Creeklife is a website that brings together the outdoors and the people who care about the outdoors.  Anyone can use the site, it’s free! Post an outdoor issue on our map. Any issue that affects your neighborhood that doesn’t get the attention or money they deserve is what Creeklife is all about.  We believe in the saying, “Think Global; Act Local”.    

 We want to make it possible to accomplish the small things that cost money yet are priceless in the reward of enjoying the outdoors the way it was meant to be. 

Most of us value our natural surroundings for our own enjoyment and for others who haven’t been born yet.  Too often, we feel powerless to make a difference in stopping pollution in our drinking water or cleaning up the trash that piles up in the town we live in.  How do you move your care and concern into action?  That is why Creeklife is here.

Creeklife has an interactive website that makes it easy to get involved in any way that works for you.  From creating an action to clean up a creek in your area or donating a few dollars to buy gloves for the people doing the clean up or raising funds to pay for a project manager or even volunteering yourself!  There are many options you can choose on Creeklife.  The important thing is you now have a platform to get the word out to keep the outdoors where you live a beautiful place to enjoy anytime.

We hope that everyone will use Creeklife! In order to truly see a change in our environment everyone needs to pitch in. 

Specifically, we think that Creeklife will work really well for programs such as Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts of America, The 4-H Club. Whether you are a 4-H’er looking for a service learning project, or a Boy Scout trying to complete your Eagle Project, Creeklife can be a part of your experience.

We also think that Creeklife can help State Parks and Recreation Departments, environmental non-profit organizations, and individuals who are interested in participating in environmental clean-up and restoration projects. If you want to save the planet, you’ll find a way to do it here.

A call to action is page on the website that a user creates to raise funds or bring awareness to an outdoor project.

Step 1:                   Become member!  

When you sign up with just your email address, you will have access to all the pages on the site.  You will also receive our monthly newsletter which highlights different projects, fun contests and more! If you go ahead and create an account with your zip code, you will receive an email if a project is posted in your area.

Step 2:                  Get acquainted with us!  

Browse our blog topics, visit our social media pages, find outdoor projects posted by people just like you in their neighborhoods using the interactive map.

Step 3:  Decide what you want to do!  

Are you ready to create your own action or do you just want to donate a few dollars to an action that seems worthy to you. On the home page, you will see three icons.

•Spot Issues and Report them.

•Browse, Fund or Work on a Project.

•Learn More about what You can Do. 

You can also just enter your zip code to see what is happening close to you.  If you have already decided in Step 3B, then just click on the icon that fits.  You do need to be a member of Creeklife to access the pages.

Step 4:Create an Action!

Click on the Spot Issues and Report Them button and you will be taken to the Create a New Call to Action Page.  Fill in the form and add a photo or video (see video sample here).  Click the Create Action button and your action will be posted to the site.  Don’t forget to download the “Action Kit” pdf which will give you lots of ideas about how to make your Action successful.

Step 5:Help Out!

Click on the Browse, Fund or Work on a Project button.  Here you will see all the actions posted to the site.  The easiest way to help is to donate a few dollars to an action that means the most to you.  Remember that the people who created these actions are just like you and need your help to accomplish their goal of making the outdoors a more beautiful place!    

Creeklife is the perfect platform for small and large outdoor projects.  You choose the goal you want to accomplish and how you want to fund it.  For example, you can fund the salary for a project manager, enlist volunteers, use donated money to buy supplies and whatever else you might need for your outdoor project. 

 
• Create an action to get the litter off your favorite walking trail, creek or street.
• Promote a local river cleanup event, and raise funds to pay for lunch and the dumpsters.
• Raise funds to buy a garbage container and pay a service to have weekly pickups.
• Start a fundraising drive to have roadside signs for local river or creek crossings.
• Raise money to help pay for small organization costs, such as: pamphlet printing, web server costs or even the rent and utilities
• Recruit volunteers for a program, like a stream monitoring program.
• Raise funds for a salaried position at a non-profit organization
• Add an Action Page for your community’s river cleanup event, or 5k Run.
 

