2020 Fundraising Update
This year has, admittedly, been a bit rubbish (this may be an understatement). As a result since the UK went in to lockdown on March 23rd I’ve regularly been posting conservation and community fundraisers on my Instagram page. The response has been fantastic and I am truly touched by how many people got involved, donated and shared the efforts on their profiles.
The first aim was to raise money for Tusk in April. An online raffle offered people the chance to buy entires (£1 each) with the winner getting a framed copy of “Tira, The Spotted Zebra”.
Tira, a rare melanistic zebra, ‘spotted’ in the Masai Mara in 2019
When I drew the winner, George Buttler, he kindly called me to say he would like to donate the image to Odstock Hospital in Salisbury, UK. Whether he knew this or not, it just so happened to be the hospital I and my two sisters were born in and has looked after our family for the last 30 years. My amazing mother now repays this care by volunteering for the Stars Appeal, a charity raising crucial funding for cancer treatment facilities in the hospital. Particularly poignant as it was Odstock that successfully treated her for cancer in 2012.
The image will now hang in the children’s ward and is hands down my favourite location of any of my images. So a huge thank you to George and all who kindly donated.
One of the staff at Odstock Hospital with ‘Tira’, ready to go on the wall
My focus turned next to the Governors’ Camp Collection emergency food drive (with a similar idea as that for Tusk). This time the funds went to supporting the local communities around our safari camps in Kenya and Rwanda. Providing those families worse effected by the pandemic with food and hygiene products each month. Once the travel ban was lifted to Kenya I was able to return on August 1st and see first hand the packages be delivered - a humbling experience for so many reasons.
Most recently my attention has been on the outrageously successful Prints for Wildlife campaign that raised a staggering amount for African Parks Network. 120 of the worlds best photographers (and well, me) donated images that were printed in limited edition runs of 50 and sold at $100 each. After my first sold out in a few days (raising $5,000) I donated a second which to my great surprise did the same (another $5,000) and finally a third which raised a subsequent ($1,900). The entire campaign raised just over $660,000 in a month and the funds will be put to fantastic use by APN.
I do feel an element of guilt permanently asking you all to support these causes, especially in a year where so many of us have had to drastically tighten purse strings. However, I’m unbelievably proud to announce that in the last 6 months my images, through your support, have raised $17,453 (£13,174) for the 3 charities.
The three images donated to Prints for Wildlife, selling 50, 19 and 50 copies (from left to right)
A large part of this was down to the epic effort of the Prints for Wildlife campaign, but given I took up photography full time* at the beginning of last year, nothing has given me more joy in my (short) career so far. An enormous thank you to everyone who has bought prints, donated and shared the updates over the last few months. It means so much. I’ve got a few plans to try and take that total past $20,000 for the year, but I’ll sit on those for now. Until then, I can’t thank you all enough!
- full time might be an exaggeration - I still spend up to 3 months a year labouring so that I can afford to keep travelling and taking photos. I just didn’t think this would look as good on the Instagram account..!
Fundraising breakdown: Tusk (17.5%), GCC Food Drive (13%) and African Parks Network (69.5%)
A young Maasai woman carrying her emergency food supply home