Frequently Asked Questions

Please visit our Online Donor Portal. Once you’re in the portal, access your receipt under the donation history section. Still having trouble? Get in touch using the contact us form at the end of this page and a member of our team will be happy to help you.

You can update it through our Online Donor Portal. Once you’re in the portal, update your credit card under the recurring donation section. Still having trouble? Get in touch using the form at the bottom of this page and a member of our team would be happy to help you.

You can update it by visiting our Online Donor Portal. Once you’re in the portal, update your monthly donation under the recurring donation section. Still having trouble? Get in touch using the form at the bottom of this page and a member of our team would be happy to help you.

We’re so grateful that you’ve decided to make the conservation work done by the Jane Goodall Institute of Canada part of your legacy. Leaving a bequest is as simple as adding a clause to your Will. Please get in touch with your lawyer or financial advisor to plan what gift you’d like to leave and understand the tax benefits of your gift. If you’d like to leave a gift to our organization, our legal name, and the proper beneficiary for your gift is: The Jane Goodall Institute for Wildlife Research, Education and Conservation. If you’re looking for more information visit our Legacy Giving page or get in touch with us directly using the form at the bottom of this page.

We know there are a lot of organizations you can support. And we’re honoured you’ve chosen us. Your donation helps support the Jane Goodall Institute’s long-lasting conservation solutions: community-led conservation projects both in Africa and right here at home in Canada, youth empowerment through Roots & Shoots, and care for the rescued chimpanzees at the Tchimpounga Sanctuary. Depending on what’s happening, your support goes where the need is greatest. If you would like your donation to be directed to a specific program or project, you can include this in the ‘comment’ section of the donation form, or speak directly with a member of our team. Catch up on our Annual Reports to find out what your gifts have helped achieve.

We know that trust is essential to any relationship. When you choose to support us, we take that support seriously. Because of this, we undertook the Imagine Canada accreditation process and are proud to be an accredited organization. This means we’ve demonstrated excellence in five key areas of charity operations as reviewed by a third-party panel of sector peers. Only 200 charities in Canada have achieved this accreditation so far and we’re proud to display the trustmark on our website.

We’d love to help – and thank you for sharing Jane’s message! To start, we’d recommend visiting our “Meet Jane” page. There, you can discover her incredible life story, how she began studying chimps, and how she inspired people around the world. If you still have questions after visiting that page, please use the Contact Us form at the end of this page. We’ll get back to you as soon as we can.

Congratulations! You just took a huge step in creating a sustainable and just world for all. Visit our Roots & Shoots page and start your journey. Questions? Use the contact us form at the end of this page and a member of our team will get back to you within 5 business days.

Get in touch with us using the Contact Us form at the bottom of this page and we’ll help you get everything you need.

No, you don’t. What package you get is up to you! Our Chimp Guardian comes in two varieties – a Digital Package, which does not come with a plush toy, and a Physical Package, which does come with a plush toy. You can decide which package you’d prefer during the purchase process.

It is a one-time payment for your choice of a Digital Package or a Physical Package. Chimp Guardians receive a postcard with a message written by Dr. Jane; a plush toy chimpanzee, with the Physical Package only; a biography of the chimpanzee you have adopted; and a fact sheet about the Jane Goodall Institute’s Tchimpounga sanctuary. If you’d like to support our work on a monthly basis, you can Join Team Goodall and take action for our planet all year long.

At this time, we only offer the full Chimp Guardian package. But we’ll keep this in mind for future product offerings!

Environmental sustainability is at the heart of everything we do. We can’t advocate for a more just and sustainable world without putting in the work ourselves. With this in mind, the plush toys we offer are made from 100% recycled materials.

While we don’t send regular updates about adopted chimpanzees, we do send quarterly reports about the chimpanzees at Tchimpounga sanctuary to our monthly donors. In these reports you will learn about how your chimpanzee is doing plus all of the other incredible work happening at our sanctuary. If you’d like to receive these regular updates you can sign up to become a monthly donor for as little as $5 a month!

