So You Want to Start Your Own Foundation.... DON'T

Short answer, don't. 

Here is a list of ten reasons why you should NOT consider starting your own charitable organisation, environmental or otherwise, instead of joining one that already exists.

1. Administrative burden. Unless you're going it alone, you're going to need to register your organisation if you want to do business, safely involve members, handle money or deal with the public. You're going to need to know, meet and stay tuned into legislation, standards and report regularly to government agencies. An established group would already have this framework in place. 

2. Redundancy. There are around 600,000 registered charities in Australia alone. Surely you can find one to work with.

3. Competitiveness. Starting a new charitable foundation makes it more difficult for existing organisations to compete for funding, and starting up as a newbie no one has ever heard of in an existing charitable industry puts you on the back-foot from day one. 

4. Brand building. If you're trying to do something charitable it will take time to build a reputation. Other groups have already achieved this. Use their brand power instead of wasting effort building your own.

5. Arrogance. Are you sure that no one else is doing what you intend to do? Have you researched this and spoken to the agencies already established? I recently heard someone from a new charity introduce himself as "We do ALL the work on marine debris". I had to walk away biting my tongue, this was untrue and a sign of some serious narcissism. 

5. Your Ego. If you're still convinced that there is not a single other organisation with a structure that you could work with, you might want to check your ego. Are you being a control freak? Adaptability is the key to success.

6. The value of collaboration. Collaborating with existing groups demonstrates two things, you can cooperate with others and you recognise the value of the history those groups have established.

7. Life balance. If you think you can do this in your spare time, you're crazy. Don't fall into the trap of thinking 'if no one else is going to do it, the I'll have to.' This attitude and project management, is not sustainable for you personally, or the charity you're working with. .

8. Wanting to create a legacy. This is a very noble idea, but really, legacies are never planned.

9. Wanting the title "Director" or "Founder". Yeah well, in my opinion there has been so many jugheads starting their own foundations that both of these titles now sound ridiculous and make me chuckle a bit.

10. Your exit strategy. Starting a new venture can be fun and exciting, doing it without preparing an exit strategy for either you personally, or the organisation as a whole, will ensure your dream is short-lived.

Happy Mothers Day

I love you Mum!

The Sea Turtles of Lord Howe Island

Sticking up out of the sea, a short flight from Sydney, is one of Australia’s best kept secrets, Lord Howe Island. Emerald green forests drape rocky mountains overshadowing turquoise lagoons and bays of Earth’s southernmost coral reef. Providence Petrels, all 40,000 breeding pairs, can be heard calling and seen in courting displays of aerial acrobatics, buzzing around the mountain tops like flies. This truly is a paradise of unimaginable beauty.

As part of my Masters degree research, I’ve come to check out the sea turtles, if there are any. I had heard some reports of sightings at Lord Howe Island and read some pretty interesting reports about satellite tracking loggerhead turtles that were released here, but there doesn’t seem to be much by way of modern research.

Steeped in history dating back to the island’s discovery in 1788, many of the ships captains recorded details about sea turtles in the lagoon of Lord Howe Island. Although sea turtle never made the menu for Lord Howe Island locals, it seemed commonplace for whaling and trade ships to collect turtle from the lagoon, 20 – 30 at any one time. The turtles would be kept live on deck and transported to the first settlement in Port Jackson and also to Norfolk Island. The whaling trade came to an end and the increasing local settlement became skilled at farming pig and goat, the taking of turtles from the island appears to have ceased in the early 1900’s.

Joyce Petherick, born 1921, recalls swimming across the lagoon as a young girl and her observations were echoed through the older community, seeing a sea turtle was an exciting surprise, not a daily occurrence. Fast-forward to 2014 and now there are multiple daily glass-bottom boat turtle tours operated throughout the lagoon. I jumped onboard and let the locals show me where the turtles are. Within minutes I was hovering over greens and hawksbills comfortably going about their business. Another scuba-diving local pointed out that he had never seen a loggerhead turtle there before, until just a few months ago he sighted an adult at Yellow Rock at a depth of around 16m.

As word got around the island about who I am and why I was there, I came into possession of two hawksbill turtle carcasses that had beach-cast dead. For the purposes of determining the cause of death I conducted necropsies of both individuals. This was not pretty. They both presented almost identically in size and condition (and odour) and appeared to have starved to death. They were quite young and not unlike the 70 odd individuals beach-cast dead in northern NSW only a couple of years ago, interesting. Victims of ontogenetic shift mortality? I collected DNA and it may be possible to correlate these with natal grounds known in the South Pacific, if I can find funding.