Page 34 - Caring_for_your_community

A volunteer programme at the Ljubljana BG, Slovenia offers weavers is often able to offer extra financial support to address
a different model of sustainability. Through a partnership individual problems, such as paying for surgery for weavers with
with the Slovenian University of the Third Age (U3A) the cataracts. It is in everyone’s interest that the community thrives
garden gives retired and semi-retired people the opportunity and continues to be productive.
to feel part of the garden and to offer services to its visitors
(see page 36). As a partner, the U3A offers help with recruiting Additional challenges over fundraising for botanic gardens’
and managing volunteers through its core funding. The U3A socially relevant activities concern language and how the work
programme manager also sources additional funding from is actually perceived by the fundraising departments of the
local authorities to enable the garden volunteers to take part organisations. A member of staff Brooklyn BG expressed it
in small-scale local plant conservation projects. Although thus: ‘the constituents that our programmes reach, the things
these smaller projects are one off and receive restricted they say about their environments and the impacts of our
external funding they still contribute to the garden’s mission. programmes are pretty powerful. I wish we were capturing
In Ljubljana there is no culture of volunteering, as there is in and conveying much more of that. I often wish I knew how
the UK or the USA, hence this model of the garden offering to communicate the significance of what these programmes
volunteer positions to older members of the community are doing in a language that better supports the work our
is innovative. It has proved to be a ‘win-win’ – not only do fundraisers are doing.’’ Staff at Morris Arboretum find it
the volunteers feel more valued by society because of their challenging to work with a dedicated fundraising department,
work, but the garden also gains much-needed support since who are often focused on sourcing finance for new programmes
it has only 7.5 permanent staff members, who are usually rather than sustaining existing programmes that work well.
overwhelmed with work. These issues indicate the need for training and developing staff
skills in articulating the social benefits of projects to funders,
Another example of sustainable funding comes from El Charco as well as was desire for a cultural shift in garden fundraising
BG, which runs a gift shop with a social purpose (see page 37). departments to place a higher priority on the long-term
The staff offer their core-funded time to help local producers funding of existing projects proven to achieve a positive
improve their products that are then sold, at a fair price, in the impact on the community.
garden’s shop. The garden staff, through discussions and field
visits, work with the producers to re-examine the materials
used, to package the products and create back-stories about
how the products are made. At the same time, collaboration
with the producers can help to ensure that the materials they
use are sustainably sourced, so aiding the conservation of
the native flora. As a result, the local community develops its
business and product development skills as well as increasing
their income and consequently, living standards. This activity
started in 2004 and has proved self-sustaining.

A different type of a self-sustaining project comes from
the Missouri Botanical Garden Blessing Baskets, which takes
place in Madagascar and the USA (see page 38). Over a period
of eight years, the garden has offered staff time to help a
local community of basket weavers build a relationship with
a business partner that distributes their products in the US
market, bringing them a good return. ‘Developing relationship
with businesses has the potential of giving funding year after
year,’ says the technical advisor of Missouri Botanical Garden’s
conservation work in Madagascar. The conservation work in
Madagascar is paid for by donors, whose funding is used to
cover the cost of staff time. The garden staff have, over the
years, worked to help the weavers adopt new designs that
appeal to the American market, to establish structures for
quality control, to resolve tax, transport, microfinance and
other issues. After eight years the garden now feels confident
that they can withdraw their involvement and that the local
community will be able to directly liaise with their business
partner and continue selling the products in the US market.
This is of course primarily a business transaction, with payment
in return for products, but there are side benefits for the
community – the business owner during her visits to the

32 CARING FOR YOUR COMMUNITY | A MANUAL FOR BOTANIC GARDENS