MP to match $50,000 in Access Fund Memberships and Donations

I'm not a very good climber, but like most of you, it means a lot to me. Many of my best adventures, memories, and future plans evolve around climbing. And our ability to climb at many, if not most, of our beloved climbing areas have benefited from the work of the Access Fund and the local climbing organizations it supports.

In the last year:

• AF preserved access at 179 climbing areas across the country.
• Purchased Eagle Bluff in Maine, Hidden Valley in Virginia, and portions of Unaweep Canyon in Colorado to ensure permanent climbing access.
• As usual, they built miles of trail, hosted hundreds of Adopt-a-Crag events, and lobbied for climbers across America.

The Access Fund has about 12,000 members. Last month alone, Mountain Project had 340,000 unique users. A lot of you contribute enormously to climbing (thanks!), but it's safe to say that a VAST majority of dedicated climbers could do more to help protect our access. We hope to close this disparity, at least a little, and we'll put our money where our mouth is.

From June 15-30, MP will match all new and renewing memberships and donations to Access Fund up to $50,000.

Join, Renew, or Give to Access Fund today.

MP matching $50k to Access Fund

Just gave $100.
Let's do it folks, make Nick pay!!!
Put that REI money to good use.

If you can't afford $100, send $1. Do something for the sport you love.

Just re-upped. Also made sure to support my LCO (Boulder Climbing Community, for me).
The Access Fund will extend your membership from the current date of expiration, plus you become an LCO member from the date of the gift through the end of the last extension.

The amount of the gift is not so important, really, though more is better.
The real matter at hand is if you are supporting access to the sport you love to an extent to which you feel good about.

With 300k+ MP members and 12k AF members, I've got to think that a few more folks could sign up and feel pretty good about that.

+1, Let's keep it rolling!

Signed up for my girlfriend and I, with a donation to my (sort of local) LCO, the Red River Gorge Climbers Coalition.

Thanks for the find, Nick!

(Oh and donate $50 or more and get a t-shirt that may or may not increase your grade two levels)

I just made my annual contribution. It feels good to know that my $50 is now $100!! Any way to get updates that track how much of the $50k match MP users have used leading up to the June 30 deadline? It would be a shame to see any of that left on the table.

This is amazing; thanks MP! I just donated to the Access Fund. Every climber should!

Gruff wrote: Any way to get updates that track how much of the $50k match MP users have used leading up to the June 30 deadline?

Any comment on that, Nick?

We were at $8,000 raised an hour ago - to be matched with $8k more!

BTW, if you're an AF member and want to display the AF badge next to your name, go to your account page and look for the checkbox near the bottom.
mountainproject.com/scripts…

Just joined. Pay up MP. :)

No reason not to join when the minimum membership fee is $35, and every dollar counts! Help AF keep our climbing areas open and maintained!!

Donated.

Uh oh, the new REI ownership is already spreading its evil!!!

Oh, wait, this is awesome!

Thanks Nick!

Just wanted a T-shirt.

Done, did. no mention of the MP affiliation on the access fund website when joining. Is the join link coded for the MP match, or is it all donations regardless of MP affiliation??

Thanks mountainhick, and all the others who have donated! We're up to several hundred donations. This is definitely going to be meaningful, but we have a few hundred thousand people to convince still!

ALL donations to the AF for the last two weeks of June will be matched, so there's no concern about identifying the source of your contribution.

Thanks again folks!

Halfway there! $25,000 in donations have been raised so far. As someone above said: make us pay!

Donated!

Nick Wilder wrote: This is definitely going to be meaningful, but we have a few hundred thousand people to convince still!

Yep.

As previously stated:

"With 300k+ MP members and 12k AF members, I've got to think that a few more folks could sign up and feel pretty good about that. "

Seriously... 1200 new members would be a 10% increase, which is great, but if things were as they should be, a 100% increase would be on the low side of fair.

Here's to hoping that people will come out of the stonework and join.

PS- OK, Really there are only 200k+ MP members. 100k of them are Elanor. (snort).

Thanks for doing this! I just renewed.

I added the $15 to renew with my local climbing organization as well (BCC for me). Are you matching that as well?

I renewed again - thanks for the kick in the butt to do it.

If you shop on amazon, you can shop via smile.amazon.com and register the access fund as your charity - amazon donates a bit for each purpose. Not a bad option for kicking them a little more cash.

I too have a question about the joint membership with the local climbing association. About a month ago I was looking into joining the Access Fund and they had a deal where for $35 you could join the Access Fund and your local climbing association for the same $35. Now I see that for the matching there is the $35 membership to the Access Fund and you can opt for the additional $15 for the local climbing association, for a total of $50. I know I'm being a cheapskate but I don't really have $50 bucks to spare right now and was hoping to do the joint deal but is that not an option with this fund matching? I could try to scrape some change together and throw in the $50 and feel good about it being matched, but we'll see.