Category: Blog

This Is Us

Nope. Not the popular TV show by the same title. Instead, this is about our visual identity. If “a picture is worth a thousand words”, then the branding of an organization should convey the essence of its identity. A meaningful portrayal of a nonprofit will effectively illustrate its mission, vision, and values. While that’s a…

Extend the Hiking Season in Patagonia

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…

A Birthday Present to Ourselves

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…

Thinking about Impact

Would you read ConservationVIP’s impact report if I told you that it uses the word “sex” multiple times?

A [Volunteer] Day in the Life

It was September, 2009. My wife and I learned about ConservationVIP® from a family member and we were encouraged to check out the trip to Yosemite National Park. Upon learning more details from the ConservationVIP® website and through REI Adventures, we signed up to join them. Having experienced the value of volunteering locally and being…

Some things just “say” Galapagos

Some things just “say” Galapagos. Darwin. The blue-footed booby. Marine iguana. Tortoise. Darwin’s finches. I’d heard the words before, but now I was about to see them. Here I was, shoe-horned into a small plane approaching Isla Isabela, the outermost inhabited island on the Galapagos Volunteer Trip, with about a dozen Conservation Volunteers International Program…

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