I started Key Conservation because I wanted a way for conservationists to be able to reach out to the world when the unexpected happened. You can’t plan for a lioness getting stuck in a snare or a GPS unit malfunctioning but they happen. For smaller conservation organizations moments like these can put them in survival mode because they already don’t have enough funding or bandwidth to take on something unexpected. When funds are tight and you are facing problems from all sides it can feel like you’re alone out there in the field. Sometimes it even feels like no cares if the species you are working to save goes extinct or not. Here’s the issue, it’s not that no one cares they just don’t know what is even going on.

I knew for this gap to be filled I had to create a way for people to be able to be on the front lines with conservationists so they would not only know what was happening but they could truly understand how it felt to be out there facing these challenges. If they could understand I knew they would want to do something. A way for the world to have the back of conservationists during their darkest moments. Conservation doesn’t have time to wait, it changes every day and we need the solutions to tackle the problems to be just as fluid. Providing actionable steps that someone could take to make a difference in real-time was necessary and on top of that, we needed a way for an individual from across the world to be able to make just as big of an impact from their couch as someone who is in the same area as an organization.

The idea evolved and now anyone can help by giving their skills, their funds, or by helping in person. Instead of building a platform to just send help, we are now building a community where anyone from anywhere can work together to tackle the problems facing conservation from the small to the seemingly impossible.

Now over 70 conservation organizations have signed up with us because they believe in our mission and need this kind of support.

Over the past year, we have gone through a rollercoaster of challenges and triumphs which have seen us go from 0 to 65% of the app being complete. We have built strong partnerships and are envisioning a future for Key that goes beyond the day to day to now building the world’s first centralized platform for conservation. We are officially moving into our final stage of development and we are once again doing what is needed to finalize development once and for all.

That’s why I am excited to announce that today we are kicking off our crowdfunding campaign to raise the remaining funds needed to build the Key app. Now more than ever conservation organizations need our help, our natural world needs our help. We need a way to empower the world to step up when all other sources of funding and support fall away. I truly believe that one person can make a difference and if we compound that there are endless possibilities for the impact that could have on our world. If we reach our fundraising target we can have the app complete in the next 4 months but we can’t do it without you. Will you help us build a lifeline for nature by supporting the development of the Key Conservation app?

A big part of us getting the app built is spreading the word about the campaign as far and wide as possible. We could really use your help with this. If you are willing to share the campaign with your friends and family it would really help us out.

We tried to make it super easy to share the campaign by providing this link to where you will find social media graphics and captions that you can use. Please feel free to make your posts personal to you and to tag us in them. We want to hear why you’re excited about Key! We can’t do this without you so thank you for any support you can give us!

By Megan Cromp, Key Conservation