Thank you for donating to Peace Rising!
In the past year, your donations allowed us to present our research at the International Conference on Building Resilience, meet with advocates of leading humanitarian and climate NGOs in Washington DC, and serve as an NGO observer to the UNFCCC negotiations in Katowice Poland. In the coming year, we look forward to completing our first comprehensive global map of conflict hotspots, validating our work through case studies with community partners, and producing a report on the economic benefits of targeted environmental peacebuilding interventions in conflict-vulnerable locations. It is the generous contributions of donors like you that makes this work possible. Together we can create a more peaceful future.
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Support a student fellow to achieve our research goals
An appeal from Peace Rising founder Amber Houghstow
Last year, I launched a nonprofit organization called Peace Rising to help reduce conflict as climate change worsens. Now we have the opportunity to partner with the University of New Hampshire and support a student fellow to work with Peace Rising this summer. But we need to raise $2500 to make this possible. Will you donate to help us close the gap?
Peace Rising is different from most NGOs. We use cutting-edge data science and global geographic information systems to identify the areas most likely to experience conflict as the climate worsens. Once we identify these “hotspots,” we work with international organizations capable of deploying targeted aid. Our vision is to support early interventions in critical places to prevent escalating conflicts over scarce resources. By leveraging our research, global networks can more easily promote peace and sustainable development.
When I founded Peace Rising in early 2018, I didn’t really know what to expect. I had never started a nonprofit before, nor had we ever engaged in advocacy at the international level. I had many doubts. Given the lack of media coverage, did anyone else care about the connections between climate and conflict? Would anyone believe that we could predict conflict hotspots using statistical modeling? And how would we raise the money needed to make the organization flourish?
I am now much more confident in the ability of Peace Rising to make a difference. Over the last year I presented at the International Conference on Building Resilience, met with advocates of leading humanitarian and climate NGOs in Washington DC, and served as an NGO observer at the UNFCCC negotiations in Katowice Poland. I heard from many stakeholders that the connections between climate change and conflict are extremely important, yet not fully understood. I also heard a need for powerful research and modeling to support investment decisions made by global NGOs and international organizations. Peace Rising is positioned to provide this research, starting this year.
While still small, we are actively growing our capacity. Last year, we partnered with MIT and the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center to provide funding to students to work with Peace Rising. We will soon expand our data science research team via a fellow from Data Insight Boston. We are also exploring ways to partner with other Boston-area institutions, including Harvard and Tufts.
The latest opportunity to come our way is a partnership with the University of New Hampshire Sustainability Institute (UNHSI). Each year, UNHSI selects 15 outstanding student leaders to work as summer fellows at sustainability-oriented organizations in New England. We are excited that Peace Rising was selected as one of these organizations for 2019, and we are hopeful that a UNHSI summer fellow could produce research that quantitatively documents the benefits of early environmental peacebuilding interventions in conflict-prone areas compared to later military responses.
However, we need your help. UNHSI can cover most, but not all, of the fellow’s summer expenses. UNHSI needs an additional $2500 to fully fund a Peace Rising fellow. While not a large amount of money, as a small startup NGO we do not currently have the resources to cover this gap. We hope that we can raise the money we need with the help of our friends.
Can you donate to support a Peace Rising UNHSI fellow this summer? Your contribution will allow us to produce a new report on the benefits of targeted and timely humanitarian interventions as climate change worsens. It may also change a student’s life; many UNHSI fellow alumni credit the summer experience as the reason they now work in the field of sustainability and climate.
Thank you for your consideration of this appeal. It is the generous contributions of donors like you that makes this work possible. Together we can create a more peaceful future.
– Amber Houghstow, on behalf of the Peace Rising team