How To Give Back if You Can’t Afford The Course Donation:

As a 501(c)(3) public benefit organization devoted to education, our goal is to not refuse our courses to any interested participants. If you wish to participate in our trainings, please do.

If you cannot afford to make the recommended donation for our courses, that is your prerogative. We will not make any inquiries into your financial situation or ask you to justify your stance in not making the recommended donations.

Having said this, the Technical Rescue Instruction Project does have operating costs that must be met in order to insure the success of our mission, which is to increase public safety through education in technical rescue. In order to balance our operating costs with our endeavors to teach anyone willing to learn, we have gone through the additional steps of filing as a tax exempt nonprofit public benefit corporation. As such we are able to reduce our operating costs through tax exemption, as well as gain access to fundraising through tax deductible donations from our public supporters.

Below is a list of possible ways to give back to t.r.i.p. besides the direct payment of our courses’ operating costs:

• ·         Get friends and family to donate. Donors referred by you will have the option to label their donations as such and their donations will result in credits to go towards your courses.

• ·         Sell our T-shirts. They are free with a $30 donation.  T-shirt purchasers will receive a T-shirt and a tax deductible receipt of $20 for their contribution beyond the cost of the shirt. The seller will have a $20 dollar credit to go towards their next course, or the course they just received.

• ·         Propose a fund raising activity to t.r.i.p. to assist in the funding of your group’s participation in our programs.

• ·         Have a different idea? Drop us a line anytime at theRescueProj@gmail.com

The new office is the old one... This makes me smile.

Why Non-Profit?

Guide services have been offering climbing self rescue courses for years, yet very few friends of mine that guide have claimed to get consistent work teaching these courses.
 
My hypothesis on why guided rescue courses haven't been historically popular amongst the recreational public is multifaceted, primarily hinging on the two variables of cost and  interest.

Our decision to go through the additional steps of filing for tax exemption was made for the following reasons:

•  Becoming a non-profit grants us the opportunity to raise funds through tax deductible donations, which will then enable us to reduce the cost of our courses, while still being able to afford high quality instructors.
• Tax-Exemption will allow us to further reduce our operating costs.
• By shifting the perspective of rescue instruction as a business to rescue instruction as a charitable cause, hopefully we can increase public awareness, and provide a venue for the public to get involved.
• Rescue preparation is a responsibility. You may save your partners life with the skills learned through our courses.
• An educated public on rescue considerations will prevent many accidents, as well as reduce the strain on our land managers through less dependence on their rescue resources. Most Search and Rescue Operations are due to uneducated land users.
• As a non-profit, we can offer resources for fundraising to people who wish to take our courses and give back to the organization, but can't afford our requested donations to cover the operating costs. We are working on several ways to assist these individuals, but we will not withhold training to those that wish to learn, as long as we can still feed ourselves. 
• As climbers, we have a pool of knowledgeable rescuers and people with the aptitude to learn rescue very quickly. With this human resource and the right strategy, we could change the way rescues are done nationwide in various public safety applications.
• As a manager of rescue businesses in the for-profit sector, many clients that I had wished to teach (predominately fire departments and SAR groups) could not afford our courses. Their budgets prevented the disbursement of knowledge that my clients in the energy sects had access to. I would like to work together with the other businesses out there to gain access to grants so that we can more freely train those responsible for our public safety.

What T.R.I.P. Is Not...

• T.R.I.P. is not a for-profit business. All of the public support we receive goes directly into the provision of our rescue courses and workshops. This means that no members of our organization receive any financial benefit beyond payment for services rendered to the organization with the execution of its mission.
• T.R.I.P. is not competing with guide services. In our quest to deliver quality trainings to the public in various disciplines, T.R.I.P. intends to partner with existing and trusted guiding companies to help increase the amount of technical rescue instruction provided nationwide. Our goal is to create a platform through marketing and public education to increase interest in this vital topic.
• T.R.I.P. is not a rigid organization. If you have an idea for a possible way to contribute to our cause, please contact us at theRescueProj@gmail.com, or post directly on this blog.

What is T.R.I.P.?

• T.R.I.P. is an acronym. It stands for the Technical Rescue Instruction Project. It is a 501(c)(3) public benefit corporation devoted to education. Our mission is to increase public safety through the provision of technical rescue instruction.
• T.R.I.P. is a community devoted to increasing public safety. If you are interested in instructing for T.R.I.P. or have an area of rescue expertise and wish to collaborate in an attempt to gain funds and grants for your instructional projects, email me at theRescueProj@gmail.com.
• T.R.I.P. is an idea that I had a few years ago, but have just recently decided to pull the trigger on. Its an idea that if we work together as a group of individuals with specialized knowledge and experiences, not only can we ensure the safe and responsible growth of our outdoor pursuits as they become more popular, but we can also provide the most current and innovative rescue techniques to public safety organizations nationwide. 
• T.R.I.P. is a collaborative effort to pull the nations experts in technical rescue together in order to create a venue for the growth of our field and a corporate entity capable of raising funds and gaining grants in order to accomplish our mission. Our mission is to increase public safety through more widespread disbursement of rescue knowledge.
• T.R.I.P. is a group of people that wish to use their talents to benefit the public.

Thank you for reading this post and following this Blog,

Scott Archibald

Managing Director

Technical Rescue Instruction Project, Inc.