2017 ANNUAL REPORT

Dear Wild Gift Family, We are writing to you to celebrate this holiday season as we close out a year of success and momentum-building at Wild Gift. We’ve been using your support to its fullest potential in 2017, with many highlights to share. Though we can’t do it with you in person, we’re joyously tipping back a cup of eggnog and giving you a nod for being a part of some impressive change this year. Our first bit of celebration is for the incredible achievements of all those who have been involved - the 52 Wild Gift Fellows and countless partners, supporters, and Board Members who roll up their sleeves and build a better future for our environment and its inhabitants. The hard work of previous years came to fruition in 2017 through the successes of the Climate Change Collective Wild Gift Class – Alexander, Arun, Bryce, Sam and Tsechu. Their achievements have been remarkable and our hat goes off to each of them.

We owe a big thank you to Deborah Knapp, Barbara Anderson, Raj Vable ’13, Heather Lukacs ’03, Sun Valley Trekking, Middle Fork River Expeditions, Wild Gift mentors and everyone else who volunteered their time to make this year’s class and wilderness immersions a huge success. We owe our gratitude to Wild Gift Founder Bob Jonas and his wife, Sarah Michael, for their continued leadership with “Wild Miles for Wild Gift,” a 500-mile trek through Idaho, as well as all of you who generously supported Wild Miles. Thank you as well to Jon Duval ’14 and Francie St. Onge for hosting and supporting a wonderful event after the river trip in Ketchum this past September.

Wild Gift Fellows continue to lead the pack in their social entrepreneurship and the impacts that they are making around the world, and we’re sure they would agree that it truly takes a village. Wild Gift alumni are leaders and changemakers in their own projects and businesses, and also within the Wild Gift community. As we’ve previously shared, our Board of Directors is now comprised entirely of Wild Gift Alumni committed to continuing our support of young changemakers through our wilderness program, mentoring, and peer network. We are also beyond excited to share that Wild Gift alum Alli Rogers ’08 has joined us on staff as the Wild Gift Development Director. Welcome Alli!

Your support makes all that we do at Wild Gift possible. This quick look back at 2017 is both humbling and rewarding, and we hope it builds in you the same enthusiasm we have for the future of Wild Gift. Much of our funding comes through our end-of-year donations. We are looking forward to recruiting and supporting the best class yet, amplifying our existing impacts, and opening the doors to new possibilities. The entire Wild Gift community is working passionately to make the world a better place. In order to continue this work, we need your help.

Please consider supporting Wild Gift through a year-end donation. We have built so much together and we look forward to working with you for years to come. In Wildness and Gratitude,Wild Gift Board of Directors

Wild Gift Board of Directors

Lauren Baumann ’07Vice President, New Ecology

Iain Duncan ’08Director of Supply Ethics & Community Impact, WE

Chris Howell ’10Owner of Vermont Farm Tours

Pete Land ’03Co-Owner of Tamarack Media Cooperative

Heather Lukacs ’03Central Coast Program Director,The Environmental Justice Coalition for Water

Tinia Pina ’15Founder & CEO, Re-Nuble

Viraj Puri ’05Co-Founder & CEO of Gotham Greens

Jenna Ringelheim ’03Deputy Director, Environmental Leadership Program

Raj Vable ’13Founder, Young Mountain Tea

WILD GIFT 2017 ANNUAL REPORT

WILD GIFT CLASS OF 2017The Climate Change Collective

This year’s Class of Wild Gift Fellows made up our first-ever Climate Change Collective. These amazing Fellows were selected because of their personal commitment to addressing our world’s most pressing environmental concerns and because of their social venture’s focus on climate change mitigation and adaptation. Here are some highlights from their amazing Wild Gift Fellowship year!

Bryce Andrews ’17Bryce shared, “The Wild Gift synergy river trip was my first experience with multi-day river travel, but it won’t be my last. The chance to relax, spend time with a group of talented people, and watch the canyons pass was the highlight of my year.”

