For four years, Lake Baikal Foundation has been helping scientists study the Baikal seal using non-invasive methods (those that do not threaten the animal’s life). The amount of research support from 2018 to 2021 exceeded 8 million rubles. Using the example of fundraising for the continuation of the project in 2021, we decided to show who and in which ways helps us to study the only mammal of Lake Baikal and do research to determine the well-being of the population, which is not covered by budget funding.
This year we are conducting genetic research. In total, the Foundation has received 1.5 million rubles for the study of the Baikal seal to date. The sources of donations for these studies can be divided into three groups.
- First, it is the support from the public on fundraising platforms. The collection of funds for reagents and consumables was carried out through the platform of the «Nuzhna Pomosch» Foundation. Also, thanks to the initiative of the «Code of Good» Foundation and Raiffeisen Bank, its employees learned about the project to study the Baikal endemic and supported its research on the eve of the New Year.
- Secondly, it is a charity fair in support of seal research projects, which was organized by the Wunderpark International School in April this year. The event was not only charitable, but also educational — experts and employees of the Foundation held a series of lectures for children, answering questions about marine mammals and talking about the importance of the seal for the Baikal ecosystem.
- And finally, these are regular donations from corporate trustees, our reliable partners. So, for the fourth year in a row, the «World Around You» Foundation of Siberian Wellness Corporation has been helping us to implement the project on the study of the Baikal seal, whose contribution to the development of the project cannot be overestimated. The key to the success of any project is its systematic support. If we did not have trustees who finance the statutory activities of the Foundation, we would not have been able to initiate cooperation with the IEE of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2018 and allocate a grant for the creation of a Program for the Study of the Baikal seal for 2020-2025. Statutory contributions to the Foundation help us to develop projects, to seek funding for them in the future, to monitor the results, to evaluate the effectiveness, to develop cooperation with experts. Unfortunately, such work is difficult to conduct without system support, because raising of funds on platforms or corporate support mostly cover the direct costs of projects and do not allow us to plan system changes.
Tu sum up the above, we would like to emphasize that Lake Baikal Foundation does not have a single source of funding that easily covers all the costs of a particular project. Each new grant from the Foundation, which we are happy to send to the beneficiaries, is the result of the systematic and painstaking work of all employees, multiplied by the total contribution of all our supporters. After all, only by joining forces, we can achieve more!
We take this opportunity to express our gratitude to the research scientists who participated in the interviews for the media platform «Takie dela» from the «Nuzhna Pomosch» Foundation, journalists and photographers from «Takie dela» who prepared amazing materials based on the results of communication with scientists, curators of the «Nuzhna Pomosch» Foundation and «Code of Good» Foundation, who were always in touch and gave us valuable advice for organizing the fundraising, the staff of the Wunderpark International School for organizing a charity fair, as well as parents and students of the School who supported our project.