While the world deals with the evolving ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was decided to temporarily put on hold Mara Elephant Project’s overt fundraising efforts and focus on the task at hand, continuing to provide protection to the Mara’s wildlife and communities while taking into consideration the great long-term implications of the pandemic. Our aim over the last few months has been to provide our supporters with stories about the work that continues on the ground and bring interesting and informative posts onto your social media feed during a dark and difficult time in history. We appreciate everyone’s support big or small during this time, but we are especially grateful to core supporters for providing the stability our organization needs to focus on the task at hand.
In the first quarter, MEP received our monthly core grant payment from the Sidekick Foundation, the second annual installment of our core support grant from the Oak Foundation, the first installment of our three-year core support grant from the Angama Foundation and funding from the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust for our Mau ranger teams. MEP was also the proud recipient of the Shining World Compassion Award given by Supreme Master Ching Hai and the International Association which included a donation to MEP’s core operations. Additional core support came from the Van Maldaren Family, Elephant Cooperation, Creatura Wildlife Projects, Margy McCormick and Föreningen Försvara Elefanterna. Additionally, Valerie, Hanna, Cajza and Tressa supported MEP through their birthday fundraisers on Facebook. In total, MEP received $405,913 from foundations, organizations and individual supporters in the first quarter, which included those listed previously and 144 individuals who supported us through PayPal or sent us checks. We also had several large donations of seed balls from donors through Seedballs Kenya. Thank you to everyone that donated to MEP in the first quarter
MEP CEO Marc Goss photographed with the Shining World Compassion Award.
A YouTube Originals series Age of A.I. recently featured Mara Elephant Project’s Marc Goss, Dr. Jake Wall, Wilson Sairowua and rangers presented by Robert Downey Jr. Along with our partners from RESOLVE and Intel the episode demonstrates how TrailGuard AI anti-poaching system can stop poachers BEFORE they kill wildlife. Mara Elephant Project celebrated World Wildlife Day, and we thank Vulcan, Inc. for their support and feature. Finally, there were incredible entries in the first quarter of the 2020 Greatest Maasai Mara photo competition. Overall, 70 total entries in the first quarter benefitted MEP. Thank you to all of the photographers for your support!
An entry for January in the GMM photo competition by Gurcharan Roopra.
