- Reddit users of Wallstreetbets donated more than $ 256,000 for gorilla conservation.
- Over the weekend, users “adopted” gorillas by donating money to the Dian Fossey Gorilla fund.
- Manatees, wild boars and leopards were also adopted by group members who donated to charities.
- Visit the Insider home page for more stories.
WallStreetBets, the Reddit page that led GameStop’s stock increase, raised more than $ 265,000 for a gorilla conservation fund.
On Friday, a user posted that he had sent a donation to the Dian Fossey Gorilla fund that allowed them to ceremoniously “adopt” their own gorilla. The post was voted more than 100,000 times and the idea quickly caught fire in the WallStreetBets community.
Since you can’t buy shares over the weekend, the community decided to spend some of the new money earned from GameStop shares, which reached $ 350 last week, on something positive.
Created in 1972, the fund is one of the oldest and oldest primate conservation organizations, helping to track and protect gorilla populations. Gorillas protected by the fund are considered adopted by donors who support the organization.
The gorilla connection comes from “monkey gang”, an internal nickname for the subreddit, referring to the idea that the group is like a flock of monkeys pressing buttons on a keyboard to buy shares. Users often send spam messages with gorilla emojis to allude to their so-called “monkey gang”.
CNBC’s Mad Money host Jim Cramer has been against those on reddit
Reddit / GriffyTizzle
On Saturday and Sunday, the subreddit home page was flooded with adoption screenshots, with users using meme-inspired nicknames like “GameStop”, “Jim Cramer Tears” and “Tendie” in their adoptions. There were so many new adoptions coming to the subreddit that moderators created a megathread where users could post their new animal friends.
WallStreetBets members also found other conservation funds and adopted manatees, snow leopards, donkeys, bonobos, wild boars and many more.
Adopting your own gorilla on the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund website costs between $ 60 and $ 150. For this unique donation, you will receive a video of the gorilla in action, a certificate and an annual update on his new furry friend.
This seemingly random philanthropy snowball was noticed by the fund, which added the phrase “STRONG TOGETHER APES” on its website and tweeted on Saturday that they had raised $ 77,000 before breaking $ 100,000 on Sunday.
On Monday, WallStreetBets donations exceeded a quarter of a million dollars, Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund told Insider.
—Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund (@SavingGorillas) March 14, 2021
The fund’s director, Dr. Tara Stoinski, created a video thanking the people of Reddit for donating money to the fund, which was posted on the subreddit. This post was voted more than 160,000 times in less than a day and received dozens of Reddit prizes that cost real money.
“The money these individuals have donated is an investment, not just in the Fossey Fund’s mission to Help People, Save Gorillas, but in the future of our planet,” Stoinski told Insider in a statement. “We have individual donors who donate us year after year, because they know that we will be responsible for being careful administrators of their donations, no matter how large or small.”
WallStreetBets continues to grow in popularity, now reaching 9.5 million members who want to spend money on stocks. Through a coup attempt by moderators and a federal insider investigation, the subreddit continued to be the center for traders who just want to see their stonks rise.