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Fundraising Letter

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Conservation Program Letter

ENVELOPE TEASER:

Help us create jobs and protect wildlife in Costa Rica. Find out how inside.

LETTER:

Catching wildlife for zoos, universities, and laboratories is not easy or safe. The death rate among the animals is high (citation). The work can be dangerous too. The mere process of traipsing through the forest trying to collect animals can cause unnecessary environmental destruction. Things don’t have to be that way. However, the animals gotten this way do have a ready market.

People who need those animals for various purposes would happily buy them from captive breeding programs if that option existed. Well, it does! Captive breeding is a great way to generate income for indigenous peoples who have few ecologically sustainable ways to generate an income.

This is what we want to do with the money I’m asking you for today.

Starting a business in rural Costa Rica isn’t easy. But, many people who live there and want to preserve their local cultures also want opportunities to improve their lives. They don’t want to rely on handouts or persist in extreme poverty to preserve their way of life.

As the sponsors of a project that addresses this challenge, we need your help to help the BriBri. Almost all of the money we raise with this letter will go directly to the Green Jungle project.

This sort of program is one outcome of the now-immature project of the Florida International Teaching Zoo (specific project name). But that’s not all we plan to do in Costa Rica.

The local participants in this project, the BriBri, are one of the last indigenous groups in Costa Rica. The BriBri currently live on three small reservations in the Talamanca mountains, in southern Costa Rica.

We have one urgent need and others a bit less pressing, but still important. First, the urgent need. We want to send A BriBri man named Jairo to the 2009 World Congress of Anthropology in Chiapas, Mexico.

Why is Jairo important and why does he need to get to this World Congress? Jairo is a future leader of the Kachabari village, so that makes the educational opportunity represented by this Congress of great importance to his village. Jairo will learn how to participate more effectively in Costa Rican government, how to stand up for the tribe’s rights, and how to help his people lift themselves out of poverty.

That makes his trip seem like a worthy venture. And that trip is only one small part of the picture. Green Jungle is creating a comprehensive economic development project. That project would be the captive breeding program mentioned earlier. We want to see BriBri families earn income from the program while protecting wildlife and the ecosystem in their part of Costa Rica.

There’s more! We also plan to establish a biological research station, living quarters for volunteers, and eco-tourism trails.

With Jairo’s trip coming up, the captive breeding program, and the other projects there is a lot of work to be done in the coming months. That’s why we’d appreciate hearing from you soon. The sooner we make our fundraising goal of $25,000 the sooner these important projects can move forward. We at Green Jungle are sure you’ll feel like the money is well spent and your contribution has really helped people. You must be interested in helping or you probably wouldn’t have read this far.

I hope you’ll take a few minutes to fill out and return the gift reply card now.

Best Regards,

 

Tom Snyder

 

If you need to know more before deciding to donate, you can check out our project at www.greenjungle.org. There’s a donation page on that site.

REPLY CARD COPY

I want to help create jobs and conserve wildlife in Costa Rica!

Please select a comfortable donation amount:

$35 ____ $50 ____ $75 ____ Another amount: $_____

Make your check payable to Florida International Teaching Zoo. You can also pay by credit card by submitting your information here:

Name on Card: ___________________________________________________________

Credit Card Number: _______________________ Expiration Date: _________________

Type of Card: __Visa __ MasterCard __ Discover

You can detach this section for your records:

Donation Amount: $____ Date: ___/___/_____

Organization: Florida International Teaching Zoo

Chester Davis * 3105 Naylor Road SE #202 * Washington, DC * 20020