Peter and his late wife Miranda founded A Rocha, a family of conservation organizations in over 20 countries working together to live out God's calling to care for creation, in 1983. The A Rocha story is told in Peter’s books, Under the Bright Wings and Kingfisher’s Fire. A Cambridge graduate and Anglican minister, Peter has served as Adjunct Faculty at Regent College, Vancouver and Au Sable Institute, Michigan. Since losing Miranda in a car accident during a work trip in South Africa in 2019 he has continued to support the growth of A Rocha around the world and to explore possibilities for innovative financing of conservation projects through investment and philanthropy.
For over a decade the two of us have had conversations about our joys and struggles in the work of fundraising and eventually decided to capture them in a book. Had we known that writing it would mean five years of work − we might have called a halt right there!
Beyond generosity in both business and personal culture, it would seem that there is one obvious thing that can be done which would give a double benefit. It is simply to resolve to create our wealth, and steward our savings, in ways that join up with our intentions of generosity.
It is funny what people say when you tell them you work in conservation. Their reactions are very varied, depending on how you describe it. But if you say you work for a charity (true), surprisingly often people think you are going to ask them for money (false). So as we charity workers actually depend upon people’s generosity, is there a good way to go fishing?