Over the last year, Bryce’s Swallowtail Project has literally taken flight as he partnered with the University of Montana on swallowtail conservation efforts. This successful partnership has provided him with access to a 3,000-acre working cattle ranch in Montana’s Blackfoot Valley, and the opportunity to move forward with a 2018 summer curriculum blending the work of ranching with environmental ethics. In addition, Bryce has also secured a new book deal with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and will be publishing a book in early 2019. The book will be about grizzly bears in Montana and it will follow his first book, Badluck Way: A Year on the Ragged Edge of the West, which was published in 2014. As the Northern Field Director for the nonprofit group People and Carnivores, he continues to work on reducing conflicts between ranchers and large predators such as grizzlies and wolves.

Tsechu Dolma ’17Tsechu joined us for the Vermont September Board Retreat and shared, “My Wild Gift year bought me time and space to reflect and clarify my social enterprise, which is almost impossible most days, so that a year later we are stronger and ready for market.”

Originally from Tibet, Tsechu spent her childhood as a Tibetan refugee in Nepal before she and her family sought political asylum in New York City. Tsechu founded the Mountain Resiliency Project to empower her Himalayan community and strengthen their efforts to combat climate change. Tsechu was selected as a 2017 Forbes “30 Under 30” Awardee in the Social Entrepreneur category for her work addressing poverty and food security in the mountain regions. In addition, Tsechu launched an indigenous Himalayan beekeeping initiative -- an idea hatched on the Wild Gift trek! -- and partnered with Raj Vable ’13 to launch the first collaborative Wild Gift trip across the Himalayas. Here Tsechu is pictured with Barb Anderson and Deborah Knapp in Nepal.

Arun Gupta ’17Arun also joined us for the Vermont September Board Retreat and shared, “Wild Gift has been important at providing the inspiration to

persevere through the ups and downs associated with starting a venture whose core mission is to make the world a better place.”

Arun and his Dallas, Texas-based team at Skyven Technologies -- a renewable energy company Arun founded in 2013 -- were awarded a $1MM grant at the first-ever New York 76West Clean Energy Competition, a competition launched by Governor Andrew Cuomo in 2016 and one of the largest competitions in the country that focuses on growing clean energy businesses and economic development. In addition, Arun and his team were also selected as finalists at the elite MassChallenge competition and as preliminary winners for the US-China Innovation Alliance InnoSTARS Competition. Since his Wild Gift fellowship began, Arun has grown his team by bringing on an experienced full-time hire and several interns. In addition, he sold his first system to a California-based company called Red Horse Constructors.

Sam Teicher ’17For Sam, “Wild Gift was one of the most special times of my life so far. It’s truly an incredible family to be a part of, and it continues to help me every day in my fight to protect coral reefs and the people who depend on them.”

Based in Washington, D.C., Sam co-founded Coral Vita, a company that grows corals to restore dying reefs. They use methods developed by the Mote Marine Lab and Gates Coral lab in order to grow up to 50x natural rates while enhancing their resiliency to climate change, thus improving the impact and cost-effectiveness of reef restoration. Over the past year, Sam and his team completed the Halcyon Incubator, won WeWork’s DC Creator Award, and was named an Echoing Green Climate Fellow. In addition, Sam has secured approximately nearly $1MM in funding for a coral reef restoration pilot project in Grand Bahama, where the Coral Vita team will be moving in early 2018. Sam and his co-founder Gator Halpern were both selected as 2018 Forbes “30 Under 30” Awardees in the Social Entrepreneur category.

Alexander Wankel ’17Alexander shared, “My experiences with Wild Gift continue to be a fabulous source of inspiration. Being in the wilderness with such incredible people is empowering, healing, clarifying, and reminds me why we must fight to protect the future of our world.”