Good question!  We will spotlight actions on our social media pages and in the monthly newsletter and you can use your own social network to get the word out.  Email friends and family, post to your Facebook page a link to your action page on creeklife.com.  We have more tips for success in the“Action Kit” pdf download.

 
• Go to the watershed map and mouse over a pin and it displays the title. Zoom in – pins love to sit on top of one another!
• Enter name of the watershed, the river, city or zip code in the search bar at the top of the page.
• Enter the Hydrologic Unit Code to find a watershed in a specific area.
•  Use the NEXT and PREVIOUS tool bar within any Call to Action Page
• There are Calls to Actions to the left of the watershed map, scroll down to see all of them by title and short description.
 

IIf you see an environmental problem that needs to be remedied, please don’t hesitate to create an action for it. You don’t have to take responsibility for it. You can create an action anonymously, but we do hope that you will find some way to participate, even if you don’t participate in the action that you create.

We need everyone’s help to make a difference and nothing would ever get done if everyone only reported problems but never did anything about them.

The Project Manager (PM) is the person who is taking responsibility for making sure the action gets done. It is either the creator of the action, or the first person to claim it. You can’t reach the funding stage of the project until someone becomes the Project Manager.

A PM does not have to do the work. They can promote the page, fundraise for it, edit and update the page until a fellow Creeklifer claims the work. Both the PM and the Creeklifer who claims the work control the Action Page tools. It’s important to note that the PM does not receive the funds that are raised on the Action Page, unless they ALSO claim the work!

These are the folks who stand up and give Cleaners the little bit of local help and knowledge that people need to have and use before they set out to complete the action. 

 

Watershed Stewards are sometimes asked to verify that a person has done the action, like make sure the tires were taken out of a creek and they are not two hundred yards downstream. This feature helps keep users honest and is a great tool for peer review.

When new actions are posted, the Watershed Steward closest to the area are updated with a list of Creeklifers in close proximity. 

You can adjust the area you want to monitor in the profile settings of your user account.

The person who completes the action is the one that gets the money that was raised. If you organized the work parties and paid for lunch for the volunteers, the garbage bags, etc., then you are the one who gets the money. 

The Project Manager is not the person the money goes to unless the PM had previously “claimed” the Action.

Just remember, the money does not get sent until the project has been verified by the local Watershed Steward!

Once the project is completed, it will be verified by a Steward and the funds will be released to the person who claimed the work and if no watershed Stewards are available we will release the funds within 48 hours once the Action is completed.

Trust 🙂 and we ask fellow Creeklifers to become “Watershed Steward” (see profile page) and check on the project once it is tagged as “Completed”.

Stewards help us to see if the job was completed per the Action goals. We also encourage users to make comments on the Action Pages to let the community know the progress of the action and any other important information.

That it will be used for something you care about and you’ll receive email updates on the status of the action. 

The Creeklife website is free to use. You can create as many actions as you like, and volunteer with as many projects as you have time for. Creeklife only charges a fee once a Call to Action has been completed and verified. The fee is 10% of the funds raised, and from that we pay all the credit card fees and transactions and any charge backs given due to a Call to Action that was not claimed.

 If you would like to contribute to Creeklife directly, or if you have any questions comments or concerns about our fee, please contact fees@creeklife.com. While our business is the outdoors, we do accept donations to help keep our servers running! 

All other funding websites have a category for the environment, not us – we are the niche fundraising site focusing on the outdoors
If you need money or want to take on a project that involves the outdoors, then try Creeklife.

We built a map to show the fundraisers using watershed boundaries (it’s fun to surf & it toggles on/off) 

 
1. You can find, or report, local environmental issues on our map. Others in the area can look too, and anyone looking has the opportunity to take action by donating money, time or materials to help solve the problem. 
2. You can promote a project or an event and if you do not want to raise money for it you can disable the funding option.
3. We are asking that you take responsibility for your local watershed area. Create and claim projects in your immediate area. Get all your friends and neighbors involved.