By Bruce Ross, Executive Director – bross@wisducks.org
This article appeared in the Wisconsin Waterfowl Association’s June 2025 Newsletter edition.
WWA Grassroots Campaign
As a general backdrop, volunteerism across the country is on the decline.
In the conservation world, banquet-style fundraising is also on the decline. Typically, we see a strong leader or group of leaders running an event with friends, and it’s great as long as it lasts. But frequently, we make no provisions for the next generation of leadership, so when they get tired of doing it, it just stops existing. That pattern repeats.
Recognizing that pattern, WWA has embarked on a grassroots rebuilding campaign that focuses less on raising funds, and more on doing work that volunteers feel engaged by, such as hands-on habitat work, NexGen Waterfowler onboarding, policy advocacy work—i.e., WWA missions at the local level. We now have well-formed and successful state-level committees focused on state-level activities, but we’re really just beginning to concentrate our energy on the grassroots piece, so this represents a ground-floor opportunity.
Local fundraising to support state-level activities is still important, but we’re working to make that a smaller and easier part of establishing a local chapter. Social media plays a role too in connecting and keeping people connected over waterfowling, so we’ve grown our social media effort, but we need to develop better connectivity locally to folks who want to roll up their sleeves.
Of course, establishing that local chapter-level effort requires effort, which is why we are hiring new part-time regional directors, and also looking for volunteers who want to play a role in this re-building effort.
Build it and they will come. Right now we are still building the structure—want to help? Info@wisducks.org