Growing up in the U.S. with Peruvian roots inspired Alexander to pursue a career supporting micro-entrepreneurs in the Andes through fair trade artisanry and sustainable food. Alexander’s social enterprise known as Kai Pacha Foods produces the first Quinoa Milk made with climate resilient native quinoa varieties. The company now includes six individuals and has successfully set up a quinoa milk production facility in Lima, Peru. Their product has seen strong sales in local farmers’ markets and has been placed in a half dozen stores since August, recently entering Flora y Fauna, Peru’s first organic supermarket. Kai Pacha’s product is produced locally in Lima and is a sustainable dairy free alternative due to its remarkably small water footprint. Native quinoa is especially resistant to climate insecurity and requires very little water. (Almonds consume about 30 times as much water as quinoa does!) This means that in addition to great taste and health

benefits, Kai Pacha’s quinoa milk is uniquely sustainable. Approximately eight tons of native quinoa were harvested using ancestral sustainable techniques and, as a result, some varieties of chullpi quinoa are no longer endangered.

Congratulations to the Wild Gift Class of 2017, and a big THANK YOU to everyone who

supported the Climate Change Collective!

Achieved Fundraising Success

In 2017 alone, our alumni have raised over $8.2MM to expand their work into additional states and beyond. Funds have been used for farmland conservation, energy efficient housing, and investment in new sustainable product lines.

Gained Global Recognition For Our Work

Wild Gift Fellows’ impact is increasingly recognized by the business and social enterprise communities—from awarding diplomas to at-risk high school students to recognition on Good Morning America to being named a Forbes “30 Under 30.”

Invoked Change Through Public Policy

One Wild Gift Fellow helped draft a law that conserved 720,000 square kilometers of ocean surrounding Easter Island and another Fellow is campaigning for a Provincial Legislator position in Ontario, Canada.

Expanded Our Reach

New technologies such as blockchain and collaborative cultural exchange programs are increasingly being implemented by our Fellows to scale their impact and widen their international reach.

WILD GIFT ALUMNI HIGHLIGHTSWith the transition to an all-alumni Board in 2017, Wild Gift is now led by former Fellows!

Michael Long ’15Founder & Director, SailFuture

This year SailFuture became successfully licensed by the State of Florida to operate wilderness programs, opened a 5,000 square foot land-based facili-ty and “forever home” in St. Petersburg, FL, became accredited as a charter high school by Pinellas County

School Board and awarded three high school diplomas in less than three months. Students sailed SV Defy the Odds over 1,000 miles during a service learning trip around Florida and led hurricane relief efforts in the Florida Keys and southwest Florida, which amounted to over 600 collective service hours.

Lisa Curtis ’13Founder, Kuli Kuli

Lisa was selected as a 2018 Forbes “30 Under 30” Awardee in the Social Entre-preneur category and Kuli Kuli’s prod-ucts were featured on Good Morning America. Highlights for Kuli Kuli include: six full-time US jobs were created, 1,000 farmers are grow-ing moringa for Kuli Kuli, over a million moringa trees have been planted and $1.5MM is going into the hands of rural farmers across West Africa and South America.

James Richards ’13Founder, Sunbank Solar & Solar Dividend

Sunbank Solar’s project with the Boy Scouts at their national camp went online this year. They in-stalled solar water heat-ers on their staff camp in preparation for the Na-tional Jamboree, an event that happens every four years and brings in 40,000 scouts. This installation is

the largest solar thermal installation in West Virginia and offsets 389,400 lbs of CO2 emissions per year. Stay tuned for more news in 2018 regarding Sunbank Solar’s focus on new commercial proj-ects, including low-income housing, laundromats and breweries, as well as a new and improved version of the solar hot tub kit. James is continuing to make progress toward providing a solar thermal power purchase agreement (PPA), which was his Wild Gift project.

Raj Vable ’13Founder, Young Mountain Tea

This year Young Mountain Tea signed with their first regional distributor, led two trips across India, upgraded two staff to full-time, and launched the Global Tea Exchange to create oppor-tunities for their Himalayan partners to visit the U.S. One highlight was the April trip in the Himalayas, which Raj and Tsechu Dolma ’17 organized together and which included Deborah Knapp and Barb Anderson. Another highlight was orchestrating a partnership between a legendary Darjeeling tea producer and UC Davis to explore growing tea here in the U.S. Keep the kettle hot!

