For more than 25 years, I have been a volunteer for the Rainforest Action Network. Consistently great, powerful advocacy for the forests, the atmosphere, and the people affected by environmental stress keeps me there. They "punch above their weight" as so many writers have said, meaning that dollar-for-dollar, donors are getting a return on their investment greater than almost any other group. Not a big non-profit in size, but huge in heart and impact.
I started with RAN with Randy Hayes as he founded it; prophet of old growth forests needed for the health of the entire world. Aware the destruction was driven by Corporate greed the focus was corporate campaigns to stop their violent behaviors. Over the years RAN has developed many methods starting with how to be an effective organization that works for the people of the forests as the first reason to keep the forests standing and for the people of the community working to save those forests, connecting all of us. Core to the work is that we are all connected. The team at RAN are rockstars of change on the planet. Supporting them and the network is key. And being relentless, picking a target because it is needed to change behavior and not giving up until that behavior changes, which has a cascading effect to the entire industry. It is brilliant, nimble, connected directly to those most directly affected and those needed to create the Change. The first decade was so effective that old growth wood was no longer sold in any form in the US. houses, furniture, building supplies and paper. All the industries had been shut down. We moved next to banks, taking on the biggest, everyone said it was impossible, but now all banks have staff to relate to activism committed to stopping their investments in the destruction of the planet. Disney and Pepsi Co agreements are so far reaching and global. Asia Pulp and Paper who were on the path to take out all the Indonesian Rainforests left Indonesia because of the Disney deal. The layers of life on earth that saved is beyond understanding. Network is core to the success of RAN and the care of the Rainforest, those in Action and the Network are core to the success.
RAN is an incredibly effective organization that has been in the forefront of the fight for people and the planet for more than three decades. After all this time, RAN's culture is very much grassroots-like, and everyone working at the RAN is an activist in their own right. RAN challenges corporate power and supports local grassroots organizations around the world. It brings allies together making sure our forests keep standing, fossil fuels are kept in the ground, and the rights of indigenous peoples are being respected.
Rainforest Action Network has been a consistently terrific organization over the decades, working at the confluence of climate, forests, and human rights, realizing how one affects the other, no stopping climate change without protecting forests, no protecting forests without respecting the human rights of the people who live in them. RAN has a strong board, an exceptional staff, and is always working at the edge, setting expectations high and the achieving them.
James Gollin