Black Friday Giving

For over thirty years, Patagonia has given one percent of sales to fund grassroots groups working to protect and conserve the environment in their communities around the globe. We call it our “Earth Tax.” So far, we’ve given away over 100 million dollars.

Environmental nonprofits account for only three percent of philanthropic giving, yet climate change and the ecological crisis are the greatest threats we have ever faced. We’re running out of fresh water, topsoil, fish and wetlands. Nature cannot adapt to the current velocity of global warming. Just one fact among many: This year, a study showed that the number of birds in North America has dropped by 29 percent since 1970. That’s 2.9 billion fewer birds. 

We often feel helpless when faced with facts like these. And the best antidote to helplessness is action. We believe giving modest grants to thousands of grassroots groups around the globe makes real change possible. We gave to Save the Blue Heart of Europe and supported a small band of women from a village in Bosnia-Herzegovina who occupied a bridge for 18 months and prevented two dams from destroying their wild river. The Park County Environmental Council were among our grantees. They worked against exploratory gold mining in the northern entrance of our beloved Yellowstone National Park. That work resulted in a court ruling that invalidates the exploration license—a significant victory to protect Yellowstone from new mining development. We gave to the Oregon Natural Desert Association, and recently, Senators Wyden and Merkley introduced a bill to protect over 1.1 million acres of public land as wilderness in Oregon.

These and other small organizations work to restore forests and rivers, take down dams, mitigate climate change, protect endangered plants and animals, and support regenerative organic agriculture. Last year, we shared these groups with all of you when we launched Patagonia Action Works, a way to connect our customers with our causes and encourage everyone to take action in their local communities. Our customers answered with action and donated over 4 million dollars in volunteer hours. They participated in hundreds of thousands of actions to save our home planet.   

We are so inspired by all of you, and this year, we thought we would make giving easy. You can give to any Patagonia Action Works group (in your name or in the name of a friend or relative), and Patagonia will match each and every donation. (With a wink and a friendly nudge, you might include those relatives or friends who refuse to believe in climate science.) Starting on Black Friday and through the month of December, you can choose to send a digital eCard, print a card from home or pick up a physical card in any Patagonia store. Patagonia will match every dollar you give. No purchase of Patagonia product is required for donations to be eligible for matching.

Black Friday is often a day when we go out and buy things we don’t really need and give them to people who don’t really want them. This year, consider giving to our home planet in the name of someone you love. Give to the tireless, community-based groups who work to save clean water and air in your neighborhoods, our public land treasures, our wild animals and birds, and our wide oceans. Give to everything that sustains us and keeps us alive. Patagonia will match your generosity, dollar for dollar.

We are thankful for all of you at this time of giving, and for the creatures and wild places we love.