Josh Arnold ’11Executive Director, Global Awareness Local Action (G.A.L.A.)

G.A.L.A. received a $250,000 federal grant from the Northern Borders Regional Commission to purchase a 7,000 square foot building in Wolfeboro, NH that will be the future home of our Community Makerspace and Incubator. There was a 50/50 match requirement and G.A.L.A. raised the match! The purchase of the building this past Sep-tember is a huge milestone for G.A.L.A. and the community.

Sarah Bellos ’11Stony Creek Colors

Sarah and Stony Creek Colors were recognized in the Jan/Feb 2017 edi-tion of the Martha Stew-art Living magazine.

Chris Howell ’10Vermont Farm Tours

Chris raised $2.7MM with one of his farm partners to purchase and conserve over 300 acres of urban farmland in South Burling-ton, Vermont.

Cody Hopkins ’08Founder, Falling Sky Farm

Cody leads the Grass Roots Farmers’ Co-operative, a group of small-scale farmers that offer their sustainable, humanely raised meat nationwide through a convenient monthly subscription box. Grass Roots is the only meat producer in the U.S. that uses blockchain tech-

nology to track every product from farm to plate, a radically trans-parent innovation for the meat sector. This year, Cody teamed up with Rachel Barge ’09 to grow Grass Roots’ e-commerce sales and tell the inspiring “David vs. Goliath” story of farmers raising food the right way.

Monica Samec ’08Nigeria Off-Grid Team Lead, Power Africa Transaction and Reforms Program and Senior Transaction Advisor, Nigerian Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Program

In her role as the Nigeria Off-Grid Team Lead for the Power Africa Transaction and Reforms Program, Monica oversaw USAID’s “Beyond the Grid” technical assistance that supports the U.S. government’s aim to provide an additional 60 million connections in Africa by 2030. In ad-dition, Monica continues to serve in a second role in Nigeria as a Senior Transaction Advisor for the Nigeri-an Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Program, another USAID Power Africa program.

Lauren Baumann ’07Vice President, New Ecology

Under Lauren’s leadership, New Ecology recently opened an office in Wilmington, DE to run an energy efficiency program for affordable multifamily properties. In partner-ship with Elevate Energy in Chica-go, New Ecology’s metrics include: a presence in 10 states; interactions with more than 60,000 housing units via energy and water assessments, benchmarking, and building moni-toring and optimization; the invest-ment of $127MM in direct capital

improvements in 9,581 units through retrofits and green certifica-tion of new construction and rehabbed properties since November 2013; and, as a result, over 13 million kBTUs saved.

Jessica Bell ’07Campaigner, Lecturer, Trainer

Jessica is running to become a provincial legislator in Ontario, Canada for the National Democratic Party. The election is in June 2018. Here Jessica is pictured with her son Max.

Emily Owen ’07Officer, Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Project

The Rapa Nui Ma-rine Protected Area, to be signed into law next month by Chile’s president, will protect 720,000 square kilome-ters of biological-ly and culturally important ocean surrounding Eas-ter Island. Emily has managed this

effort for the past six years, working closely with the Rapa Nui community, scientists, and the Chilean government.

Pete Land ’03Co-Owner of Tamarack Media Cooperative

The first Wild Gift-funded venture, Tamarack, is still going strong 14 years later. Tamarack transitioned to a worker-owned coopera-tive in 2015. There are cur-rently five member-owners. Tamarack has built custom websites and online tools for over 200 environmental and social initiatives. Here Pete is pictured with his son Robbie.

WILD MILES500 Miles With Llamas Through Six Mountain Ranges in the Central Idaho Wilderness

In the summer of 2017, Wild Gift Founder Bob Jonas and his wife, Sarah Michael, undertook an audacious 500-mile trek through Idaho’s Central Wilderness with two llamas. The trek fulfilled Bob’s lifelong dream of a continuous trail in the wilder-ness areas surrounding their home country of Sun Valley, Idaho.

