Wild Gift - Leaders United for a Better World

What We Do

Wild Gift is a non-profit organization that supports the initiatives of leaders, ages 21-30, through a four-part, seventeen-month learning opportunity. Every year, five leaders are selected to receive the Wild Gift, a value of $11-15,000 per leader. Applicants write a personal vision statement and translate that vision into a proposal for a leadership action project that will benefit the natural environment and human community. Visit the application page for more information. The project proposal is refined during Part One, Leadership Project Mentoring and Part Two, Deep Wilderness Trek, into a working contract. During Part Three, Leadership Action Project, recipients are supported for one year to implement their projects in the real world. Near the end of that year, Wild Gift recipients reunite during Part Four, Leadership Enrichment, a seven-day synthesis trek in Idaho's Frank Church River of No Return wilderness, to share project results with peers, mentors and Wild Gift Board and to strategize for the future success of the project. A new component of the Wild Gift program, the Leader Network, supports the work of alumni and keeps them connected to each other and wild nature.

Part One: Leadership Project Mentoring

The objective of project mentoring is to help each Wild Gift recipient refine his or her leadership action project proposal into a working contract that is practical, aligned with the recipient's own personal mission statement, and will succeed in the field. Project mentoring occurs at two levels – prior to and during the field work – according to the following timeline:

MAY: Upon being selected, the recipient works with the Wild Gift Executive Director to identify mentors and technical expertise for the project. A first contract draft is produced that specifies the project mission, goals, action plan, budget, partnerships, deliverables and evaluation criteria.

JUNE-JULY: A second contract draft is produced. Preparation for deep wilderness trek.

AUGUST: Further project refinement occurs during the twenty-day deep wilderness trek, where the recipient defends his or her project while receiving counsel from peers and trek mentors.

SEPTEMBER: Post deep wilderness trek, the recipient writes the final working contract in consultation with Wild Gift director and his or her mentors.

OCTOBER-SEPTEMBER: The second level of mentoring occurs during the year of field work and is provided by the project partners identified in the contract. Project partners are critical to completion of the project. They assist during the actual project work. Quarterly progress reports and consultation with the Wild Gift Executive Director and Mentor Committee Chair are required. Contract adjustments are made following the quarterly evaluation.

Part Two: Deep Wilderness Trek

In addition to launching the leadership action project, Wild Gift nurtures leadership skills. During the twenty-day deep wilderness trek, discussion topics include leadership qualities, collaboration and decision-making, sustainability and lifestyle, and relationship and communication. Pre-trek, the Wild Gift Executive Director charges recipients to research and facilitate discussion on several topics.

The deep wilderness trek is a 20-day backpack trek across one of the wilderness classrooms descibed below and is led by a trained guide and Wild Gift mentor(s). Although prior outdoor experience is not required, the deep wilderness trek is physically and mentally intense. Pre-trek, the recipient will be in contact with the trek guide relative to conditioning and equipment/clothing requirements.

Beyond the rewards of overcoming physical/mental challenges and learning wilderness travel techniques, each class of leaders will use the stunningly beautiful backdrop of the deep wilderness classroom to discuss issues relating to wildness, wildlands stewardship, leadership and the assigned topics. They will draw from their pre-trek research, as well as from the people and places they encounter along the way. Inspired by wildness and the group dynamic, Wild Gift recipients use their group as a 'think tank' to achieve consensus on topics presented, refine leadership action contracts and collaboratively decide any trekking route changes. Relationships that may last a lifetime will be forged.

Wild Gift covers all land costs including guide service, lodging, food, and bush plane flights during the deep wilderness and synthesis treks. Recipients are responsible for securing their own equipment and clothing as advised by the trek guide. They are also responsible for expenses incurred traveling to and from the deep wilderness trek trailheads but are eligible for a stipend of up to $700 to reimburse these expenses.

Part Three: Leadership Action Project

The defining component of the Wild Gift opportunity is the self designed leadership action project. It provides Investors the opportunity to support young leaders who are making an impact now, not tomorrow.

Projects are not limited to American communities. They may be located anywhere in the world (communities in Haiti, Chile and Ladakh are examples of Wild Gift project sites) but the applicant must represent partnerships and/or experience in the location selected. The project proposal will be evaluated on its promise to improve natural and social conditions at the project site in both the short and long term. We favor projects that are models that can be replicated and will continue beyond the one-year Wild Gift contract.

Part Four: Leadership Enrichment

The goal of Wild Gift is to foster a life-long commitment to leadership that benefits humankind and the natural environment and to build an expanding network of leaders who provide a collective wisdom and are a resource for individual and collaborative leadership projects. To this end, we support the skill and well-being of the individual leader during and after the Wild Gift learning opportunity.

Near the end of their leadership action projects, Wild Gift recipients travel to Sun Valley, Idaho, the home of the Wild Gift organization. Reunited in the largest wilderness in the contiguous forty-eight states, Idaho’s Frank Church River of No Return wilderness, they present their project results to peers, alumni and investors during a seven-day synthesis trek. Current projects may be expanded and new collaborative projects spawned. Through its Leader Network, Wild Gift keeps alumni in touch and informed about project developments and employment opportunities associated with their work. And there will always be the opportunity for alumni to return to the wild as mentors to new Wild Gift recipients and to assist on donor trips.

