RMGA Grows. Mountain Goats and Members Both Win.
November 25, 2020
Since our inception, RMGA has been carried on the backs of our membership and volunteers. Corporate partners like Stone Glacier and Crispi volunteered to lift us up from time to time, but sponsors were not actively recruited in the early years of RMGA. Here's a little insight into the sponsorship program and what it means to you and the growth of RMGA conservation efforts.
By Ross Bruno
Since our inception, RMGA has been carried on the backs of our membership and volunteers. Corporate partners like Stone Glacier and Crispi volunteered to lift us up from time to time, but sponsors were not actively recruited in the early years of RMGA.
In summer of 2020, we realized that corporate sponsors were needed help us to take our conservation efforts to new heights. We began formal efforts toward developing a sponsorship program. Today, RMGA members and volunteers are still the backbone of our backcountry projects, but recruiting corporate partners will allow us to do more.
As members, we’d like to give you a little insight into the sponsorship program and what it means to you and the growth of RMGA conservation efforts.
Conservation
In recent years, your RMGA Board and Conservation Committee members have led the organization toward larger and more impactful projects. We have forged relationships with wildlife agencies that see RMGA as a trusted partner and are welcoming RMGA to assist with their projects more frequently. We anticipate that in 2021 RMGA will have personnel and volunteers assisting with relocation projects, manning vet stations and leading goat surveys across the West.
With more ambitious projects and demands on RMGA resources, we needed to take some of the weight off the backs of our members. Corporate partners are a way to do this, and are especially important during a year like 2020 when pandemic challenges impact RMGA and other non-profits.
We embarked on this new effort in 2020 with only a partial year to work with – and the partners responded immediately. For 2020, we were joined by Yeti, onX, Stone Glacier, Crispi, Weatherby, MTN OPS, Leupold, Scheels and First Lite. And the 2021 list is already more impressive.
These partners are coming to the table with funds that will allow RMGA to purchase tracking collars and assist with mortality studies, assist on-site with relocation projects, and more.
Opportunities for Members
Just like the rest of us, our partners also have to be discriminating about cash contributions. For that reason, they also contribute products to RMGA that the Alliance can convert to conservation funds. This means great things for you as members.
Next year, RMGA and our partners will be bringing you the first-ever RMGA gear auction – bringing you some of the best gear and serving a great cause. Our auction pool is still coming together, but if you’ll allow us to tease it a little bit… we’ll be offering RMGA team members’ favorite gear picks for alpine expeditions, a custom RMGA rifle, state of the art optics for viewing goats in the most remote country, camp comforts and much more.
Stay on the lookout for more announcements about the upcoming auction and, when you get the chance, thank the sponsors that are helping the Rocky Mountain Goat Alliance do great things.