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Donations to a gorilla conservation fund increased over the weekend after a meme spread in the r / WallStreetBets subdirectory that led its members to symbolically adopt animals en masse.
The community, which boasts more than nine million members on Monday, is generally dedicated to financial trading, and was at the center of a stock market frenzy in January that poured money into GameStop and other businesses in an attempt to disrupt hedge funds and sellers.
Since Saturday, users have been investing their money in another cause: the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International. It has received more than $ 265,000 from its members since Saturday, a spokesperson said. Newsweek.
The charity’s website says it is dedicated to “protecting and studying gorillas and their habitats in Africa” and allows people to symbolically adopt animals to raise funds. In return, donors receive an adoption certificate that shows their name – a gift that has become central to the meme.
On Saturday, user ar / WallStreetBets started the trend after sharing an image of an adopted gorilla under the donor name “GameStop”. It has since attracted over 2,000 comments in the community.
Others soon followed, the common link being the Dian Fossey fonds. Another user adopted the same mountain gorilla as “GME,” which is the stock symbol for GameStop. It snowballed from there.
Discussions now include: “I like this trend. Come on my fellow monkeys, let’s buy them a rainforest”, “Inspired by the rest of the subreddit, I adopted a gorilla”, “I see we are adopting gorillas now Well, I “I’m down” and “Give credit where credit is due … Ape is taken care of because of you”.
As reported by Gizmodo, one user made a donation as “F *** Melvin Capital,” which referred to a targeted hedge fund.
The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund said in a tweet Sunday that it raised $ 77,000 that day and specifically thanked r / WallStreetBets.
A video praising the adoptions and donations was posted on the subreddit over the weekend by the fund’s president and CEO, Dr Tara Stoinski.
She said: “I have just been informed that you have adopted gorillas from our website and I just wanted to say thank you very much for this incredible support … it will go a long way in helping our important mission.”
Thousands of r / WallStreetBets users responded. The top comment reads: “Lol if GME hits 10k, gorillas are out of the endangered list for sure.”
A statement attributed to Dr Stoinski sent to Newsweek Monday: “The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund is surprised, thrilled and grateful for the grassroots donations that have come to us through a group of investors on Reddit. In one weekend, they donated over $ 200,000, mainly through our token adoption of gorillas program.
“We rely on individual donors who give to us year after year because they know we can count on us to be prudent stewards of their donations … We thank these new donors for their contributions to the success of our mission – because that by saving gorillas, we are saving the planet. “
ISAAC KASAMANI / AFP / Getty Images
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