This Earth Day, Orvis, the Vermont-based, family-owned outdoor retailer, releases its 2020 Impact Report, highlighting the work and contributions the brand and its customers have made to protect wild places, increase equity and inclusion in fly fishing and improve canine well-being throughout the year. In 2020, Orvis supported 48 non-profit organizations, raised and donated $570,000 through its 5% for Nature program and Matching Grant Fund, and taught thousands of people to fly fish for free through its virtual Fly Fishing 101 program.
Read the Orvis 2020 Impact Report here: https://www.orvis.com/impact-report.html.
“2020 was anything but typical. There were a lot of uncertainties that challenged all of us to prioritize what’s most important. When you love something, you work hard to protect it, and we’re proud of what we were able to accomplish alongside our customers, employees, and partners,” says Orvis President Simon Perkins. “I feel energized by our collective community of anglers, hunters, and outdoor enthusiasts and I am hopeful about what we will be able to achieve through our continued commitment to protecting wild places and their accessibility for all of us and future generations.”
Protection Efforts for Bristol Bay and Everglades
Over the past decade our customers, partners, hunters, anglers, and outdoor enthusiasts from across the country have fought to protect the Bristol Bay watershed, the largest sockeye salmon fishery on earth. In late 2020, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers denied a federal permit for the proposed Pebble Mine due to violations of the Clean Water Act. Together with our customers and partners, in 2020 Orvis raised over $46,000 for Trout Unlimited Alaska and helped collect over 45,000 signatures in campaigns to stop Pebble Mine, helping to ensure a healthy Bristol Bay for future generations.
On the opposite end of the United States, the Everglades and Florida Coastal system are home to hundreds of plant and animal species, however, discharged water from Lake Okeechobee has driven one of the most remarkable ecosystems to the verge of extinction. Throughout 2020, Orvis raised and donated $144,000 for our partners at the Everglades Foundation and their efforts to restore fresh, clean water to the Everglades and Florida Bay.
Angling for All and fly fishing education
In the summer of 2020, Orvis became the first company to sign the Angling for All Pledge. Orvis’ vision is to inspire its customers and the outdoor community to love the adventure and wonder of the natural world. For Orvis, an insipired life in the natural world is one that is equitable, inclusive and without barriers. The pledge was created by Brown Folks Fishing and signifies a commitment to identify and eliminate barriers for Black, Indigenous and People of Color, creating a more inclusive and equitable fly fishing community focused on enacting lasting change.
Learn more about Angling for All here: https://www.orvis.com/angling-for-all.html.
In an effort to broaden the fly fishing community, Orvis has prioritized creating educational resources to welcome new audiences to the sport. In a typical year, Orvis teaches 15,000 people how to fly fish for free through its Fly Fishing 101 classes held in retail stores nationwide. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Orvis took Fly Fishing 101 virtual in 2020, creating free online programming that allowed 3,500 new anglers to learn how to fly fish at home.
$200,000 raised for canine cancer research
Like nature, Orvis loves dogs and in 2020, our customers helped us raise and donate more than $200,000 to Morris Animal Foundation, our non-profit partner that invests in science to advance animal health. These funds, raised through our annual Cover Dog Contest, will support the Golden Retriever Lifetime Study, a research project that seeks to better understand why golden retrievers develop forms of cancer and other diseases at such high rates.
Learn more about the Orvis Cover Dog Contest here: https://coverdog.orvis.com.
To read the full 2020 Impact Report, please visit https://www.orvis.com/impact-report.html, and to learn more about Orvis’s conservation efforts, please visit https://www.orvis.com/impact.html.
About The Orvis Company: Founded in 1856, we believe the most meaningful experiences are created by sharing the love of nature and being inspired by its endless possibilities. Orvis pioneered the mail order industry in the United States, operates more than 80 retail stores in the U.S and the U.K., and maintains a network of over 400 dealers worldwide as a trusted source of discovery and adventure in the natural world. We promise to open the door to extraordinary outdoor experiences, and to protect nature by committing 5% of our pretax profits each year to conservation efforts worldwide. www.orvis.com
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