What kind of person would spend more than ten years volunteering thousands of hours for an environmental nonprofit, without drawing attention to himself and his contributions? We have such a person in our organization, and I decided this is the right time to call him out. Behind his back some people have called him John…
I had long wanted to hike in Patagonia. But it was a long way from the San Francisco Bay Area, it required two days of travel to reach this iconic hiking destination and my personal journey there was complicated by much more than distance. For many years, I thought that the San Francisco Bay Area…
Conservation Volunteers International Program: The name really does not easily roll off the tongue. It is way too long. What were our founders thinking ten years ago when they chose a name for our nonprofit? It is not easy to come up with a new name. A name needs to be unique and memorable. They…
Would you read ConservationVIP’s impact report if I told you that it uses the word “sex” multiple times?
Peter Murphy, photographer and videographer extraordinaire, has generously shared his talents with ConservationVIP®, producing videos and photographs which vividly portray our volunteer trips. Because Peru and Machu Picchu hold special meaning to Peter, his first videos for us were focused on our Machu Picchu volunteer trip. I asked Peter to explain why he has been…
Are we on a mission impossible? When I took on the role of CEO for Conservation Volunteers International Program five years ago, I knew it would be a difficult task. The image of Don Quixote came to mind. ConservationVIP® leads volunteer trips to world-class destinations to work on conservation projects. The nonprofit was started in…