Giving Back
“Mother Nature is our greatest teacher.” – Louie Schwartzberg
At Fantastic Fungi, nature is our common ground. We’re on a mission to share the beauty and intelligence of nature, starting with the magic and mystery of mushrooms, to protect the planet and create a better future.
Giving back in support of people and the planet is an integral part of our purpose as a business. In that spirit of stewarding wild and natural spaces, Fantastic Fungi filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg founded a 501c3 organization called Protect What We Love. Louie’s life’s work has been focused on protecting nature by capturing imagery that inspires wonder and awe, as well as subjects that are too slow, too fast, too small or too vast for the naked eye to see. This passion for taking audiences on journeys through time and scale drew Louie to filmmaking decades ago, and it is what inspires all of his films and projects even today.
About Protect What We Love
Together with the Fungi Foundation, Protect What We Love created a Fantastic Fungi educational initiative to provide mushroom-themed content and curriculum to classrooms free of charge. The Fantastic Fungi curriculum teaches students of all ages that the fungi kingdom (the mushrooms, molds and yeasts that are neither plant nor animal) is critical to human survival and to the survival of our planet. The mycological curriculum provides module-based lessons and other resources, including an educational version of the movie Fantastic Fungi. The lessons cover the science of mushrooms; fungi for food and medicine; an introduction to “citizen science"; the art of nature; and environmental conservation and innovation.
The Fantastic Fungi curriculum was developed for middle school (6-8) and high school students (9-12), with a future plan to develop resources for younger students. Aligned with both Next Generation Science Standards and Common Core standards, each of the five modules presents an educational vision for student learning, learning objectives and a set of unique lessons. Learn more by visiting the curriculum page at fungieducation.org, as this partnership continues to bring the wisdom of fungi to classrooms.
Your support of Fantastic Fungi enables this work and makes our giving possible. Protect What We Love will help these educational programs grow by continuing to support them with a donation of profits.