Help keep the world's wildlife on the map
Animal World Map is an independent project: an interactive globe where anyone can find out which animals live where, how threatened they are, and what is being done about it. It lists all 6,036 mammals the IUCN Red List has assessed, 1364 of them threatened — but only 925 have a full profile written so far. It is free to use, it has no ads, and it sells no data about the people who use it.
That combination has a cost, and right now it is carried by one person. Sponsorship is what turns the project from a side project into something that can grow: more species documented, better range maps, and the guide that answers a child's question about a pangolin at eleven at night still working next year.
What your support pays for
No overhead, no salaries, no office. Four things, in this order:
Research and fact-checking
Every profile is assembled from IUCN Red List assessments and observation data, then written up: habitat, diet, behaviour, threats and the conservation work under way. It is the slowest part of the project, and the part sponsorship speeds up most directly.
Range maps on the globe
Showing where a species actually lives means processing distribution data into map layers the globe can draw. Storing and serving those layers — plus the map tiles behind them — is billed by usage, every month.
The AI wildlife guide
Each question answered by the guide, and each narrated story, is a call to a language or a voice model that we pay for. Free credits on sign-up are what let anyone try it without a card, and they are paid for out of the project's own pocket.
Hosting and storage
The servers, the database and the audio storage that keep the map fast and available. Unglamorous, unavoidable, and due at the end of every month whether or not anyone sponsors.
How it works
- 1
Tell us who you are
The form below takes about a minute. Individual or company, a name and an email are all that is strictly required — the rest helps us prepare a useful reply.
- 2
Confirm with $1
You are taken to our secure checkout, run by Polar. One dollar, one time, no subscription and no card details stored on our side.
- 3
We get back to you
We reply by email, usually within a few days, with what your support would fund and the shapes a sponsorship can take — from a one-off contribution to a longer partnership.
Two ways to sponsor
The form asks which one you are, because the conversation that follows is not the same.
As an individual
- A thank-you credit under your name, if you want one
- First look at new features and new batches of species
- A direct line to say what the map should cover next
As a company
- A mention or a logo on the site, placed so it stays out of the way of the content
- The option to fund something specific: a continent, a family, a batch of profiles
- A short write-up of what your sponsorship funded, to use internally or publicly
Sponsorship never buys editorial influence. Conservation status comes from the IUCN Red List and observation data from iNaturalist. What a species profile says does not change because someone paid for it — see our terms of service for the full wording.
Questions sponsors ask
Where does the money actually go?
It pays the running costs of the site: the database that holds the species profiles, the map tiles, the audio storage, and the AI models behind the wildlife guide and the narrated stories. Whatever is left funds the research work — reading the IUCN assessments, checking the range data and writing the profiles for species that are not covered yet.
Why do you ask for $1 to send the form?
Because a free contact form fills up with fake sign-ups, and every one of them costs us time we would rather spend on the map. A card payment of one dollar is enough to stop that, and it means every request in our inbox comes from a real person. The dollar is a real sponsorship, not a fee: it goes to the project like any other contribution.
Is my sponsorship tax-deductible?
No. Animal World Map is an independent project, not a registered charity, so a sponsorship is a voluntary contribution to our running costs rather than a donation you can deduct. Companies usually book it as a marketing or sponsorship expense — ask your accountant how that works where you are.
Can my company get a logo or a mention on the site?
Yes, that is part of what we discuss by email once your request comes in. We decide how and where a mention appears so that it never gets in the way of the content, and we may decline a sponsorship that conflicts with the purpose of the project — anything promoting wildlife trafficking, trophy hunting or the exploitation of animals in particular.
Do sponsors have a say in what the site says about wildlife?
Never. Conservation status comes from the IUCN Red List and observation data from iNaturalist, and no sponsorship changes what a species profile says. Sponsorship buys running costs, not editorial influence.
I can't sponsor right now. Can I still help?
Very much so. Tell us about a species that is missing, report a mistake you spot in a profile, or share the map with a teacher, a class or anyone who would use it. Reports and requests reach the same inbox as sponsorships, and they cost nothing.
Something else on your mind? Write to [email protected] and you will reach the same person who answers the sponsorship requests.