Chimpanzees are omnivores, meaning they eat both plants and animals. In fact, Dr. Jane Goodall was the first person to observe chimpanzees eating other animals when she saw them using sticks to extract termites and also hunting smaller mammals such as monkeys. Until then, chimpanzees were believed to be herbivores, like most other great apes. Most of a chimpanzee’s diet is made up of fruits, seeds, nuts, leaves, flowers and insects.

While some pictures or videos may make it seem like chimpanzees are friendly to humans this is not the case. Chimpanzees are wild animals and can be unpredictable and aggressive. And despite being our closest living relatives, sharing 99.9% of our DNA, they’re much bigger and stronger than humans. It may seem like they’re friendly in pictures of chimpanzees interacting with humans, but it’s more than likely that these are trained professionals who know how to safely interact with wildlife.

Images of chimpanzees interacting with people outside of trained professionals can actually be harmful. These types of images can lead to greater demand for the illegal pet and wildlife trade. We encourage you learn how you can flag harmful animal content on social media, and only engage with images that protect and honour animals of all species. Find out how!

Of course we can! We love to help the next generation of Janes. Start by visiting our section All about Chimpanzees. Here you’ll find more about what chimpanzees eat, how they communicate, what makes a chimpanzee and monkey different (hint: it has to do with a tail!) and so much more. Once you’re finished there, check out our Gombe page to discover all the incredible research that started when Jane entered the rainforest over 60 years ago.

In the meantime, here are 5 quick facts about chimpanzees that might help:

• Chimpanzees are human’s closest living relatives, sharing over 99.9% of our DNA
• Chimpanzees make and use tools – this was first observed by Jane when she saw a chimpanzee she called David Greybeard use a blade of grass to fish termites
• A chimpanzee family group is called a troop (and we like to think you’re part of our troop!)
• Every individual chimpanzee has his or her own distinctive pant-hoot, so that the caller can be identified with precision.
• At the turn of the century, over one million chimpanzees lived in the wild. Now there are less than 300,000 because of human-caused habitat loss, disease, the illegal wildlife trade, and poaching.

Chimpanzees are at risk of COVID-19. Diseases represent one of the main threats to non-human primates after habitat loss and hunting. Over the past 60 years, great ape populations across Africa have experienced fatal epidemics of common human borne diseases such as the human respiratory syncytial virus (HRSV), the human metapneumovirus (HMPV) and human rhinovirus C. While there is yet to be a confirmed case of COVID-19 in wild primates, their close relation to humans is a serious cause for concern. Because of this, we’ve taken extraordinary precautions at JGI’s Tchimpounga sanctuary to ensure the safety of the rescued chimpanzees and other wildlife that call it home.

Even though Chimpanzees don’t live in Canada, there are still so many things you can do to help them! Here are our top 3:

1. Recycle your cell phone: Resource mining for cell phones happens in a key natural habitat for chimpanzees, driving illegal hunting, destroying habitats, and triggering civil conflict. But 99% of materials found in cell phones can be recovered when they’re recycled. So by keeping your cell phone for as long as possible and recycling it when it’s no longer working you’re helping chimpanzees
2. Share with care: The types of images you share of chimpanzees can help or hurt them. Images of chimpanzees dressed in clothes, kept as pets, or used for entertainment can all fuel the illegal wildlife and pet trade. We encourage you to flag harmful content and never engage with it. Find out more on our Forever Wild page.
3. Support our work: Our work is built on long term solutions that protect animals by empowering people. When you support our work you are directly contributing to initiatives that help chimpanzees whether it’s through our rescue and sanctuary, Tchimpounga, awareness building campaigns, or through a community-centred conservation program. Support us today.

The threats to great apes in the natural world are many. Sadly, humans are a leading cause of Chimpanzee population declines. But that means we can be part of the solution.

