‘Hello, I’m with Greenpeace, how are you today?’

You've probably all heard those words, or something similar, said to you on the streets or over the phone, by one of our guys asking for your support. Some call them chuggers, rather unkindly. We call them outreach campaigners.

It's a difficult job that takes courage. It's also a hugely important job. Without these guys, we couldn't do what we do.

Greenpeace is completely independent - politically and financially. And we’re proud of that. It enables us to campaign on areas that are of the most concern, and in ways that will be the most effective.

To stay absolutely independent, we don’t ask for or accept any money from companies or governments. In fact, if we get sent a donation on a company cheque, we’ll return it.

We only take money from individual people.

And that means that we have to talk to people, on the street, and on the phone. We may even knock on your door to ask for your support, because it is so vital to our work.

All of our fundraisers are Greenpeace staff members, and they are all paid at least the Living Wage. If one of them wants to have a chat with you, it’s because we want to talk about an important issue, and we need your help. This includes asking for donations.

We may also ask for your signature on a petition, for you to join us at a march, or ask you to share a post on Facebook.  Successful campaigning happens through people power, and making a donation is one way to help do that.

And every week, hundreds of New Zealanders sign up to contribute a regular monthly donation, sign petitions and share our work on social media. That takes courage too.

We try our best to provide you with an opportunity to get positively involved in key issues, to maybe even have fun, and to do something to change the world.

But we know we’re not perfect. If we do occasionally get it wrong, and annoy you or someone you know, we’re sorry. We really don’t want to annoy anyone!

We couldn’t exist without our supporters. It’s the conversations we have with you that makes our campaigns successful. Last year, these conversations and interactions with supporters meant that together we raised over $10 million dollars to spend on our campaigning. And every cent came from people like you.

Without those donations, we couldn’t chase Arctic-bound drilling rigs across the ocean. We couldn’t scale the roof of Parliament to call the Government to act on climate change. We couldn’t track down tuna fishing boats in the Pacific.

Thank you for making this happen. The next time someone says ‘Hi, I’m with Greenpeace’, hopefully you can say ‘So am I.’

We love to hear your feedback and thoughts, good and bad. So if you want to share a story with us, or if you have concerns, please get in touch and let us know.