Donors

Bird City Wisconsin is a small organization that utilizes its extremely tight budget to achieve tremendous conservation success across the State of Wisconsin. Over the years, a number of organizations have provided funding for Bird City, but there is one that deserves special recognition because they have provided a greater percentage of Bird City's funding than other and they continue to be a great partner in everything that Bird City Wisconsin accomplishes: the Bird Protection Fund of the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin.

Bird City is also working to let people know that individual donations are important for allowing Bird City to continue its work. In particular, Bird City would like to recognize Laura DeGolier for her significant contribution to the program as well as Joel Trick for providing many of the incredible images featured throughout this site.

A heartfelt thank you goes to the following organizations from Bird City Wisconsin's staff and steering committee, Bird City residents, and, of course, the birds!

  • Arthur J. Donald Family Foundation

    The Arthur J. Donald Family Foundation provides general funding to help Bird City expand both the number of communities in the program and the resources that Bird City can offer to help local people improve the places where they live.

  • Bird Protection Fund (NRF)

    The Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin (NRF) supports Bird City Wisconsin through its Bird Protection Fund; Bird City has also been awarded funding through the Besadny Conservation Grant program. The Foundation's mission is to provide sustainable funding for Wisconsin’s most imperiled species and public lands, while helping citizens connect with our state’s unique natural places. NRF is a nonprofit 501c3 that was formed in 1986 as declining budgets severely compromised critical programs of Wisconsin’s Department of Natural Resources. With the support of our donors and members, the Foundation has boosted private sector investment and involvement for Wisconsin’s lands, waters and wildlife. After 30 years, the Foundation still serves this role and fills an important and unique conservation funding niche that no other organization does. We embrace the power of public-private partnerships. We recover species from the brink of extinction. And we continue to bring substantial financial resources and attention to priority projects of the DNR and other conservation partners. But we have grown to do so much more! The Foundation provides sustainable funding for Wisconsin’s most imperiled species and ecosystems, while helping citizens explore, care for, and protect our state’s natural resources.

  • Toyota Together Green

    TogetherGreen provided the initial start up funding that helped to both launch Bird City Wisconsin and ensure that the program made it through its first few years. In the spring of 2008, Toyota in the U.S., including TMA (Toyota Motor North America), and the National Audubon Society launched the "TogetherGreen" program with a shared belief that everyone must work together to confront environmental challenges for today and for the future. There are three components: 1) LeadGreen: A Conservation Fellowship program to recognize and nurture diverse individuals who will become environmental leaders who can serve as role models in the community, 2) GrowGreen: Innovation Grants to support creative projects that contribute to significant gains in habitat, water and energy conservation and engage diverse communities, and 3) GoGreen: Volunteer projects at sites across the country to create a call to action for real conservation impact in diverse communities.

  • We Energies Foundation

    The We Energies Foundation provided Bird City with the funding to complete a greatly-needed overhaul of its website. Since 1982, the We Energies Foundation (formerly Wisconsin Energy Foundation), which is funded by stockholders of WEC Energy Group, has contributed financial support for the activities of nonprofit, tax-exempt organizations in communities that are served by We Energies. The Foundation's mission is to create brighter futures for the communities in which we do business, enhancing the growth and success of our company as it strives to achieve positive community benefit and business value for each dollar invested. The We Energies Foundation's broad goals are: 1) to pursue a sustained, consistent approach to funding within our focus areas, better enabling the organizations to achieve lasting results, 2) to foster mutually beneficial relationships between We Energies and community organizations, and 3) to fully leverage company resources.