Press

May 8, 2001

Boston, MA - EcologyFund.com (www.EcologyFund.com) today announced that users of its Web site have made free donations that will protect over 10 square miles of rainforest and wilderness land in seven countries. EcologyFund is the largest click-to-donate wilderness site. EcologyFund totals shot past the 10 square mile mark (6400 acres) this morning.

EcologyFund protects more land than any other web site, and is the only click-to-donate site that offers projects in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Africa, Great Britain, and South America. Visitors to EcologyFund primarily raise funds by clicking on the "donate" button for each of the projects. The visitor then views a page of sponsor banner ads. Site sponsors pay a per-view fee each month to the individual non-profit land preservation groups. One hundred percent of the sponsors' payments go to EcologyFund's non-profit partners. Each visitor currently can save 208 square feet of rainforest and wild lands a day at no cost to them by clicking the donate buttons.

EcologyFund founder Tim Kunin described passing the ten mile mark as an important step. "We are making an impact in protecting wilderness habitats, but it is just the beginning. As you can see from the counter on the bottom of our home page, the amount of wilderness land per person is shrinking rapidly, and we need to redouble our efforts to increase traffic and sponsorships if we are going to protect the remaining wild places."

With the recent additions of "Reduce Pollution" and "Plant-a-Tree" pages, EcologyFund allows visitors to reduce their pollution footprint and lower the levels of the pollutants that cause global warming and acid rain. Planting trees in Mexico and the US also helps protect threatened wildlife (including the monarch butterfly) and return American chestnuts to US forests. When combined with bonuses for visiting sites, registering with sponsors, and doing Internet searches, users who visit the site daily and use all the features, can personally protect over an acre (43,560 square feet) of wilderness land each month.

Currently, the Rainforest Trust, and Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) both based in the U.K., the Wilderness Land Trust, The Wildlands Project, the Kentucky Natural Lands Trust, The American Chestnut Foundation, The Michoacan Monarch Fund and The Cascades Conservation Partnership (including the Sierra Club) all based in the U.S., Pronatura of Mexico, Fondo per la Terra of Italy, and the Nature Conservancy of Canada are official partners of EcologyFund and have projects benefiting from the site.

The greater the number of sponsors, the more land saved. EcologyFund is proud to currently have 10 site sponsors: Novica, CharityMall, Cafe Canopy, Yacumama Lodge, Arava Institute, PlanetSave, Hollowtop, WebReLeaf, Natsource, and Wine Accents. Both ENN and ENS are official EcologyFund partners. The Grist, EnergyGuide, AndEarth, JobSeeker, PlanetSave E-mail, and RedJellyfish.com are registration sponsors. Links to sponsor web sites can be accessed from the frame of all EcologyFund pages.

EcologyFund.com founder Tim Kunin is available for interviews: [email protected] or 781-461-6161.

PRESS CONTACT:
Jesse Ratcliffe, Publicity Director
EcologyFund.com
110 Bridge Street, Dedham, MA 02026
ph: 781-461-6161
fax: 781-461-6160
[email protected]

Ann Arbor Office: 734-213-7777