I want to start by saying ‘Thank You’ for your support of the Bee Informed Partnership. We are so grateful for you and those we’re able to serve and support through our work. The sense of purpose and community we all feel is like nothing I’ve had the honor to experience before. I know you’ve been asked by everyone to donate this month, and especially on this Day of Giving, but I’m asking that you show your support for us today. I’m also going to let you in on a bit of inside information.
To say that the BIP Team stays pretty busy, is a drastic understatement. Our Tech Team is in thousands of colonies across the US every year. The Sentinel Apiary program processes samples for over 100 individual backyard apiaries across the country throughout the beekeeping season. Our lab processes every sample that is sent in from across the country in less than 2 weeks from when it is received (on average, it’s less than 7 days). We survey the nation’s beekeepers on their management practices and winter losses every spring and provide results for all to use. This is our mission and it is also our passion. But we work HARD to get it done. Most of us at Bee Informed Partnership do not do what most people would consider a normal (or single) job. Many of us do the work of two or three people due to budget limitations.
We are where beekeepers need us, when they need us. We go where the colonies go… and they go to A LOT of locations! Some of our jobs require making long trips away from loved ones hardly having a few days at home each month. Others require long hours in the lab to stay on top of the number of samples coming in, and most voluntarily work way too much so that our mission stays on track. In our work, much like with beekeeping, there are always seasonal deadlines. Since we only have so much time in a day, we work as hard as we can to make it count. It’s our passion, but it’s not enough.
We need to do more to make a greater impact. To do this, we need to grow. And in order to grow, we need your support. We need work vehicles so our Tech Team is able to cover more ground in reliable transportation. We need to be able to hire personnel to better support and supplement our team. We need to be able to retain our experienced and knowledgeable team members, so that they can continue working hard for you and the bees. To do any of this, we need your charitable donations to help support us.
The Bee Informed Partnership manages and collects the honey bee health data that comes in from our national survey, Technical Transfer Team program, and the Sentinel Apiary program and shares the trends we find with the beekeepers and the public. We analyze data, write grants for funding, test products and provide unbiased results, collaborate on research projects with universities and other non-profits, and spend countless hours focusing on the ins and outs of doing business as a non-profit organization and on how to improve our services. All for you and our nation’s bees.
Yes, bees work hard… but BIP works harder. And we do it because it’s important and it needs to be done. We want to make sure that the stewards that care for our country’s most precious pollinators have the information they need to make data-driven decisions to make beekeeping a sustainable enterprise, be it as a career or as a hobby.
We need your help. BIP is one of a kind. We are a nonprofit and a family of about 22 people. That’s a pretty small number for all that we do, but remember, we are all wearing more than 1 hat.
We are and will be an unbiased resource for those looking for management answers, or at least a path to those answers.
Please take this opportunity to help those that make it their work to help the bees. Donate here and please donate today.
Thank you so much for your support!
Eric Malcolm
Bee Informed Partnership
