Storytelling for Impact

“So photography, for me,” she continued, “turned from [a] means of funding my own personal pursuits to a vector for telling stories and sharing little bits of information.” Broaddus also shared that through her work and travel for National Geographic Kids, she photographed and learned quite a bit about endangered species, climate change, and particularly biodiversity loss. She also learned that she wanted to do something. That something was creating a youth-led biodiversity conservation nonprofit organization. 

“We've all heard about climate change; biodiversity loss is a parallel problem, and it’s not talked about that much,” she shared. “I also found out that only .18% of all global philanthropy goes toward conservation of intact habitats. That is not anywhere near enough to fight this challenge. I realized I needed to do something … so I met up with Bella Lack. She had 150,000 followers on Twitter, and she was 16. I said, ‘I want to create a youth-funded nature reserve. I want to get young people around the world interested in saving our biodiversity hotspots.’ And she was like, ‘Why don't we do it together?’ So we put out this tweet, a bunch of people responded, and soon it became Reserva: The Youth Land Trust. That's my nonprofit.”

Reserva's mission is “to empower young people to make a measurable difference for threatened species and habitats through conservation, education, and storytelling” — and make a difference they have. The nonprofit includes about 100 people ages 26 and under from 30 countries. Broaddus shared that the organization recently reached its fundraising goal to establish and protect the Dracula Youth Reserve, an entirely youth-funded 244-acre private area in the Andean Chocó cloud forest of northwestern Ecuador. She also spoke about their newest project — expansion of the reserve after finding evidence of gold mining on neighboring land.

“We decided as a group, rather than moving on and starting another reserve elsewhere, we were going to buck up and try to fundraise what we needed to save 1050 acres of that forest right there,” she shared. “We're only about $13,000 away from completing this 1,050-acre expansion of the reserve.”

Throughout her presentation, Broaddus shared many of the beautiful photos she captured on their various expeditions explaining, “I just want to highlight that this photography is all now to serve the science. They used to just kind of take a cell phone picture, and that's not really inspiring anyone. We also were using all of these images and sending them to the municipal government, and they got so jazzed about Dracula Reserve that they plastered one of their trucks. This is big … the government is the group that gives out these mining concessions. So the more we can get the government on our side, the more chance we have of saving this reserve.” 

Broaddus finished her presentation with the heartbreaking and poignant story of her nature-loving, climate advocate younger sister, Finley, who, during her senior year of high school, was diagnosed with an aggressively fatal cancer. From her hospital bed, Finley set up a fund to raise $18,000 to fight climate change by her 18th birthday. By that day, she had raised $70,000, and by the day she died, she had raised $100,000.

“All because one 18-year-old girl shared a story and what she was passionate about and asked for help. This is how I know young people have enormous financial power to inspire others and make a real difference for nature. Everyone has a story. And we can all help out.”