Protect The World

Brodie Hopkins Media was originally called ‘Collect The World’, and my initial goal was simply to photograph and tell the stories of whatever grabbed my attention while I backpacked around Latin America for a year. I loved every single second that I spent learning about the incredible places, animals and people that this planet has to offer – and highlighting the world’s endless beauty and wonder remains an important part of my work to this day.

But as time went on, I felt more and more uncomfortable just ‘collecting’ the world. As fun as it was, it became increasingly clear that these highlights couldn’t be taken for granted, and that sharing their stories came with a responsibility. The interconnected plagues of inequality and biodiversity loss were tearing at the seams of everything I was passionate about, and my focus needed to shift. So, after six months of travel, I decided to begin a new project, called Protect The World.

For a long time I’ve been inspired by Brandon Stanton, founder of Humans of New York, who turned his passion for photography and storytelling into something that raises millions of dollars for incredible causes, and simultaneously connects millions of people together. That’s my dream for this project – to be able to explore the planet with camera in hand, and to have enough people appreciate my work that I can travel sustainably and, most importantly, give back to the people and places whose stories I’m telling.

Imagine being able to rock up to an overlooked corner of the globe and to track down the organisation that’s doing amazing work without enough resources. Then imagine being able to sit down and interview the founder, document the work of the organisation and the people involved, and then at the end, to be able to give them a few thousand dollars. Not only that, imagine sharing that story to thousands of people around the world and inspiring them to strive for change in their own way.

That’s ultimately what I want to achieve, and that’s why I started Protect The World. Every month, my goal is to profile an amazing not-for-profit organisation which is making the world a better place. As I see it, the two biggest global threats right now are ecological collapse and rising inequality, so my focus is on organisations that are tackling these issues in some way, big or small. The project began with a six-month documentary series, before transitioning to podcast form in recent months. Currently, I’m saving up to take Protect The World to Africa in the second half of 2024, in its original documentary format – the goal will be 12 months, 12 countries, 12 NGOs.

But in addition to the photos, videos, podcasts and articles, I also want to contribute to these organisations financially – and that’s where you come in.

I run a Patreon, which is designed to support this project. Half the money helps me to keep telling stories – contributing to the basic food, cheap hostels and rickety buses that are the foundations of Protect The World. The other half is donated directly to the grassroots NGOs which are featured every month. In the long run, all it would take for me to do this sustainably is for a few hundred people to each contribute a few dollars a month to the Patreon. And if it ever does reach the point of sustainability, a full 100% of additional proceeds will go directly to those organisations. I have no interest in accumulating wealth.

If you want to see this project continue, and you want to help me give as much money to the organisations featured as possible, please consider signing up to the Patreon for as little as $5 a month. And if you’d like to learn a little more about my philosophy on money, you can read all about it here.

As the list of incredible organisations grows, I’ll be collating all of the articles, videos and podcasts right here on this page. I hope that you enjoy them, and that you find these NGOs, and the people behind them, as inspiring as I do.

Much love,
Brodie ❤️