They departed soon after Bob’s 75th birthday. Along the way they faced just about every weather challenge imaginable, from excessive heat and wildfire to relentless snowpack and flooding. They were buoyed by a number of friends who joined them for sections of the itinerary. They also developed a great fondness and appreciation for their llama trailmates.

Thank you to those of you who generously supported the “Wild Miles for Wild Gift” campaign and who continue to do so. These generous donations inspired Bob and Sarah to keep moving on the trail, and will go a long way toward supporting the next class of Wild Gift Fellows when they make their own journey into the Idaho wilderness next summer! Stories, photos, and maps can be found at wildgift.org/blog

WILD GIFT DEVELOPMENT DIRECTORWelcome Alli Rogers ’08!

We are excited to welcome Alli as our Wild Gift Development Director. Alli served on the Wild Gift Alumni Council for several years, where she coordinated recruitment and the Fellow selection process. Alli brings a passion and excitement for engaging new communities to help us grow our networks and a personal commitment to Wild Gift.

Alli also brings extensive experience from her time growing sustainability initiatives from the ground up at Harvard University and on Capitol Hill. She most recently served as the Director of Policy for the Rhode Island Department of Administration and prior to that served as the Executive Director for the Green the Capitol Office, an initiative created by Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi for the U.S. House of Representatives. Deeply committed to climate solutions, Alli was the first contestant to run on a climate change-focused platform in the Miss America competition.

Barb AndersonTed & Leila AngleLauren Baumann*Sarah Bellos*Sarah BesseraBruce BlackByron BlevinsAngela BorupJoann BoswellBeatrice BowlesSpencer Brendel*Marc BruniKellie K. ButtenhamByerly Family TrustScott CarlinCenter For Mindful WorkAnn ChristensenStephen CollinsEdward ConnellyCooper Family FoundationStephanie & John CopelandColleen CoyneLisa Curtis*Patrick & Sally DeLeonKathy DiceJohn & Lucy DouglasScott DouglasAnn DownBuck Drew Charitable FundBuck Drew & Becky KlassenIain Duncan*Erica ElliotKathy Rivers & Jim FinchKeith Foley

Suzanne FrickAnne GeraghtyBruce GollubGregory GoodwinMarcia GrabowBob & Barbara GrabowskiMarcia GreenKaren GriffinPeggy GroveDebra HallCristina HarmonGinger HarmonChristina HollowayMary HoughtelingChris Howell*Mo JennerBob JonasRobert KahnPatricia KlahrPete Land*Buzz & Donna LandMaggie LevyMarcia LiebichJosephine LoweHeather Lukacs*Marty & Mila LyonGina Magnello*Judith & Michael MeyersPeter MichaelEdward MichaelSarah MichaelBill MonsourJim & Becky MorganMorgan Family Foundation

Linda MorsachLinda & Bill NicholsonLouise & Jay NoyesDiane & Daniel O’ConnellSuzanne & Alex OrbSusan PassovoyReuben PerinCarolyn PeduzziPriscilla PittiglioWilliam PryorViraj Puri*Jenna Ringelheim*Margot Larsen Ritz / Larsen FundAllison Rogers*Monica Samec*Drew Sanderford*Marty Schnure*Susan ScovellMicah Sewell*Smiley Creek LodgeFrancie & Joe St. OngeMark & Margaret StewartJeff Szatkowski & Katelyn RinaldiSharon & Kip TindellDebbie TuckerCharlotte UngerRaj Vable*Linda Van Der MeulenKat Vanden HeuvelLiza WeekesJan Wellik*Sarah WoodwardClifford WrightMonica Zgola

2017 WILD GIFT DONORSThank you!

WILD GIFT • P.O. Box 1151, Hailey, Idaho 83333 • 208-471-8124 • info@wildgift.org

Wild Gift AlumWild Miles Supporter

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Raj, Pete, Chris, Jenna, Heather, and Lauren—part of the newly formed 2017 Alumni Board at the spring board retreat.