The Envelope Please! Ask For It On Your Next Hike

We’re adding something new to the hikes this year that gives all hikers a chance to help keep the Angeles Chapter’s outdoors program vibrant and to protect the places where we like to hike. Every year, Chapter volunteers lead thousands of free, day hikes and walks, open to Sierra Club members and non-members alike.

For the first time, after a hundred years of leading hikes, Chapter leaders will pass around a contributions envelope in a pilot Outings Donation Program. Feel free to bring a few dollars and slip it in the envelope at the hike, but don’t worry if you forget or can’t; day hikes are free and the contribution is voluntary.

The hikes are supposed to be a fun reprieve from the daily grind, and we want to keep this contribution program lighthearted and fun as well. Where does the money go? You’ll be helping the Chapter keep its activities programs alive and its environmental mission up and running.

All those little contributions will add up, big-time. That’s because we lead thousands of hikes a year with tens of thousands of participants. Multiply that across all the activities we lead, and we could raise a tidy sum -- one the Chapter very much needs to raise.

Like almost every nonprofit during this recession, the Chapter is working on ideas for new ways to bring in money. We’re lucky to have such a robust outings program that makes the ask easy – and with so much opportunity for success.

So when you next come on a hike, look for the contribution envelope. If you don’t see it, feel free to ask for “the envelope please.” If nothing else, think of it as a program to recycle a few of your greenbacks into something good for you and the environment.

Here are some FAQs about the new program:

• The program is fully voluntary on the part of leaders and hikers.
• No one is required to donate any money, but they may do so if they wish.
• Those leaders who participate simply pass an envelope around to collect contributions.