Every year, the Glacier Conservancy’s park store team selects a project in need of funding to be the focus of their add-on donation engagement efforts.
Throughout the busy summer season, the park store staff create meaningful connections with visitors that translate into donations at the cash register, simply by asking customers if they would like to make a donation to the park in addition to their purchase.
Making A Lasting Impact for Glacier
This year, the park store team rose to the occasion, initially raising over $100,000 and selecting to fund the Native America Speaks program in 2022.
For nearly 40 years, the Native America Speaks program has provided an opportunity for tribal community members to share their cultural stories and perspectives. Glacier National Park is situated between the Blackfeet and Flathead Reservations, and the Native America Speaks program is the cornerstone of the park’s tribal community engagement project.
Native America Speaks would also not be possible without support from the P.D. Jackson Family Foundation, who provided an additional generous donation for the Native America Speaks program in 2022.
Spending a summer in Glacier National Park has its perks, too.
Then by the end of September this year, the park store team had raised over $150,000 in total add-on donations, giving them an additional opportunity to choose another project to fully fund in Glacier.
They selected a research project that will study nutrient threats to Lake McDonald next summer. Currently, Lake McDonald’s water chemistry is not routinely sampled and tested, but when samples were collected in 2018, researchers made a concerning observation. Compared to samples taken three decades earlier, nitrogen levels were up to three times higher, and phosphorus levels were up to 12 times higher. The study will be a collaborative effort with the NPS and University of Montana’s Flathead Lake Biological Station and will involve creating a long-term monitoring and mitigation plan.
Your Support Makes A Difference
Now that the Conservancy’s park store team has well exceeded their fundraising goals, any further add-on donations that the Conservancy receives in park stores will be used to match donations received from this season’s direct mail fundraising campaigns. These donations will be allocated toward wherever funding is needed most in 2022.
We thank this outstanding retail team, our generous partners, and all the donors who added on a donation to their purchase this summer. This demonstrates how small donations at the register truly add up and make a difference for important projects throughout the park.
Learn more about how your support is making a variety of critical projects possible in Glacier National Park!
