Plant-It 2020

PLANT-IT 2020 CORPORATE PARTNERSHIPS:

• 'X' number of trees get planted related to the sales of various products o 'X' number of trees get planted related to services performed
• 'X' number of trees get planted as a 'thank you' to suppliers/distributors
• 'X' number of trees get planted as a 'thank you' to employees and/or customers
• 'X' number of trees get planted as a way for the company to 'Go Green' and give back to their community or the world at large
• 'X' number of trees get planted as a way for the company to assist fire-damaged areas within the United States
• 'X' number of trees get planted as a way for the company to offset their use of wood/paper and/or their carbon dioxide emissions.
• Any combination of the above.

1. A single US location: A great choice for a company with a single office and clients in one state.
2. Multiple US locations: A great choice for a company with a regional and/or national client base.
3. Equatorial locations: Best for global warming reduction and carbon sequestration
4. Multiple locations across the globe: Best for companies with an international presence/clientele.
5. Humanitarian reforestation: Best for helping reduce hunger, thirst and malnutrition among people.
6. Species preservation: Best for helping save an endangered species such as the Monarch Butterfly through reforestation.
7. Fire-damaged forests within the United States: Best for companies and/or clients sensitive to the destruction of forests by fire.

• Timing: Most US locations only plant in Spring or Spring through Summer. A few areas plant even longer or year round. Quite often, Plant-It 2020 needs the funds in our hands the September or October before the next year's planting (usually for Spring and Spring/Summer plantings) so this is usually a long-range project for companies to invest in. Companies need to plan nine months to a year ahead in most cases. Cities planting year round or a few other locations can in some cases get buy with only one-to-several months of advance notice.
• Content. A quality, customized, city tree-planting event would be a high-profile event generating tremendous 'good will' among the city residents along with generating tremendous positive publicity. Volunteers may include, neighbors, schoolchildren, civic groups, politicians, youths-at-risk, sponsor employees and so forth. Plant-It 2020 has a strong history of providing successful, custom city tree-planting events providing tremendous positive publicity for sponsors. These events do carry certain risks however. Delays due to rain and/or a busy news day can dramatically reduce publicity.

• Media publicity
• Customer/employer/distributor respect
• Public goodwill
• Being seen as a 'green company'
• Talking points/competitive advantage
• Employee involvement (when planting trees)
• Repairing a poor image (when applicable)

• We only plant indigenous trees with a priority for non-harvest locations. Practically all other reforestation organizations plant seedlings only or almost exclusively in places where the trees will later be logged. This provides you with a 'talking point' absent when partnering with other companies, less chance of appearing to be 'green-washing' and increased carbon offset as the trees will be alive far longer.
• We offer 1) the largest list of worldwide locations available and 2) the ability for the contributor to choose which location(s) they want their trees planted. Competitors usually plant in few locations and often no choice between them.
• Highly customized tree-planting programs and events. The level of customization in our city and rural reforestation promotions is unmatched in the industry.
• We perform both tree-seedling and urban tree-planting events. Almost no other groups do both. Those that claim to do tend to be weak or deceptive in one or the other.
• We offer 'straight talk'. For example, we discuss how a sponsor can in some cases increase their good will and positive publicity far more by doing certain things that are free rather than throwing more money at us past a certain point. Competitors prefer to suck your money as much as possible. In addition, we educate our sponsors and the public about the fraud and greenwashing that goes on in this industry and what questions you need to ask in order to protect yourself.
• At least 85% of income generated from our seedling and city tree programs goes towards the costs of those programs. We operate with 15% or less of such funds going towards administrative costs.
• We have and have always had a sterling reputation. There are some organizations with the industry who's reputation is horrible and others who's reputation is constantly going up and down.

In summary, we provide more locations, more customization, more honesty and more types of events (urban, rural and virtual-to-real), with less waste than our competitors – with a priority for no-logging locations.

1. Either party can cancel the partnership at any time for any reason.
2. Both parties need to get permission from the other before they provide any written copy mentioning the partnership to the web or in promotional materials.
3. Payment will be monthly or quarterly.

