Early Wins! - NL #18

Aug 7

August 7, 2025

Hello friends,

Last time we shared highlights from June, like
- planting 1000-1500 trees,
- visiting 3 primary schools,
- & skiing the Margarita glacier.

Now, we have more details! Also, exciting news to share…

1. **Kilembe Tree update!**

Let’s hear from Edson Kule, head RTS guide and first Ugandan skier:

“Hello everyone here,

Am glad that we successfully went through the June trip especially planting trees along Nyamwamba river and skiing Rwenzori glacier. The trees are growing well and am happy to report that 95% is doing good. The boys who were put to do the maintenance are doing a great work.”
*They’ve built small protections aorund each tree, to stop goats from eating them.*

Meet our two stewards:

(left) Tusemerirwe Emanuel Bindobu
(right) Bwambale Richard Bukombi.
*Both are in charge of maintaining our trees, and protecting them. Thank you!*

2. We got our tree planting data!

Shafiq, a Ugandan grad student, built a useful data collection app for this tree planting campaign. We saved each tree’s location, species, planting date, planter, and a picture.

This means a lot to us. Now we can share what we worked so hard to plant this summer!

From left to right:

Pardon the grainy image, but each dot represents a tree. The colors specify the different types (and spellings! haha) that were planted.
And as it turns out we planted over 1400 trees!
Taking pictures of each tree, like Herbert, Possy, and Annet with their young Mango tree.

3. **Potential UNESCO sponsorship!**

Morgan was brainstorming ways to expand our reach, when she stumbled upon UNESCO’s Green Citizens platform. Long story short, we met with them, and apparently Ski Club Uganda is exactly what they look for in organizations to sponsor!

This is not a funding opportunity, but a way for UNESCO to back us by promoting our non-profit, and letting us use their brand.

Stay tuned as we navigate this process.
*Morgan and I met with Santiago Said, a biologist, non-profit founder, and representative of UNESCO!*

4. **New 501c3, New GoFundMe & Finances**

We finally got the letter! Whoop Whoop!!! With our 501c3 non-profit we are an official non-profit. That means donations are now tax-deductible.

Unfortunately, the IRS did not grant us retroactive exemption, so **donations made to Ski Club Uganda before now will not be tax deductible.** This is a bummer, but alas.

As of now, we still have $1,133. Local costs are covered until 2026, and currently our main expenses are website + cloud storage for pictures & media.

We have plans for future work

Last gofundme campaign, our wonderful supporters — Jotam G Pasipanody, Nubia Echevarria, Anne Dix, Nicole Dreon, Felix Knollmann, Elisabeth Purtscher, Barbara Ritschel, Bjorn Knollmann, John Porter, Martina Decrinis, Bill Von Stockten, Max Eihausen, and Morgan Long — made our project possible, helping good people do good things for our planet.

We’re happy to see it through, and keep it growing in your name!

Fundraiser by Florian Knollmann : Support Ski Club Uganda's Mission Today

Now, I’m excited to see who our first contributor will be on this new campaign, and receive a receipt for the IRS!

*In the spirit of transparency, see our bank account.*

Glad everybody is with us,

Florian Knollmann,
President, Ski Club Uganda.

PS — Website down, heads up

Pardon the delay, but with all of the new changes we’re giving our website a facelift, and it will be down for a while. We’re working to get it back up.