Support
Us
Protect the Rivers That
Keep Yosemite Flowing
Your support safeguards the Tuolumne, Merced, and Stanislaus Rivers and the communities, forests, wildlife, and future generations who depend on them. Every gift helps restore habitat, build forest resilience, protect river flows, and connect young people with the watershed.
Explore how you can make an impact through membership, non-cash giving, adopt an animal, corporate partnerships, or our endowment.
Join a community protecting the rivers that sustain Yosemite — and all of us.
Becoming a member is one of the most meaningful ways to support this work. Your membership fuels hands-on restoration, safeguards clean water for millions, protects wildlife habitat, and strengthens community programs across the Yosemite Region.
membership
Types of Membership
Yosemite Rivers
Member
Any annual gift
confluence
society
Annual gifts of $150 or more
three rivers
founders
Annual gifts of $3,000 or more
Donor-Advised Funds (DAFs)
DAF gifts are one of the easiest ways to support our work. You can recommend a grant at any time.
To notify us of a gift or ask questions, contact Chief Advancement Officer Nicole Cibellis at nicole.cibellis@yosemiterivers.org
Give in the Way That
Works Best for You
Legacy Giving
A legacy gift protects the places you love long after your lifetime. Planned giving helps sustain restoration, education, and advocacy work for decades to come.
Gifts of Stock or Appreciated Securities
Donating long-term appreciated assets, such as stocks or mutual funds, may offer additional tax advantages compared with giving cash. This can increase your total impact on river restoration and protection.
Memorial and Tribute
A memorial or tribute gift is a meaningful way to celebrate someone’s life, mark a milestone, or honor a loved one’s connection to the Yosemite Region. Your gift supports the restoration of rivers, forests, and wildlife habitat while carrying their legacy forward.
Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs)
If you are 70½ or older, you can give directly from your IRA to support Yosemite Rivers Alliance while potentially reducing your taxable income.
Employee Matching Gifts
Many companies match charitable contributions made by their employees — sometimes doubling or even tripling your gift. If your employer offers a matching gift program, your donation to Yosemite Rivers Alliance can go even further.
Questions? We’re here to help!
Corporate
Partnerships
Partner with us to protect the rivers that sustain Yosemite and millions downstream.
Yosemite Rivers Alliance collaborates with businesses that care about clean water, thriving wildlife, resilient forests, and strong communities. Whether your company is based in the Sierra, the Central Valley, or the Bay Area, your partnership helps protect the watershed that fuels the region’s economy, drinking water, and outdoor recreation.
How Your Company
Can Partner With Us
Corporate Volunteer Days
Bring your team into the field to restore floodplains, plant native vegetation, enhance salmon habitat, and support community events. These hands-on experiences strengthen team cohesion while contributing directly to watershed health.
Program & Project Sponsorships
Support signature programs across the Yosemite Region, including restoration projects, forest health and fire resilience work, youth education, and community-centered conservation initiatives.
Brand & Product Partnerships
Collaborate on co-branded merchandise, cause-marketing campaigns, or year-round philanthropic partnerships that highlight your company’s environmental values and commitment to sustainability.
adopT an
animal
Support restoration by symbolically adopting an iconic species.
Bring home a piece of the wild while helping protect it. When you symbolically adopt a Yosemite species, your gift supports healthy rivers, thriving salmon runs, resilient forests, and the diverse wildlife that depends on them.
Each adoption kit includes a plush animal, personalized certificate, and digital screensavers — a heartfelt way to connect with the creatures your support protects.
Black bears help keep forests healthy by dispersing seeds across vast distances and shaping plant communities through their foraging. As a keystone species, their presence signals a thriving, balanced ecosystem.
american black bear
Owls are vital predators that maintain healthy rodent populations and protect meadow and forest ecosystems from imbalance. Their sensitivity to habitat change makes them an important indicator of ecosystem health.
great gray owl
Beavers are natural engineers whose dams create wetlands that slow water, improve water quality, and provide habitat for countless species. By shaping riverscapes, they help build resilience against drought, fire, and climate change.
North American Beaver
cascade
fund
A Board-Designated Endowment for the Future of the Greater Yosemite Region
The Yosemite Rivers Cascade Fund provides long-term, steady support for the protection and restoration of the watersheds that sustain the Yosemite Region. Gifts to the endowment ensure that our rivers, forests, wildlife, and communities will be cared for not only today, but for generations to come.
We invite you to join the Founders’ Circle with a meaningful gift to the Cascade Fund.
The Harrison “Hap” C. Dunning Founders’ CirclE
We honor the legacy of Harrison “Hap” C. Dunning, an eminent legal scholar, conservation leader, and longtime champion of California’s rivers. Hap served on our Board of Directors for 15 years and devoted his life to protecting the waterways that sustain people and wildlife alike. He passed away in 2024, leaving an extraordinary legacy of leadership, generosity, and steadfast commitment to this work.
In gratitude for the Dunning family’s seed investment—which made the Cascade Fund possible—we established the Harrison “Hap” C. Dunning Founders’ Circle in 2018. This circle recognizes donors who make significant contributions to the endowment and who, like Hap, believe deeply in safeguarding the future of the Yosemite Region.
The Harrison “Hap” C. Dunning Founders’ Circle of the Yosemite Rivers Cascade Fund is overseen and managed by the Finance Committee of the Board of Directors.
