AFTA Associates, Incorporated

Backgrounder

AFTA Associates (AFTA) was formed as a 501(c) (3) nonprofit corporation in March 2001. AFTA's mission is to preserve wildlife and habitats through programs that link conservation activities to the well being of local people--making them the beneficiaries and custodians of conservation efforts.

AFTA's mission is based on the premises that:

•  Addressing poverty is key to saving wildlife and habitats - local communities need a source of income that comes from something other than land use and resource depletion.

•  The most promising approach to conservation is one that makes local communities the beneficiaries and custodians of conservation efforts.

•  Conservation enterprises -- economically and ecologically sustainable businesses that improve the economic well-being of the local communities and promote economic alternatives to resource development -- are viewed as increasingly important conservation tools.

•  Cultural preservation is important -- for its own sake, and also because indigenous people live in ways that reflect a conservation ethic and a perception of people as part of a wider community of life and nature. A key to conservation may be through the cultural survival of these peoples. One way to help these cultures thrive is to support their art.

•  Conservation organizations could leverage their visibility and market clout to ensure the long-term viability of sustainable businesses and indigenous cultures that support the conservation effort.

Most conservation organizations educate donors and raise funds through direct marketing programs that offer premiums as thank-you gifts for donations. AFTA believes that substituting indigenous art or ‘conservation enterprise' products for the mugs and t-shirts used today would create a broad and culturally sensitive market for indigenous art and eco-products , by leveraging conservation organizations' reach to the people who care most about conservation -- their donors.

AFTA's flagship program is Art For The Animals™, an education and development program that supports wildlife and nature conservancy by offering donation gift packages through which consumers contribute to one of the participating conservancy organizations (PCO). Each package is designed around an endangered species. The content highlights species related conservation issues, and the PCO's work in this area.

When a consumer makes a charitable donation to a PCO through one of these packages, s/he receives a handcrafted piece of folk or tribal art in recognition of the donation. The art generally represents the featured animal or local culture and is handcrafted by local artisans. The program:

•  educates consumers and raises awareness of endangered species, environmental and sustainable development issues;

•  raises funds for wildlife and nature conservancy;

•  creates a unique, self-fulfilling, culturally sensitive and potentially broad market for indigenous art and conservation enterprise products by offering specific pieces as donor premiums;

•  changes consumer behavior – turning gift giving into wildlife conservationism and support for ecologically sustainable economic systems.

The Art For The Animals program is significant in that it leverages donor support of conservation organizations to ensure the long-term viability of sustainable businesses and indigenous cultures that in turn, support the conservation effort. Thus we create a circular connection between nature conservation and the economic and cultural well being of local people.

AFTA was established in 2001, and launched its pilot program in November of that year. Since then, we have expanded the program to include 12 conservancy organizations, 24 endangered species and places programs, and increased the number of premiums included in the catalog from 19 to 136. Many more of these are true conservation enterprise products, bringing us closer to achieving the circular link between wildlife conservation and the well being of local people. To date AFTA has educated over 235,000 consumers through its catalog, website and special events and contributed over $385,000 to participating organizations' education and conservation programs, conservation enterprise programs and to artisan groups.

Our overall goals for the program are to become a sustainable and significant source of funds for PCOs within the next 5 years while raising consumer awareness of conservation and sustainability issues; creating a broad self-fulfilling market for conservation enterprise products; simplifying the holidays and turning consumer gift-giving behavior into a positive market force.

AFTA Associates was incorporated as a Delaware corporation in March 2001. The company's offices are located in Washington DC and Carmel, California and its phone numbers are 202-258-8793 and 831-250-7274.