It’s the Tuesday after American Thanksgiving, which is a day we have come to call Giving Tuesday. For those maybe less familiar with it, it’s a day where we put consumerism aside and open up our wallets (whatever remains) to charity.

Here at NE, we like to use Giving Tuesday to look back on the year. We’re grateful this year for so much, including that this year, we have a healthy, happy team. We’re also grateful to our manufacturing partners who got us through the past few years and with whom we hope to keep growing and doing new and exciting things. Watch this space in 2024…we got plans.

And of course, we’re grateful for our customers, because you let this little band of nerds do what we love to do. You’ve purchased modules, yes, but you also have written in with a kind word, a thought-provoking question, an idea, or just to say hello. You’ve chatted with us on social media and maybe even interacted with other NE nerds. You have said hello to our pets, you’ve come to events, and have just generally been lovely. Maybe you even wrote in on the question of the week last week with a question for us to answer in our annual video. We’re excited about that. So…thank you. 

Are you looking for a nice place to support? Here are a few we love, each of whom is doing a Giving Tuesday fundraiser! We’ve even organized them into a couple of categories.

1% for the Planet

We know how fortunate we are here at NE and we believe in giving back. As members of 1% for the Planet, we commit to donating 1% of our annual sales (not profit) to environmental causes. This allows us to support a variety of environmental non-profits that have been vetted for us. When you buy a new Noise Engineering product, whether it’s from us or from one of our retail partners, you’ll have third-party verification that we live up to this promise. 

This year, we have been fortunate to be able to continue to support a variety of great partners. We thought we would take a minute and give you an idea of how you have participated in this Giving Tuesday without even lifting a finger if you purchased any Noise Engineering products this year! (aka the “buy a module, feel good about yourself excuse). 

A note up front:

Give if you can, but it’s okay if you can’t

This is a post about Giving Tuesday, and we’re talking about donations: those we have made, and some suggestions for charities we love.  

If you buy a module, 1% of the sale goes to charity.

If you give to the charity, all of it does.

But here’s a moment to say that not everyone is in a position to give or purchase. If you’re not, you’re not. There’s nothing wrong with that!

2023 Environmental Giving

This year, we continued our relationship with SavePangolins.org. Save Pangolins supports conservation projects around the world with the goal of protecting all eight species of pangolin from extinction. They do this by raising awareness of pangolins, facilitating collaboration between organizations, and funding conservation efforts. Save Pangolins was our first conservation partnership, running back to 2017. One percent of the proceeds from every Manis Iteritas plugin, Manis Iteritas module (prior to its demise), or Manis Iteritas Alia goes to Save Pangolins.

In 2020, we announced a relationship with Bat Conservation International for our Desmodus Versio. Bats are absolutely essential to ecosystems and BCI is a leading conservation organization working to conserve the world’s bats. One percent of every Desmodus module or plugin sold goes directly to BCI.

Last year, we did a limited run of pink Loquelic Iteritas and donated 100% of the proceeds to the Macaw Recovery Network. MRN serves to protect and recover endangered parrot populations in the Americas. They do this through rehabilitation and breeding programs, nest monitoring, habitat protection, and community partnership. MRN’s women ranger program empowers women who lost tourism and hospitality employment after the pandemic to work as conservation rangers for the Great Green macaw. They do great work, and we loved partnering with them so much that we decided to make that an ongoing partnership. Not convinced? Throughout December, they’ll be running a campaign called “Give Your Future Wings” where they’ll share team interviews and stories on their socials. 

We also started donating to SeaTrees to offset our carbon emissions from shipping. We’ve talked in the past about how offsets aren’t a perfect solution, but we refuse to let perfect be the enemy of good. SeaTrees plants and restores coastal ecosystems across five ecosystem types: mangrove forests, kelp forests, seagrass meadows, coral reefs, and coastal watersheds.

We also (finally) got around to supporting amphibians last year. Kris’s background in amphibian and reptile conservation made this one important to her, and it was a special moment to be able to support Amphibian Foundation. AF is based in Atlanta, Georgia, and works to connect individuals, communities and organizations in order to create and implement lasting solutions to the global amphibian extinction crisis.

This year, we discovered Brave Trails. This incredible organization is dedicated to LGBTQ+ youth leadership. They offer accredited summer camps, backpacking trips, family camps, mental health services, meet-up groups, and year-round leadership programming, all with the goal of helping the youth they serve thrive. 

A few music initiatives we love

We also discovered the Composers Diversity Collective (CDC) this year, courtesy of our pal René. The CDC works to eliminate the composing industry’s challenge to find diverse music creatives, to encourage the inclusion of diverse voices in the film and TV industry, and to dispel misconceptions about the stylistic range of underrepresented composers. Through its advocacy and commitment, the organization has helped to create a more vibrant, representative, and inclusive music community for composers of all backgrounds. We have a few things in the works with CDC, and hope to get more involved with them in 2024.

AFRORACK has been around for a few years, devoted to diverse community access via a collection of workshops, seminars, and ambitious programming centered around STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education. Give confidently here knowing that 100% of online donations go straight to their education programming.

We Make Noise (formerly Beats By Girlz) harnesses the power of music and technology to advance global gender equity, equipping our communities with tools that cultivate limitless potential. In a nutshell, they teach workshops around the world for all ages, to help bring access to production, songwriting, mixing, and more to a wide range of audiences.

Volunteer time

We offer everyone a day off per month for volunteer time here at NE, but I wish I had better stats on how much volunteering we did. We did get out and plant some trees that will eventually be a part of a microforest. It was a fun and dirty day. One goal in 2024 is to increase the amount of volunteer time the team takes.

Closing out the year

As we wind down the year, we’ll be closing out the books, calculating contributions, and sending money to some of these programs. If you’re looking for environmentally friendly organizations to contribute to, consider taking a look at the 1% for the Planet directory -- organizations in the directory are vetted and span a wide range of focus areas, from climate justice and urban infrastructure to gender equality; indigenous land rights to supply chain sustainability; conservation policy to environmental education, and beyond.

Thanks for supporting us!