Organization 2016

New Mexico Press Women

Honorable Mention for Best Website by a Nonprofit Ogranization 2016

National Federation of Press Women

Best Music Video 2016

Moondance Film Festival, Boulder, CO

Second place in At-Large Contest for "Banding Florida’s Snowy Plovers," by Erika Zambello 2017

National Federation of Press Women

First Place for Best Website by a Nonprofit Organization 2018

New Mexico Press Women

Honorable Mention for Best Website by a Nonprofit Ogranization 2018

National Federation of Press Women

First Place for Best Website by a Nonprofit Organization 2019

New Mexico Press Women

Environmental Activism in Film Award 2019

Taos Environmental Film Festival

Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius Award 2019

UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability

First Place for Best Website by a Nonprofit Organization 2020

New Mexico Press Women

First place in Green/Environmental category for "Protecting the Arctic Refuge," by Debra Denker 2020

New Mexico Press Women

Honorable Mention for Best Website by a Nonprofit Ogranization 2020

National Federation of Press Women

Second place in Green/Environmental category for "Protecting the Arctic Refuge," by Debra Denker 2020

National Federation of Press Women

First Place for Best Website by a Nonprofit Organization 2021

New Mexico Press Women

Honorable Mention for a Photo Essay 2021

National Federation of Press Women

Honorable Mention for Best Green/Environmental Article 2021

New Mexico Press Women

Third Place for Best Website by a Nonprofit Organization 2021

National Federation of Press Women

First Place for Best Website by a Nonprofit Organization 2022

New Mexico Press Women

Third Place for Best Website by a Nonprofit Organization 2022

National Federation of Press Women

Our results

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.

Number of accolades/recognition received from third-party organizations

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Related Program

Voices for Biodiversity

Type of Metric

Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues

Direction of Success

Holding steady

Number of volunteers

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Related Program

Voices for Biodiversity

Type of Metric

Input - describing resources we use

Direction of Success

Holding steady

Number of press articles published

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Related Program

Voices for Biodiversity

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Holding steady

Our Sustainable Development Goals

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.

Goals & Strategy

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.

Charting impact

Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.

The project Voices for Biodiversity’s goals are to:
• Mentor people to create stories about their relationships with nature and other species;
• Encourage non-experts, people of color, women and other individuals who are not regularly heard, to publish their stories on our multimedia platform, and to be heard,
• Reduce “speciesism” and encourage respect by humankind for nature and other species.

Global Diversity Film Project’s goals are to:
• Use the medium of filmmaking to seek understanding, compassion, connection, and integration between ideas and varied lifeways that may appear to be in conflict or even opposition. The project explores possibilities for bridging worlds based on varying perceptions, whether they be human-to-human, human-animal interspecies communication, or human to ecosystem relationships.

We use storytelling to teach people, in a fun way, to explore different ways that they as individuals can help save biodiversity.

We document and archive older photos and film from and about people and places, which serve to illustrate perceptual, cultural, and biological diversity, that has now been lost.

Our management team has a background in media, communication, and international development work. As a small organization, our team is creative, quick and agile and able to think outside the box.

Since 2009 we have helped people learn to express themselves and find their voices, create their stories, and have published those stories. We have won numerous journalism and anthropology awards for out groundbreaking grassroots work. In addition we have been collating old anthropological photos and film footage and offering it to the public to use for free.

Our projects:

Voices for Biodiversity began in 2009. Now this global community storytelling project has expanded from articles to include multimedia (photos, videos and podcasts), articles in Spanish and French, and has added the categories of fiction, essays, and poetry. We plan on continuing to search out people from around the globe to share their stories about biodiversity and nature.

Global Diversity Film Project began in 2009. It has successfully produced films that have been shown at film festivals around the world and many of the films have won prestigious awards.

How we listen

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.

done We shared information about our current feedback practices.

  • Who are the people you serve with your mission?

    Storytellers from all walks of life and from around the globe give our project Voices for Biodiversity feedback on how well we mentor them to help them create stories to save biodiversity.

  • How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?

    To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals

  • What significant change resulted from feedback?

    For the Voices for Biodiversity project, we added publication in Spanish and French languages to our storytelling. And we added translation from Spanish and French into English for those who only speak English. In addition, we added new content categories to our website: fiction, essays, poetry.

  • Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?

    We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback, We ask the people who gave us feedback how well they think we responded

  • What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?

    We don't have any major challenges to collecting feedback

Financials

PERCEPTION INTERNATIONAL
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Operations

The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.

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Connect with nonprofit leaders

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  • Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
  • Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
  • Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations

Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.

PERCEPTION INTERNATIONAL

Board of directors
as of 01/12/2023
SOURCE: Self-reported by organization
Board chair

Dr. Tara Lumpkin

Perception International

Term: 2001 -

Phillip Gibbs

Consultant, Writer

Tara Lumpkin

Voices for Biodiversity

Debra Denker

Global Diversity Film Project

Board leadership practices

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.

  • Board orientation and education
    Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes
  • CEO oversight
    Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Not applicable
  • Ethics and transparency
    Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Not applicable
  • Board composition
    Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes
  • Board performance
    Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes

Organizational demographics

SOURCE: Self-reported; last updated 1/11/2023
info Candid has made improvements to the race and ethnicity options.

Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.

Leadership

The organization's leader identifies as:

Race & ethnicity
White/Caucasian/European
Gender identity
Female, Not transgender (cisgender)
Sexual orientation
Heterosexual or straight
Disability status
Person with a disability

Race & ethnicity

Gender identity

 

Sexual orientation

Disability

We do not display disability information for organizations with fewer than 15 staff.

Equity strategies

Last updated: 01/11/2023

GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more

Data
  • We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
  • We ask team members to identify racial disparities in their programs and / or portfolios.
  • We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
  • We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
  • We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
  • We disaggregate data by demographics, including race, in every policy and program measured.
  • We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
Policies and processes
  • We use a vetting process to identify vendors and partners that share our commitment to race equity.
  • We have a promotion process that anticipates and mitigates implicit and explicit biases about people of color serving in leadership positions.
  • We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
  • We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
  • We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
  • We measure and then disaggregate job satisfaction and retention data by race, function, level, and/or team.
  • We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.