Current threats to Chimpanzees include: habitat loss, the commercial bushmeat and illegal exotic pet trade, infectious diseases such as Ebola Fever, and armed conflict.

All of these problems have deep roots, including human population growth, the staggering scale of poverty and disease, climate change, lack of economic opportunity, political indifference and corruption, conflict, and scant community involvement in managing natural resources. To begin to make a difference in the face of such fundamental challenges requires a holistic, multi-pronged response. That’s why JGIC is focused on community-centred conservation. Putting local people at the heart of the solutions. Find out more about community-centred conservation.

Currently, our physical products can only be shipped within Canada.

Yes, orders $120+ are eligible for free shipping.

Orders typically arrive within 5-10 business days. Not all orders have tracking numbers, but you are welcome to inquire at info@janegoodall.ca if needed, and our team will do our best to provide you with an update.

We partner with Ethical Swag, a certified B Corp organization, from production to shipping of our merchandise. They only work with suppliers who meet rigorous standards for social compliance, environmental impact, product safety, supply chain security, and product quality. They also measure and offset their carbon footprint, embodying sustainability principles in every aspect of their operations. Rest assured, we only work with organizations who align with our values and who offer high-quality products made from sustainably-sourced materials.

All of our offerings are available in our Gift Shop. If you have a suggestion for another item, we encourage you to share it with our team. Your feedback is always welcome and appreciated.

All sales are final. Refunds and exchanges cannot be processed. We strive to provide exceptional offerings and service. If there is an issue with your order, please send an inquiry to info@janegoodall.ca and we will work with you to find a solution.

As animal lovers ourselves, we truly understand your concerns about the mistreatment of wildlife.

These wider systemic issues and their impact on all wildlife are at the core of everything we do through awareness building initiatives, community-centred conservation, and youth empowerment. We encourage you to continue to speak out when you see these cases of animal mistreatment. Find your local government representatives, start a petition, take action in a way that’s accessible to you. Like Jane said, “What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make”

The Jane Goodall Institute of Canada does not currently offer trips to any of our project sites.

While this is not currently within the immediate scope of our organizational focus, Dr. Goodall often spoke out on the topic of alternative medical testing on several occasions – some examples of this linked below.

It is difficult to find a holistic overview on the progress made on animal testing in recent years, but we hope these articles and resources provide some useful information.

1. https://janegoodall.ca/our-stories/animal-testing-germany/
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDaMPJVVssI
3. https://animaljustice.ca/blog/medical-testing-animals-brief-history
4. https://www.humanesociety.org/all-our-fights/taking-suffering-out-science

If this is something you are passionate about, we encourage you to get involved and be the change you want to see in the world.

We love working with the incredible members of our community. When it comes to collaborations we look for partners that align with our conservation work and our values. To get in touch with us about a collaboration, use the Contact Us form at the bottom of this page. Our team will do their best to get back to you as soon as they can.

Yes, we do! Head to our new online gift shop to find merchandise, eCards, and our Chimp Guardian packages. Every physical product is designed with sustainability at the forefront. The funds raised from every item purchased go directly to community-led conservation, awareness building initiatives, and chimpanzee protection. Thank you for supporting us and visit often – we’re always working on new items for you to rep!

If you’ve received an email from us recently, scroll to the bottom and you should see a link to unsubscribe. If that doesn’t work, get in touch with us using the Contact Us form at the bottom of this page. A member of our team will get back to you within five business days.

Use the Contact Us form at the end of this page to let us know and we’ll remove you from our mailing list. Please be sure to include your full name and address in your request. A member of our team will get back to you and process your request within 5 business days.

Jane Goodall Institute of Canada’s charity number is: CBN: 14053 0916 RR0001. This number can also be found on our website at the bottom corner.

First of all a high-five and big thank you for being part of our community! If you’re interested in volunteering with us, use the form at the bottom of this page to get in touch. Make sure you share your area of expertise and how you’d like to lend your skills – whether it be volunteering at an event or helping out with digital services. We can’t wait to hear from you!