Earthwatch Institute Inc

Earthwatch’s mission is to engage people worldwide in scientific field research and education through citizen science in order to promote the understanding and action necessary for a sustainable environment. Through our expeditions, we aim to empower individuals and groups to take action to protect the planet, particularly educators, students, corporate professionals and conservationists who are in a position to achieve real impact.

We organize and assist research expeditions that are designed to inform decision makers and conserve wildlife and ecosystems. At the same time, we actively try involving local communities in the process when we can, not only because they will feel the impacts to a greater extent than any other stakeholder group, but because their input is crucial to successful policymaking.
Earthwatch has developed six High Level Goals (HLGs):

HLG 1: Increasing scientific knowledge
HLG 2: Developing environmental leaders
HLG 3: Enabling organizations to become more sustainable
HLG 4: Informing environmental policies, agendas and management plans
HLG 5: Enhancing natural and socio-cultural capital
HLG 6: Creating a financially sustainable organization

We have three main strategies for working towards a sustainable environment:

1. Research: We support scientific field research related to sustainable development both financially and logistically. Our Research Program tends to support and fund scientific endeavors that are typically difficult to fund, such as scientists in developing countries, women in science, and long-term monitoring projects. We send out our volunteers to assist scientists on these projects, providing organization and funding for these expeditions.
Earthwatch focuses on four key research areas: Ecosystem Services, Climate Change, Oceans, and Cultural Heritage. Together, these areas strive toward sustainability in their own capacities.

2. Education: Earthwatch’s Fellowship Programs allow hundreds of students, teachers, conservationists and corporate professionals to join expeditions at little or no out-of-pocket expense. These fellows act as emissaries of the Earthwatch mission, and share their experiences and knowledge with other students, teachers, and colleagues.
Earthwatch has made a concerted effort to train scientists in developing countries. Since 1995, we have trained over 1,000 scientists in over 40 different countries by giving them to partake in Earthwatch expeditions.
We also utilize our Corporate Partnerships to engage employees in fieldwork designed to increase their understanding of environmental and sustainability issues within the context of their organization in order to drive meaningful change.

3. Conservation: Earthwatch establishes strategic international and community partnerships to support multi-disciplinary research projects in some of the world’s outstanding areas of ecological and cultural value. We prioritize community-based conservation management not only because communities are most substantially impacted by management decisions and that their cooperation is crucial for environmental efforts to succeed, but because their knowledge and experience is essential for successful policymaking. Our Corporate Partnerships help us fund research projects relevant to our partners.

Volunteers
In 2011 alone, 3,153 volunteers joined Earthwatch expeditions. Since 1971, we have had nearly 100,000 volunteers contribute about 10 million hours of data collection, which immensely helps our scientists. This enormous amount of time and manpower has allowed us to conduct almost 1,400 research projects. Our reputation, track record, and marketing abilities allow us to improve our volunteer recruitment each year.

Funding
Earthwatch is incredibly efficient at utilizing our revenue and donations, with 84% of our budget going directly towards supporting research and engagement programs. We have a large revenue base that stems mostly from Volunteer Contributions, Grants, Corporate Partnerships and other donations. Our volunteers and corporate partnerships especially guarantee a secure stream of revenue. In 2011, our incoming resources totaled $9,612,909. As of the end of FY 2011, Earthwatch retained $5,127,072 in net assets.

Corporate Partnerships
Earthwatch maintains almost 40 corporate partnerships. These include many prominent corporate giants, most notably HSBC, our largest corporate partner. Our partnerships with HSBC have included the recent HSBC Water Program, Investing in Nature, and the HSBC Climate Partnership, which together have engaged thousands of HSBC employees and garnered over $100 million to be invested in these programs.

Global Reach
Earthwatch has operated in over 120 countries, with 8 offices in 7 different countries. In 2013 we have 52 expeditions planned or carried out in 29 different countries. We have relationships with international companies and scientific organizations that allow us a nearly limitless geographic range.

So far, Earthwatch has managed to create tremendous global impact in research, education, and conservation. Our progress is shown below based on our High Level Goals (HLGs):

HLG 1—Increasing scientific knowledge: We have recruited nearly 100,000 volunteers since 1971 to join our scientists in the field, who have collectively contributed about 10,000,000 hours of data collection. We are constantly producing peer-reviewed publications, popular publications and outreach events, such as articles published by our Meerkats of the Kalahari team and presentations made by our Whales and Dolphins of the Hebrides team.

HLG 2—Developing Environmental Leaders: Our fellowships program has sent out approximately 4,000 students and 5,000 educators on expeditions. Additionally, our corporate partnerships

HLG 3—Enabling organizations to become more sustainable: As of 2011, we maintain 276 partnerships, of which about 40 are corporate partnerships. We are constantly pushing new initiatives with our partners, and are optimistic of our ability to impact other organizations.

HLG 4—Informing environmental policies, agendas and management plans: In 2011 alone, we informed 47 environmental policies through our expeditions. This is an 11 policy increase from 2010. A fantastic example of this is when our Wildlife of the Mongolian Steppe team has used its research data to produce a management plan which was published, accepted, and implemented in 2007.

HLG 5—Enhancing natural and socio-cultural capital: In 2011 alone, our expeditions significantly enhanced or maintained 27 natural habitats and enhanced 24 taxa. The Coastal Ecology in the Bahamas team alone has focused on 6 different habitats and carried out restoration activities. In one habitat, they managed to conserve 93 acres of coastal sand beach by removing invasive species and restoring dunes.

Since Earthwatch’s founding we have sent out nearly 1,400 conservation research expeditions in over 120 countries. We have been able to provide experiences that not only help our scientists in the field, but inspire our volunteers, fellows, and corporate partners to go back home and create real change there.

With all this amazing research and results under our belt, we have not reached our potential as an organization. Although we have a substantial number of research projects being carried out annually, we would like to expand the number of projects we carry out and the number of countries we create an impact in. We need to become more aggressive at fundraising and increase operational efficiency. We'd also like to do a better job at informing the public of our successes through international media. We achieve incredible outcomes but we keep them a secret!