Dear friends,
Our Living Delta is a summer campaign to help Restore the Delta fully recover from Covid business conditions so that we can continue with the immediate and necessary work of protecting the San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary during extreme drought conditions. We hope that you can support this campaign with a contribution, and if you have already made a contribution to our campaign, we sincerely thank you.
Last year, Restore the Delta made it through difficult business operations, including the cancellation of our major fundraising event, because of supporters like you. Unlike other organizations and businesses, we tightened our belts, and kept the metaphorical lights on from multiple locations without taking any loans or going into debt. Instead, our staff took pay cuts to keep our organization intact.
We managed to continue monitoring and advocating against state efforts to advance the Delta tunnel, while advocating to bring attention to the spread of harmful algal blooms, an immediate existential threat to the health of the estuary. As extreme drought conditions are gripping the majority of California, our work to protect water quality conditions from toxic algae is more important than ever. We need to be able to fully fund our staff once again for advocacy, media, and policy monitoring work.
Portions of our work, including the training of the next generation of Delta advocates, are and will continue to be funded by grants. Our media work and advanced policy work, which is critical to changing outcomes for Delta management during the drought and to stop the Delta tunnel, however, are not covered fully by such funding. In addition, larger, more substantial grants require matching funding from other sources in order to be awarded. A healthy nonprofit operates on a budget that is blended with grants and contributions from supporters. That is the model that we are following, and we have gained traction in the awarding of grants.
Due to Covid, Restore the Delta, however, has not been able to rebuild its reserves to operate on the advocacy front. This has always been the challenge for us because we face powerful forces that see the Delta as a water station only and who outspend us $1000 to $1 every day. Unfortunately for now, the struggle to protect the estuary is ongoing. While we wish we were working only on positive projects to celebrate the estuary, we are in for a difficult period in which California will be facing harsh realities in water planning. Our work is to advance the case for a health Delta estuary.
The struggle to protect the Delta for future generations did not end with the twin tunnels. The conditions change, as during extreme drought. How we fight for the protection of Delta water quantity and quality, for fish and wildlife, for communities, and for our agriculture and recreational economies evolves and changes in response to the physical and political realities we are dealt. At this moment, while the “Sword of Damocles” continues to hang over us with the Delta tunnel, we have to respond fully to a death by a thousand cuts resulting from mismanagement of the estuary during harsh drought conditions.
Our strength is that we are nimble and that for 15 years we have always been able to adapt to handle what is next for the Delta. We hope that you can help us restore our organization so that we can continue to fight for the restoration of the estuary.
We are grateful for your ongoing support. We believe that the San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary, its waters, its people, its fisheries and wildlife, are worthy of protection and restoration. This is what guides us daily.
You can donate here, or mail a check along with this form to 509 E Main St, Stockton, CA 95202.
Your support of our work is the greatest validation we can receive.
Yours in service,
Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla
Executive Director
Restore the Delta