Pledging Types & General Information
This year, all pledges will go directly to the Virginia Society of Ornithology’s Youth Engagement programs!
Pledges may come in two forms: flat pledges or per-species pledges. Flat pledges are essentially donations; the pledging entity will pledge a certain sum to the event, irrespective of their team’s (or the event’s) species total. In per-species pledges, a pledging entity will pledge a certain sum for each species counted by the team. For example, if Ms. Sparrow pledges $2 for each species Team Warbler counts and Team Warbler counts 126 species, Ms. Sparrow will donate $252. A pledging entity may place a cap on how much they’re willing to pledge in a per-species pledge (i.e. if Ms. Sparrow caps the pledging amount at $200, she will donate $200 rather than $252).
If you are a team captain collecting pledges or an individual/organization hoping to contribute a pledge, please see the tabs below for more information and then fill out your respective form.
Pledge Information for Teams
Teams will be responsible for securing and collecting their own pledges. Prior to the Big Day, the team will reach out to potential pledging entities, and once a pledge is secured they will fill out the form linked below. Then, after the event, the Big Day Committee will send emails to team captains regarding each team’s totals and payment information. Each team’s captain will collect the pledges and send one combined check to the Virginia Society of Ornithology.
If you are a team captain looking to secure pledges, it is recommended that you include the following information in your outreach attempts:
- Information regarding the Virginia Big Day and its purpose (who’s organizing it, what’s happening, et cetera)
- All pledges will go to the Virginia Society of Ornithology’s Young Birder Programs
- Pledges may be flat or per-species, capped or uncapped (see information above)
- Pledging entities will be recognized on the VBD website, in social media posts, and through other media.
- A link to this website, the about page &/or VBD rules
Pledging Information for Pledgers
If you are an individual or an organization hoping to pledge but have not been contacted by a team, you have a couple of options for pledging.
First, you could pledge to the entire event. In that case, flat pledges would act normally and per-species pledges would be based on the total number of species seen by all teams combined. For reference, last years’ teams totaled 142 species. Recall that you can cap a per-species pledge amount. If you hope to pledge to the entire event, please fill out the form linked below.
If you’d rather pledge to a team but haven’t been contacted by one, you can navigate to the “The Teams” tab in the menu. If a team opts to do so, its contact information will be listed and you can connect via email to that team to offer a pledge.