TWO YEARS AGO Molly Tsongas had an idea bout how to get her
twenty-something peers more
involved in environmental activism. Her concept was simple:
Find 100 people to spend 100
days calling attention to endangered species in any way
they liked.
The 29-year-old San Francisco resident even settled on a
prize for the individuals whose
campaigns fared best—free
tattoos of the species of their
choice.
But while Ms. Tsongas was
long on inspiration and creativity, she lacked the resources and skills to get what she
called “Tatzoo” off the ground.
So she applied for an 18-month
leadership-training program
run by the charity Audubon
and the automaker Toyota and
was selected as one of 40 participants nationwide.
“At the time, it seemed like
such a long shot, but they took
a chance on me,” she says.
Ms. Tsongas received her
training from TogetherGreen,
a program created by Toyota
and Audubon, the century-old
conservation group with headquarters in New York, to support environmental projects
as well as to train and develop
the next generation of environ-
Molly Tsongas (left,
at computer), a
TogetherGreen fellow,
conceived a project that
would reward young people
who successfully called
attention to endangered
species by giving them
commemorative tattoos.
TATZOO
“They are really
going to shape
the future of
the environmental
movement.”
mental leaders. A $20-million
grant—the largest ever made
by Toyota or received by Audubon—will support the program
through 2013.
The automaker and the
charity came to believe that
an investment in conservation
leadership now would improve
environmental results in the
future, partly by helping to mobilize their personal networks
for the cause, according to
Brenda Timm, a spokeswoman
for Audubon.
tive conservation efforts, with
$3.5-million awarded since
2008 to 130 projects, and a vol-
unteerism program aimed at
getting Toyota employees to
lend their help on conservation
projects nationwide.) Every
year 40 fellows are chosen by a
national advisory board on the
basis of their leadership poten-
tial as well as their commit-
ment to inspiring and engag-
ing diverse audiences. Appli-
cants include emerging leaders
in addition to what Judy Braus,
Audubon’s senior vice presi-
dent for education and cen-
ters, terms proven leaders who
“need a shot in the arm.”
Fellows receive a $10,000 sti-
pend and attend a weeklong
boot camp, where they receive
extensive training in such
skills as conservation plan-
ning, fund raising, and strate-
gic communications.
In exchange for the support,
fellows must commit to doing
a conservation-action project
that will reach at least 160
people. One fellow, Lisa Botero,
recruited 200 Miami Beach,
Fla., residents to help with
sand-dune restoration; another
fellow, Ralph Rollins, worked
with local volunteers to restore
a section of the Mississippi
River waterfront in St. Louis
to its former condition based on
historical records and scientific
research. “The training the fellows receive helps them to be
better conservation professionals,” says Ms. Braus.
She notes that accountabil-
ity is also a major component
of the fellowship program. The
fellows return to report on
their projects a year into the
grant, and an external evalu-
ation team made up of schol-
ars from Stanford University,
Clemson University, and Vir-
ginia Tech assesses the proj-
ects’ effectiveness. What’s more
important than the results,
says Ms. Braus, is making fel-
lows realize the need to mea-
sure those results in the first
place.
A ‘Cuddle Mob’
Molly Tsongas used her
$10,000 fellowship to turn her
Tatzoo concept into a reality.
After returning from the
2009 TogetherGreen training, she invested in a Web site,
recruited local tattoo artists
to donate their services, and
started a contest in which people submitted unusual ideas for
promoting species conservation
via Facebook.
“The results were just awesome,” says Ms. Tsongas, who
works as an account manager
and director of social media at
the San Francisco marketing
firm Citizen Group.
One winner: a woman who
brewed her own beer in honor
of the spotted owl, then threw
a “tasting party” to celebrate
the beer’s debut. Each of the
approximately 70 attendees
paid $20, to benefit the Save
the Redwoods League (such
forests are the owl’s natural
habitat), and heard a presenta-
tion by the brewer on the birds
and their plight.
“I’m hooked.
This program
gave me a way
to act on
my passions.”
ganized a “cuddle mob” in San
Francisco’s Dolores Park, with
attendees snuggling up together on the grass to raise awareness. Donations and proceeds
from the sale of sea lion-shaped
cookies and T-shirts that read,
“I’m a Steller Cuddler” went to
the Marine Mammal Center.
TogetherGreen has not only
helped Ms. Tsongas make
the Tatzoo project a suc-
cess, she says, but it has also
changedthe course of her ca-
reer—even her life.
‘A Shot in the Arm’
Even after the two organizations had agreed to develop
a leadership program, however, they spent more than two
years working on the effort
that would become TogetherGreen. Ultimately, they decided the goal would be to spur
“innovation, diversity, and volunteerism,” according to Patricia Pineda, Toyota’s group vice
president for national philanthropy.
At the heart of TogetherGreen is the conservation fellows program that Ms. Tsongas participated in. (
TogetherGreen also includes a grant
program that supports innova-
COURTESY OF TOGETHERGREEN
Volunteerism projects that allow Toyota employees to work on conservation efforts are a
key part of the TogetherGreen program, created by the automaker and Audubon.