Funding and Implementation. Wild Gift recipients receive a grant of $8,500-$12,500 to launch their project. The project grant is in addition to the gifts of the deep wilderness trek and leadership enrichment. The amount of the project grant will be decided by the Wild Gift recipient selection committee based upon the nature and scope of the project and the thoroughness of the project budget analysis. Project funds are disbursed quarterly, the amount dependent upon the quarterly evaluation.

Wilderness Classrooms

Wild Gift and its mission are the manifestation of founder Bob Jonas’ belief that deep wilderness areas serve as excellent classrooms for cultivating leadership qualities and building relationships. Born in Alaska, Bob has dedicated the past 40 years of his life to exploring the wild country of Alaska and the American West. He and the Wild Gift Board have selected favorite places, the largest and most remote American wilderness areas, as Wild Gift classrooms. These are places where few, if any, people are encountered during the 20-day period of the Deep Wilderness Experience. Trained guides and mentors lead each trek in one of the following deep wilderness classrooms:

1) The Sawtooth & White Cloud Wilderness (IDAHO)

Located in the heart of Idaho, the spectacular mountains of the Sawtooth and White Cloud ranges encompass over 300 high lakes nestled in steep alpine tarns. Forty peaks are higher than 10,000 feet. Forests of pine and fir are punctured by granite cliffs and fanged towers. The Wild Gift Trek through the ranges is almost entirely off-trail, ascending and descending very rugged terrain. The mountains are the headwaters of the famed Salmon River and part of the 765,000 acre Sawtooth National Recreation Area. The SNRA is home to charismatic large wildlife including wolves, wolverines, black bear, mountain loins, mountain sheep, mountain goats, moose, deer and elk. Located just north of Sun Valley, Idaho, the SNRA is contiguous with the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. The SNRA was established by Congress in 1972 "to assure the preservationand protection of the natural, scenic, historic, pastoral, and fish and wildlife values and to provide for the enhancement of the recreation values of the Sawtooth Valley region. Subdivisions in the Valley have actually been torn down to conserve scenic and wildlife values, making the SNRA one of the few areas in the United States to counter the tide of recreational housing development in a truly graphic way.

Sample presentation topics:
o The new politics of Wilderness Preservation in the US: The Central Idaho Economic Development and Recreation Act
o Rural Economies and Wilderness Preservation
o Motorized and non-motorized recreation management.

2) Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness (IDAHO)

At 2.6 million acres, “the Frank” is the largest designated National Forest wilderness in the continental United States. It encompasses the drainage of the famed Middle Fork of the Salmon River, one of America’s charter Wild and Scenic Rivers. Two other Wild and Scenic Rivers, the Main Salmon and the Selway, also renowned whitewater rivers, traverse the wilderness. The Frank is an extremely rugged mountain landscape of soaring peaks and plunging river canyons (the Main and Middle Fork canyons are deeper than the Grand Canyon). The Frank and Yellowstone National Park were chosen for wolf reintroduction to the continental United States in 1995. Remnant runs of king salmon still spawn in the Frank’s pristine streams. The seventeen month Wild Gift opportunity concludes in the Frank Church River of No Return wilderness. During a float on the famed Middle Fork, the leaders present their project results to peers, mentors, alumni and Wild Gift Board. Strategies for continued project success are plotted and wilderness issues discussed.

Common Literature:
• Of Wolves and Men by Barry Lopez
• The Middle Fork and the Sheepeater War by Carry & Conley

Sample Presentation topics:
• The challenge of Endangered Species conservation
• Issues of United States Wildfire Management Policy
• Limited entry wilderness recreation management: issues and impacts of non-motorized recreation

3) Wrangell - St. Elias National Park and Preserve (ALASKA)

Bordering Canada’s Yukon Territory and the Gulf of Alaska, Wrangell - St. Elias is the largest U.S. National Park, covering an area equivalent to six Yellowstones. It is the biggest unit of four contiguous parks in the Yukon and Alaska that constitute the largest internationally protected wildlands on Earth. Wrangell – St. Elias includes 9 of North America’s 16 highest peaks and the most extensive non-polar icefields in the world. The Park was designated a World Heritage Site by the United Nations in 1979.

While backpacking, rafting or skiing in Wrangell - St. Elias National Park, young leaders cross mountains, streams, and glaciers that have been visited by few humans. Grizzly and black bears, wolverines, and Dall sheep are likely to be seen along the way.

Wild Gift founder Bob Jonas began exploring Wrangell St. Elias in 1965 while helping a friend construct a homestead in the Wrangell Mountains. His travels in the country include a ski traverse of the icefields from Kluane Lake in the Yukon to Cordova Alaska, descents of the Alsek, Tana, Chitina and Copper Rivers from their headwaters and a circumski and ascent of the giant Mt. Logan massif, centerpiece of this vast wilderness. In addition to his extensive first-hand knowledge, Bob has assembled a support team that includes some of the area’s top guides and legendary bush pilot Paul Claus, co-owner of Ultima Thule Outfitters, the most remote private in-holding in the park.

Common Literature:
• World Heritage Wilderness, Vol. 26(2) Alaska Geographic

Sample presentation topics:
• The values and issues of wildlands preservation to the world community
• Commercial in holding development in Wrangell – St. Elias National Park
• Recreation access management in remote wildlands: How best to preserve the world’s largest designated wilderness for future generations of the global community