Donating to iNaturalist outside of the US

[plantarum]

I would like to donate to iNaturalist, in response to the appeal that now shows up as a banner on the main site. I notice that you are a registered charity in California. Is iNaturalist.ca registered as a charity in Canada? Is there a way for me to donate to my national organization?

Not a big deal, but I won’t get a tax break for donating to a foreign charity like I would for a Canadian one.

Thanks,

Tyler

[carrieseltzer]

For iNaturalist.ca, we have a formal agreement with the Canadian Wildlife Federation which is a Canadian nonprofit so you could donate to them. I’ll tag @jpage_cwf in case he elaborate further.

So far the only member of the international iNaturalist Network that is set up to receive donations specifically for it is iNaturalist.nz (accepting donations here).

Thanks for asking, @plantarum.

[pjfayer]

Howe can I donate to iNat.CA?

I see a response to my question dated 4 years ago, which is now closed. Can someone verify that this is still the case, please?
@jpage_cwf
@carrieseltzer

[carrieseltzer]

Yes, we still collaborate with the Canadian Wildlife Federation and they support iNaturalist Canada.

I’ll reopen the old thread and move this question there.

[lera]

Hi

I had a similar question - is iNaturalist registered as a charity, and able to receive Gift Aid, in the UK?
https://www.gov.uk/claim-gift-aid
https://www.gov.uk/donating-to-charity/gift-aid

cheers
Lera

[carrieseltzer]

Hi Lera, no, iNaturalist is not registered anywhere outside the United States. Similar to Canada, we formally collaborate with the National Biodiversity Network Trust as our lead partner there. You could donate to them and designate your gift for iNaturalist UK.

[gerrit_oehm]

To anser the question a bit broader (please correct me if I am mistaken @ carrieseltzer) - all coutries that are part of the official iNaturalist Network have a national partner and hence an organisation, that you could donate to [and designate the donation to iNaturalist, in order for it to be tax-deductible (as mentioned by @plantarum)]. It seems that besides being tax-deductible it makes sense to send it to an partner organisation, since a part of the payment always goes to the foreign currency translation of the transaction otherwise, (at least that is what I experience, since my country does not have a national partner organisation). Then again, I am not sure if not sending the money to iNaturalist directly could cause inconvenience due to added bureaucracy within the organisations…

[pdabell]

When I added the iNaturalist Android app, I was asked what national iNatualist network I wanted to join, yet when I am occasionally asked in the app about making a donation, it is not through the Canadian iNat network that I joined and use iNat through (I usually access the website through the “.ca” domain and not the main “.org” one) but instead to iNaturalist directly. See the attached screenshot from the Android app when I open it:

As an iNater that uses iNat through one of your international networks, I request that the default means for donating that is displayed in the app and, for that matter, on your website when accessed through your partner networks’ domains (e.g. “inaturaliat.ca”, “uk.inaturalist.org”) be displayed (or the donation link be directed to it). In the case of the Canadian network, that would be CWF.

I might be wrong but I suspect iNaturalist will increase its international donations if the option to donate through your network partners is made simple to do. And I think at this time, most iNaters outside of the US—especially Canadian ones—would prefer to donate to one of your international partners. Additonally, getting a usable income tax receipt is a bonus.

[carrieseltzer]

Thanks @gerrit_oehm and @pdabell, apologies for the delay.

I definitely understand the desire to support your local institutions and take advantage of the tax benefits that may come with that. However, most of the international network members are not set up to receive donations to support their collaboration with iNaturalist, and there is no exchange of funds between iNaturalist and network members (i.e. there is no fee paid or stipend offered for participation in the network). iNaturalist maintains all of the infrastructure across all of the network sites, which is why we occasionally invite donations to support iNaturalist directly, regardless of network affiliation. If people ask if there’s an organization in their country that they can support instead, we point them to our network members that are set up to receive donations (like Canada, UK, and New Zealand).