iNaturalist Monthly Supporters
When we first launched the ability for users to donate easily to iNaturalist in December 2018, some of our enthusiastic users signed up for recurring monthly donations. We’re immensely grateful for their early and ongoing support. This year, we’ve started a specific campaign to encourage automatic, monthly gifts to increase the predictability of donations throughout the year.
During the last five weeks of this year, we'll be asking for donations more than usual (we rarely ask!) since it's a time when many people are thinking about giving charitable donations. We know not everyone has the means to contribute (which is why iNaturalist is free!), but if you’re able to afford $5 (USD) per month or more, you can donate here. One-time, quarterly, or annual recurring gifts are also welcome using this form. Either way, you can give in more than 30 currencies!
Monthly Supporters can choose to add optional recognition to your user profile to help spread the word, or remain anonymous to iNaturalist users.
Here's how it looks on @bouteloua's profile.
We know thousands of members of the iNaturalist community are generous with their time in helping other users, curating taxa, and keeping iNaturalist a kind corner of the internet. We can't thank you enough for everything you do to support iNaturalist.
iNaturalist is a joint initiative of the California Academy of Sciences and the National Geographic Society. All donations are received by the California Academy of Sciences, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt not-for-profit organization based in the United States of America (Tax ID: 94-1156258).
Comments
I signed up a while back, but for some reason can't check the "Display Monthly Supporter status on my profile" box.
@ginsengandsoon I think I see the problem on our end and we'll try to fix. Apologies!
Hi @carrieseltzer, I think would be a good idea that the minimum amount of a donation could be 1 dollar and have a donation program with differents user's membership levels, for example: bronce membership for donation from 1 dollar to 10; silver from 10 to 20, gold from 20 to 30 and platinum or premium for more than 30. Also, donors may have a kind of badge on their profile.
I signed-up on an annual basis, will there be a support option for that as well?
Thanks @rafael_gianni and @ianmanning! At this time we only plan to recognize monthly supporters, but may consider other variations in the future.
@carrieseltzer so the Monthly Supporter comes if you donate 5 or more dollars a month? If you do say 2/month is it still helpful or better to do yearly so there are less transaction fees, etc?
Kudos for advertising this on the main page! The iNat community adds a lot to my life and time in nature so I'm happy to give some dough back to support everything that makes it possible. I feel like I will always receive more from iNat than I could ever give. Thank you! Matt
@charlie the donation form has a $5 minimum (for any interval), so I recommend quarterly or annual if that's a better fit for your budget.
@muir thanks for the support all around!
Thanks! Will think about what makes sense for us :)
I, too, signed on as a monthly supporter and can't get the display box to stay checked.
While you obviously prefer recurring donations I think it is great that you also offer one time giving. I may or may not consider to donate regularly at some later time, but simply giving a bit once now was really a no-brainer.
I'm having the same problem as janebaldwin and ginsengandsoon.
Thanks, everyone!
@janebaldwin can you try again?
@missgreen there might be a delay of a few more days until it will work for you.
If anyone switches from a different recurring donation interval to a monthly plan, there will likely be a delay (not sure yet how long).
Ah!
Thank you! @carrieseltzer
I would suggest iNat to add a badge or similar system onto the profile for all kind of supporter.
It's not limited to regular donation but also entitled for single and even a services / supplies donation. For example, a student may not be able to afford a monthly donation but a single donation would be recognized. Of course this can be optional feature if the user want to be an anonymous supporter.
It would let more iNat users know how common to give and encourage other more to do so.
I do think it would be nice to have a 'sticker' for any level of donation. Maybe some low level minimum because i am sure there are little fees that make 3 cent donations or whatever not worth it. I ended up juggling around some other monthly fees i didn't use any more and doing the monthly donation (also because iNat is a huge part of my life and I use it so much) but that's absolutely not an option for a lot of people and that is fine too. I'd also say don't feel bad if you aren't able to donate at all.
For those doing the monthly donation note that in my case the option to have the 'sticker' in my profile did not exist for a while and I had to go back to my account edit page a few days later to enable it. So if you don't see it, try that.
@charlie the delay now should only be about 6 hours. We had to resolve a bug that caused the longer delay earlier this month.
Thanks @sunnetchan, we might consider other kinds of recognition in the future.
For sure it's a balance, too much 'donation bling' could create a 'freemium' like atmosphere here which I don't think anyone wants...
Did I just donate the wrong way? I used this form (https://www.inaturalist.org/donate?utm_campaign=monthly-supporters-blog&utm_medium=web&utm_source=inaturalist.org&utm_content=inline-link&utm_term=once-quarter-annual) to donate monthly and not this one (https://www.inaturalist.org/monthly-supporters?utm_campaign=monthly-supporters-blog&utm_medium=web&utm_source=inaturalist.org&utm_content=inline-link&utm_term=monthly). So I'll never get the monthly supporter status on my profile? Possible to fix that?
@kumpelblase that method works too! You just need to make sure your email address is the same for both iNaturalist and Donorbox so that the "monthly supporter" badge option becomes available for you.
@kumpelblase I don't think that matters, but I believe there can be a bit of a lag time between when you donate and when you are able to select the checkbox in your user settings (also the email needs to match your iNat profile). Email donations@inaturalist.org and they can get it sorted for you.
edit: oops, jinx
Thank you a lot! Already corrected the mailadress, of course I used different ones 😄. And now Ill wait a while... Thanks for supporting!
I need to cancel my monthly donation as I'm still not working full time. I've googled this multiple ways to find how to do so with no success! Help! :)
No problem, @birdbander. You should have an email from "Donorbox" (our donation platform) that tells you how to log in on https://www.donorbox.org/ to manage your recurring gift. If you run into any trouble, email donations@inaturalist.org. Thanks for your support!
Thank you!
Add a Comment