Nikela: Looking Back - Looking Forward

LOOKING BACK at 2010

NIKELA was born in April 2010 after I asked myself the question, “What would I regret most if I died tomorrow?” And the surprising answer was not having done anything for the wildlife of South Africa. It wasn’t long after getting started that Russ also joined NIKELA’s ranks fulltime. He couldn't resist developing the "educating kids" part of our mission. 

NIKELA’s Mission:

To find and qualify experts, certifying their wildlife conservation and education projects.

To invite donors to choose and give monthly to the projects that appeal to them most.

To fund the experts who protect the wildlife and educate the children to find their place in wildlife conservation or ecotourism .

2010 was a blur of getting organized and rolling: 

From deciding on a unique name to filing as a nonprofit

From researching what’s happening to the wildlife to outlining our vision and mission

From setting aside initial funding to identifying a business model

The highlight of NIKELA’s first year:

Our wildlife conservation tour in South Africa to meet with amazing, dedicated and tenacious people like: 

• Ian and Michelle who run a bush school worth duplicating
• Will and his team of leopard research specialists
• Karin absolutely immersed in the expert on human primate conflict resolution
• Ben and Shannon who operate Africa’s primary raptor rescue and sanctuary.
• Tony a unique combination of conservationist and businessman
• Rodger and Natasha zealous aboutt setting aside wilderness areas in South Africa
• And the list goes on.

All in all we chatted with close to 100 people in the conservation, education and ordinary citizen community. We learned about wildlife conservation from so many different points of view: rescue, rehab, research, habitat and sanctuary.

We learned that two primary things are needed:

1. Funding so people like the experts we met can expand their reach to protect the wildlife
2. Funding to formalize the ideas and experience into effective education programs nationwide to inspire the next generation to take their place in wildlife conservation

On coming home in late October we faced more than expected challenges with the website and IRS tax exempt filing. After hiring a new web guy things got rolling and we got some projects posted a few days before Christmas. We ended the year financially disappointed, but not dissuaded.

A small success is snow balling:

One excellent academic contact led to an entire Enviro Club experiencing Shannon’s Raptor Flight demonstration and tour of the Sanctuary. This small project led to the Superintendent of the Imbali schools inviting us to present a proposal to introduce our Celebrate Wildlife curriculum in the schools.

Though skeptical at first, we are now believers in Social Media Marketing:

We ended the year with a very satisfactory social media presence, especially on Twitter, reaching 3,000 followers on December 24th.

  

      Via social media we:

• Found Frank our photographer from the Netherlands
• Got introduced to two professors in KZN (South Africa) willing to help with our educational efforts
• Made a direct connection to a large retailer in the USA,
• Got invited to participate in a huge across Africa expedition, “In the Tracks of Giants”.

As you can see NIKELA is a real team effort, growing towards the community of people who care we envision it to be.

For 2010 special thanks must go to our partners who donate their time or reduce their fees because they believe in NIKELA:

• Michael with M3NewMedia is our social media marketing wizard
• Jim with Blue Dove Designs is our WordPress expert driving the website
• Sand with Capture Ur Life Photography creates our eye catching videos
• Frank from Frank Van Egmond Photography gets great shots at some of our projects
• Noah with DonationPay provides our donation solution so your gift is processed securely
• Mihai is our online fundraising consultant whose expertise we’re just starting to tap into
• Liz Williams is our trusty CPA
• Robert Harris our IT expert with Austin Digital
• Joi with Zappy Springs Photography donated our headshots used for the web and promotions

LOOKING AHEAD at 2011

Based on the ups and downs of our first few months we are calibrating and scheming. Here are our plans thus far:

• Stay the course with our social media marketing
• Get an on the ground fundraiser and grant writer involved
• Step up our online fundraising with the help of an online fundraising expert
• Limit our project offerings for the first half of the year to 5 or 6 so that we can go into much greater depth to promote each one...  

They include: 

• Leopard research
• Rescue / rehab
• Bush school sponsorship
• Celebrate Wildlife pilot
• Community outreach
• Anti-Poaching (rhino in particular)

• Focus heavily on getting the Celebrate Wildlife curriculum in place with the help of the rapidly expanding team on the ground in KZN. Funding the pilot will be a crucial focus (more details of this coming soon)
• Find academia experts to endorse our work
• Find celebrity who can get excited about our cause
• Increase number of “Stories from Africa” presentations to groups, clubs, associations (feel free to refer us to friends or colleagues in the Central Texas area)
• Plan our ‘annual’ SA wildlife conservation sites tour for later this year or early 2012
• Invite people like you to Get Involved via donating time, expertise, money and in any creative way you’d like to help the African wildlife and the kids learn to do their part.

visit http://www.nikela.org/ our official website 



Photo by Frank http://www.fvemedia.com/