Use Twitter to Save Bumblebees

The Bumblebee Conservation Trust was established because of serious concerns about the ‘plight of the bumblebee’. In the last 80 years our bumblebee populations have crashed. Two species have become nationally extinct and several others have declined dramatically. Our mission is to increase the number and distribution of bumblebees.

It is well-known that bumblebees are great pollinators, and therefore have a key role in producing much of the food that we eat. Through the pollination of many commercial crops such as tomatoes, peas, apples and strawberries, insects are estimated to contribute over £600 million per annum to the UK economy (2015), and in doing so prop up the £108 billion per-year food and drink industry in Britain. Across the EU, insect pollinators are estimated to contribute €14.2 billion annually to the EU economy (2012). If bumblebee and other insect pollinator declines continue, the extremely high cost of pollinating these plants by other means could significantly increase the cost of fruit and vegetables (hand-pollinating British crops has been estimated to cost £1.8 billion annually).

Bumblebees also help pollinate many wildflowers, allowing them to reproduce. Without this pollination many of these plants would not produce seeds, resulting in declines in both abundance and distribution for a range of species. As these plants are often the basis of complex food chains, it is easy to imagine how other wildlife such as other insects, birds and mammals would all suffer if bees disappeared.

What can be done?

Fortunately, there is much that can be done to benefit bumblebees. At the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, we work to raise awareness of the plight of the bumblebees amongst the general public, as well as landowners, policymakers and other interested parties. In particular, we help our members by providing information about bumblebees, as well as newsletters with information and advice about the latest happenings in the bumblebee world.

It is entirely possible for individuals and other groups to help bumblebees without owning much land! Perhaps the simplest thing to do is to plant some bee-friendly plants in your garden, to flower between March and September. As gardens cover over one million acres in the UK, this presents a great opportunity to provide food for bumblebees. By using these spaces more effectively, we hope that everyone can get involved in making the landscape friendlier to bumblebees, and help reverse the declines of the past century.

People can also get involved in survey work. By doing this, we can see what bumblebees are present around the country, and how their distributions change over time. By monitoring the species like this, we can detect warning signs and take action to help.

How does Make it Donate work?

Why?

A  wise man once said “Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.”

What if we could turn our everyday actions into simple acts of kindness. What if things like going for a run, doing the shopping, or playing a video game could trigger micro-donations for charities. What if simply by living your life you could, over time, transform someone else’s.     

We understand the multiple challenges charities are facing. Make It Donate is brilliant and empowering because it’s a more relevant way to give – it connects with your lifestyle. It helps to attract new donors and encourages regular donations. By providing a more diverse income, charities become more resilient.

We see a world where actions beat signalling, and we see a future filled with more happiness for everyone because after all those who are happiest are those who do the most for others.

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Simplicity and convenience is a top priority. We manage everything in the background leaving you free to control how you donate. You decide who you donate to and how much. We give you the freedom to set up donations across a group of different charities, all with one fixed donation limit. Pausing or cancelling donations can be managed easily, from one convenient place – it’s so simple.

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Your security is of the utmost importance to us. We use Stripe to securely store your payment details and make your donations (the same services trusted by Deliveroo, ASOS and Lyft). We never see your card information.

We use best-in-class tools and practices to maintain the highest level of security possible, ensuring your personal data is safe as it can be.

If you give us permission, we also provide charities with Gift Aid declarations, simply tick a box and they can claim an additional 25%. That’s as close to free money as you can get.

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Yes, we do charge donors a 4% fee (its free for charities). We believe that is the most transparent, ethical and fairest way to run a digital platform, with servers, staff and suppliers. We add it to donations to make it clear we are charging for the service.

It means we can hire the best talent and pay them a fair wage. It means we can continue to develop cutting edge tech so that we raise more money for the causes we care about. We also invest all profits back into the platform and don’t give away dividends to our shareholders. 

Remember any free platform is being paid for somehow.  Are the charities paying behind the scenes? Are you paying with your data? Are you happy with the ethics of the company that funds it?

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Although we are legally a for-profit company, every penny of any profit is invested back into improving the service and shareholders don’t get dividends.

We exist for social good above profit.