Allston and the Royal Wedding

This month, an Allston-based non-profit is getting the royal treatment. Earthwatch Institute is an international non-profit organization concerned with environmental sustainability, and is a tenant of one of Harvard’s Allston properties. It will also be one of 24 charities benefitted by Prince William and Kate Middleton’s April 29 wedding.

In case you haven’t been following the wedding buzz as closely as FM has, the royal couple has set up a charitable fund that will benefit five different causes rather than registering for gifts. While having no direct association with Earthwatch, the couple strongly believes in the importance of the education of tomorrow’s leaders in the field of conservation, and it was this interest that led them to Earthwatch.

The non-profit is soon going to be celebrating its 40th anniversary, and what better way to celebrate than with an endorsement from the future King and Queen of England?

“We haven’t invested a lot of money in terms of advertising for promotion,” said Ed A. Wilson, president and CEO of Earthwatch Institute. “We’ve really concentrated on growing our programs over the years. To get this endorsement from the wedding and particularly such a strong vote of confidence from both William and Ms. Middleton is really a tremendous shot in the arm for us.”

Though Earthwatch now has offices in nine countries around the world, including the U.K., Japan, and India, the organization still relies heavily on word of mouth in order to gain support. With the donation that they will receive from this crowning achievement, Earthwatch plans to continue expanding their international initiatives, emphasizing the need to expand their goals of research and education.

Unfortunately, the Earthwatch team did not receive personal invitations to the wedding. Wilson joked, “I would like to say that they’ve sent me an invitation. My wife went out to buy a hat and I told her that it was a little bit premature.”