Can we use your logo?
Yes, once you have given us your 'Letter of Intent' or when we have a signed contract.

What types of pics or video can we get of the trees being planted?
For international tree-planting events, we can now get still pics (and sometimes video) of many-to-most of our locations. For US events, we cannot provide media for seedling planting in most locations but we can provide pics and video of our city tree-planting events.

Who coordinates and physically plants the trees?
This can vary extensively. Our Volunteer and State 'Coordinators' create and coordinate some tree-planting events with volunteer help but sometimes they may assist a city Parks and Recreation Department. There is a national organization that plants nearly all of the seedlings going into US forests and they use volunteer and contract labor for assistance. Our international seedling plantings are coordinated by a number of reputable reforestation organizations that train indigenous people how to do it themselves and become self sufficient in continuing the process. Sometimes, we will work with foreign city governments when planting city trees in non-US cities. All groups we partner with are carefully vetted and represent the 'cream-of-the-crop' of the reforestation industry.

What are some of the scams that go on in this industry?
There sadly are some organizations that are more interested in making money than in doing a great job. One way is for the crappy group to get a grant for say 100,000 free tree seedlings. Getting grants for free seedlings is remarkably easy to do. This tree-planting group is one of the many who have copied our dollar-per-tree idea.
Then, the organization rakes-in $100,000 to plant the 100,000 trees. Thus, 100,000 trees are planted rather than 200,000 and they profit $100,000 (100%) if they donate the trees or get volunteers to plant them.

Another scam is to direct the seedlings to a particular national municipal organization that plants trees. The seedlings go into future harvest locations but some-to-many of those locations already have sufficient funding for the purchase of the seedlings so those excess funds then get redirected into administration. Thus, far less trees get planted than was initially funded. In this situation, it is not the reforestation group the sponsor is funding that is doing the scam but the municipal sub-contractor.

A third scam is for a reforestation organization to purchase the cheapest seedlings they can (sometimes they will even call a tree-seed a tree) and simply plant them as cheaply as possible. The seedlings may be inappropriate for the location, too young and so forth. The ultimate result is a very low survival rate.

Why don't you plant trees in more locations?
Within the US, our locations for seedlings need to be on publicly-owned land. There must be a Certified Arborist, City Forester, or Silviculturist who first analyzes and designs the project. The seedlings must be indigenous and grown from a location very near where they will be planted. There must be funding and a program for maintenance when required. The survival rate must be high. The location must either be a no-logging location protected by contract (our preference) or a special situation to restore denuded areas damaged by wildfire, beetle or other natural disasters. With all of these conditions, finding suitable locations is a long, hard process.

How can you plant a tree for such low cost?
Terrific question. Seedling costs vary by species, age and other factors. Hardwoods for example cost more than most other types. The costs also vary over time partly by the cost of gas. Seedling costs for our non-US planting locations may cost more or less than seedlings planted within the US. We average paying approximately $US 0.85 cents per the purchase cost of a seedling overall when the actual purchase costs of US and non-US are averaged. If our average costs were to ever dip below $US 0.80 near then end of a fiscal year then we would direct sufficiently more trees to be planted until the actual costs are about $US 0.85 per seedling.

Additional costs can come into play. For example, if a seedling costs $US 0.75 but after talking to the Silviculturist we learn that if they had some extra funding, they could increase the health and survival rate, we might agree to pay $US 0.90 instead so that they grow the seedlings a little longer, add beneficial fungus to the roots, etc. Thus, costs can increase when you want to do the job properly.

Why don't you hand-out or mail tree seedlings?
Industry experts are deeply unimpressed with this type of approach. First, the long-term survival rate is low. Second, the trees given out do not always 'best match' the species that is most appropriate for the altitude and zone where they are going into the ground. We view this as a 'feel good' PR tactic used by some tree-planting groups.

Thank you for considering partnering with Plant-It 2020. Our goal is to serve your needs better than any other reforestation foundation ever could. Please feel free to discuss how we can move forward.