On Black Friday, Patagonia Action Works began a 5-week fundraising drive with a promise to match up to $10 million. It reached the goal in just 17 days.
Patagonia Action Works isn’t a typical nonprofit. It’s a match-making effort to connect individuals to grassroots organizations in their area doing on-the-ground work for the planet. And Patagonia screens and grants money to these organizations to further the good they’re doing in communities, ecosystems, and more.
Its recent promise to match up to $10 million in a donation drive over 5 weeks of the holiday season was cut short when it reached the goal in just 17 days. The match means $20 million for vetted nonprofit organizations.
“Thanks to Patagonia’s donation matching, we can launch environmental campaigns in up to five more countries next year, resulting in new laws that protect rivers, oceans, and forests,” said Grant Wilson, the Earth Law Center‘s executive director and directing attorney.
“We will also be able to train thousands more lawyers and judges on ecological-based legal movements that can save the planet. Patagonia’s impact is momentous.”
The grants will serve 1,043 nonprofits worldwide. And tens of thousands of individual donors put their money to work for these organizations.
“We’re energized by our community’s response,” said Lisa Pike Sheehy, a leader of Patagonia’s environmental activism team. “This is extraordinary generosity to some of the most deserving and underappreciated efforts to save the planet.”
