My Nonprofit Reviews

This is my favourite place to donate my monarch conservation dollars. The board members are trustworthy pillars of the monarch community. Virtually all the money is spent on worthwhile projects in Mexico, from education, research, and training, to planting and beautification. Who else would support murals at the overwintering sites? These provide photo ops that visitors love, and share on social media, inspiring more people to visit the sanctuaries. I encourage you to visit their website as their projects are numerous and varied. One of their projects is to support the work of Sara Dykman, the one who rode her bicycle from El Rosario to Canada and back. She continues to do monarch research, employing many local women, empowering them, providing data, and keeping families from resorting to logging to feed their families.

I am a citizen scientist from Canada, author of How to Raise Monarch Butterflies A Step-by-Step Guide for Kids. With 30,000 books sold, and 11,000 facebook followers, I am often asked which nonprofits will help the monarchs most. MBF is always at the top of my list, along with Monarch Watch.

I personally know many of the board members, whom I trust, and give tirelessly to conserve monarchs.

I have visited Alternare, one of their projects in Mexico. They do simple yet important things. They teach people, and train trainers to teach, how to produce more food, and give them the supplies they need to do it. They build cisterns to provide families with water, all as an effort to decrease the need poor people have to cut the forest just to feed their families. They provide fuel efficient wood burning stoves, which is the most common way to cook, to reduce the need for wood, and reduce the respiratory diseases caused by that burning. They plant tens of thousands of trees, while teaching school children to do the same, along with the importance of saving the monarch's overwintering grounds.

This is just a small sample of the good work MBF does, right on the ground near the sanctuaries, to put your monarch conservation dollars to best use.

Monarch Butterfly Fund provides grants for forest conservation, monarch habitat assessment and species monitoring, scientific research on aspects of monarch conservation, public awareness and outreach regarding monarch conservation, and support for local livelihoods in Mexican communities adjacent to the monarch habitat.

It's the last work that I believe is especially important. The local people near the reserves used to clear these forests as did our ancestors, to feed their families and have wood for fuel. Poverty is a huge problem, and when people are desperate, they turn to logging. MBF works to improve the local economy so that people are not driven to poach.

I know many of the people on the Board. They are volunteers, experts, and passionate about conserving monarchs. Their integrity is impeccable.

Carol Pasternak, Toronto Canada