Squawk Squad

Just when you thought you wouldn't hear from us again.... we're back! 🎉

(...in order to donate our final closing down funds to some of our favourite causes!)

We've given $250 to Para Kore for their awesome mahi in the waste reduction and Te Ao Māori space (and as a mihi for their support during our programmes), as well as $160 to School Strike 4 Climate NZ for their work in the youth-climate movement! All the best kōrua!

Additionally, earlier in the year, thanks to the generosity of Namaste Foundation we were able to give away $5000k to the Karioi Project and $2000 to Braided River Aid!

Finally, thanks so much to Anita from the Dunedin office of BB&S for her amazing pro-bono accounting work over the years, and now also with the legal closing down paperwork. Ngā mihi BB&S and Anita!

❤️ Squawk Squad

Final act! Sending out remaining stock of Squawk Squad T's to lucky supporters 🎉🎉 We had

Pleased to announce that we've recently been able to donate an additional $5022 to Coast Road Dawn Chorus - bringing the total amount we've donated to an impressive $10,299! Thanks to everyone who helped and we wish them good luck with their conservation efforts! 🦉🌳

Pssst - we still have T-shirts to give-away! Be in quick! https://forms.gle/tytQxCiyTR98YFVq6

🎉🎉 T-SHIRT GIVE-AWAY! 🎉🎉

Fancy a free Squawk Squad T?? As a final thank-you to our supporters - we have a small stock of limited-edition Squawk Squad T's to give away! Beautifully designed by local Wellington artist (Rose Draws ALL of the Birds), fun messaging, and sourced sustainably thanks to Little Yellow Bird. Tag a mate and grab one quickly - it's first-in-first-served until they run-out! (26 fitted(/W) T's, and 29 non-fitted(/M) T's, varying sizes)

https://forms.gle/tytQxCiyTR98YFVq6

PS - check out our brand new teaching platform - just released today publicly!! 🎉 https://www.squawksquad.co.nz/programmes/2020s-antarctica-programme

🎉🎉🎉FULL PUBLIC RESOURCE RELEASE! 🎉🎉🎉
As our departing gift to Aotearoa-NZ - this announcement is to let you know that our new website is now live and fully accessible!

https://www.squawksquad.co.nz/programmes/2020s-antarctica-programme
This is your first chance to check out our highly successful 'Climate Change - An Expedition to Antarctica' programme via the previously limited-access, teacher-only platform, as well as to access all our resources from 2017-2019!

But wait, there's more! 🎉😃

As a final celebration gift we're also giving away limited-edition Squawk Squad T's! Beautifully designed by local Wellington artist (Rose Draws ALL of the Birds), fun messaging, and sourced sustainably thanks to Little Yellow Bird. Tag a friend and grab one quickly - it's first-in-first-served until they run-out! (26 fitted(/W) T's, and 29 non-fitted(/M) T's, varying sizes). Link here! https://forms.gle/tytQxCiyTR98YFVq6

(Thanks Mike Da for the sweet pics!)

Kia ora tātou,

🌳 As you may have heard, earlier this month we made the call to close Squawk Squad down 🌳

Last year we were committed to finding a sustainable future for Squawk Squad. Unfortunately how we have been operating in the past with minimal budgets, small teams and national demand for our work has been far from sustainable. Our challenge has been how to make our environmental education accessible to as many kiwi kids as possible, whilst also finding a sustainable long-term financial model. Over the last eight months, we have explored new business models, different means of partnerships and further opportunities for funding. It is with sadness that we say, we were unable to find a suitable solution.

The decision to close down comes with a mixture of feelings. It was a possibility that we’ve been preparing ourselves for - thus, beyond the sense of loss and missed opportunity, we’re also extremely proud of what we, alongside you (our teacher cohort and supporters) have managed to achieve over the past 4 years. Together, we've helped to engage 50,000 kiwi kids in environmental education - no minor feat! This has come with both measurable impacts and wider immeasurable impact such as that demonstrated by all the fantastic classrooms videos that were sent to us! ❤❤🎉🎉

Squawk Squad has been a family to many and our success is owed to our talented team. Many of whom have given their time above and beyond their tech/aerospace/conservation/ education/volunteer day jobs. We learnt a lot, and couldn’t have been more genuine in our efforts - for that we’re extremely proud to have been part of such a stella group of individuals and friends as we took this journey together.

We’d like to reiterate how thankful we are for all the incredible support we have received over the past 4 years. We will be forever grateful to all of our supporters, donors, teachers, friends, mentors, volunteers and all the other relationships we’ve developed along the way.

Finally, we have been enormously impressed by the amazing teacher cohort who engaged with our content - we are blown away by the incredible mahi and passion that NZ teachers commit to their schools everyday - truly inspirational stuff. Keep up the good work!

We'll be updating our website and aiming to open up our content publicly over the coming weeks so stay tuned for that.

In the meantime, here's a pic from today's Zoom call - a final kōrero to share some of our best memories with some of our awesome contributors from over the past 4years - doing a final SQUAWK SQUAD!!

With closure comes new beginnings, let's see what adventures arise next...

Until next time, ka kite anō ❤🌳🦉
Squawk Squad 2021

Pleased to announce that we've recently donated a total of $6366 to two lucky NZ bird sanctuaries - Thames Coast Kiwi Care and Coast Road Dawn Chorus! This is all thanks to the generosity of our 'trap funders' and is one of the final stages of closing our trapping initiative down. Our focus now lies solely within education! 🎉

The irony here is that in order to proceed with our educational ambitions, we must secure significant baseline funding ($100k+ in the short term). We have a remarkable track record of impact, and proof of future potential, but currently don't have any secured funding to allow us to continue. Kindly send us a message if you have any ideas/referrals that would be worth exploring further! Ngā mihi nui 🙏🌳