Please select the one-time donation level that works best for your budget. Your donation at any level is greatly appreciated and you will feel good knowing that you are playing a critical role in helping us in our mission.
$1,000 – Adopt an ATV Patrol Patron
Our ATV is one of the most important pieces of equipment that we have and it takes a daily beating. Seven days a week, every week of the season (9+ months of the year), our ATV carries our patrol volunteers from the north end of Playa Larga to the village of Barra de Potosí in the south. A round trip distance of almost 15 miles across a corrosive terrain of sand, salt, and sea. We rely on our ATV to safely carry at least two volunteers along with all the tools and supplies necessary to patrol our beach and deliver the precious cargo (eggs!) to safety in our corral. We are diligent in the care of our ATV – washing it daily after patrol and performing regular maintenance – but it’s a harsh environment. Under the best of circumstances, we can only ask for one to two years from an ATV before it’s time to replace it. Your generous ATV Patrol Patron donation will allow us to follow a comprehensive maintenance program and to prepare for the eventual need to replace our current ATV.
$250 – Education Sponsor
A very important part of our mission is education about our sea turtle population and the health of our oceans. Whether it’s visitors who join us for a hatchling release, outreach in local schools, encouraging recycling and ecological trash disposal in our communities, or any of the other numerous ways we spread our message, education is one of our key jobs. Your $250 donation will go towards the equipment and materials needed to effectively educate those who we have the opportunity to reach.
$150 – Corral Sponsor
When our volunteers patrol in the middle of the night, their goal is to find and relocate as many turtle nests as possible and to tag (or record the existing tag number of the turtle) of any turtles encountered.
When the eggs are brought back to the camp, we recreate the nest created by the mama turtle inside of our ocean side corral. The corral is positioned on the beach in a place that mimics, as closely as possible, the original nest location and condition. However, to protect from predators and other hazards, the corral is enclosed by a fence and is covered with sun shade material. Inside the corral, we have the space divided into one meter squares to maintain a healthy distance between nests. Each nest is marked with a stick indicating the names of the volunteers that relocated the nest, the date, and number of eggs. As the date approaches for the hatchlings to climb out of their nest, we cover the nest in such a way that the hatchlings cannot crawl away from their nest.
As the hatchlings emerge, they are counted and then released to reach the ocean at a time and location that we choose to try to maximize their chances of survival.
All of this costs money. Your corral sponsor donation will go towards maintaining the corral and completing the activities related to running the corral.
$100 – Volunteer Cabin Sponsor
We host volunteers from around the world in our beach side cabin throughout the season. The cabin is a rustic structure with a kitchen, bathroom and space for up to eight volunteers to sleep. As with our ATV and other equipment, the exposure to sun, salt air, and water is hard on our volunteer cabin.
The volunteers we host are the lifeblood of our operation and further our educational mission because they carry our story to their home countries. Virtually all of our operations are carried out by local volunteers and those that we host in our cabin. The volunteers that stay with us for a few days, weeks, or months, supplement our local volunteers who often have jobs, families, and responsibilities beyond the camp.
Your donation as a Volunteer Cabin Sponsor will help us maintain the volunteer cabin and make sure it’s available and functional for our international team.
$75 – Summer Camper Scholarship
The Summer Camp Scholarship Sponsor will make it possible for one specific child to attend camp. Many of the children that attend come from homes with extremely limited resources and would not be able to attend if not for our supporters who donate to our Summer Camp Scholarship. Your donation will cover the student’s tuition and daily transportation to and from the camp.
$50 – Adopt-a-Nest (Leatherback)
Would you like to sponsor your own nest in our corral? How about sponsoring the nest of one of our typically rare Leatherback (Laúd) nests? We all get super excited when we encounter a Leatherback nest (with the holy grail being encountering the mama), and here you have the chance to sponsor a Leatherback nest.
What does sponsoring a nest mean? Well, if you sign up to sponsor one, we will send you information on one of our Leatherback nests including the GPS location of the original nest, the names of the volunteers that found and relocated the nest, the number of eggs, and any pictures we have from the original and relocated nests. We’ll let you know when we expect the hatchlings to emerge and then, when they do, we’ll email you updates on the number of hatchlings and pictures of their release if they are available. You will also be acknowledged during the release as a nest sponsor.
Because of the limited number of Leatherback nests we relocate each season, you may be joining others in adopting a single nest.
Please note: we try to take pictures of the adopted nests at each step from relocation to release but often times, it is not possible. Weather conditions, the level of activity our volunteers have on their patrol the night of your adoption, the time of day when the hatchlings are released, and many other factors can make it difficult to take photos.
$25 – Adopt-a-Nest (Golfina & Prieta)
With our Golfina (Olive Ridley) and Prieta (Black Turtle) Adopt a Nest sponsorship, you will have a nest of your very own to follow. After making your one-time donation of $25, we will email you the details of your nest within a few days. You will receive the GPS coordinates of the original nest location, the names of the volunteers on patrol that found your nest, number of eggs, and expected hatch date. If we have pictures of the original nest or relocation, we’ll send them too.
When the hatchlings start to emerge, we’ll send you the statistics on the number that hatches and any pictures of them being release. You will also be recognized during the release as one of our nest sponsors.
Please note: we try to take pictures of the adopted nests at each step from relocation to release but often times, it is not possible. Weather conditions, the level of activity our volunteers have on their patrol the night of your adoption, the time of day when the hatchlings are released, and many other factors can make it difficult to take photos.