Why Give?

Our Mission

For more than 50 years, the mission of Population Connection (formerly Zero Population Growth) has focused on the future… a future where women everywhere gain access to modern family planning options and reproductive health care… a future where rapid population growth no longer threatens our quality of life… and where the Earth’s resources can sustain the world’s population.

This future can only be made possible by the support of people like YOU. You can ensure that your estate cares for your loved ones while continuing your legacy of support for a sustainable future on a livable planet. With a planned gift to Population Connection, you can ensure our work to advocate, inform, and educate continues as long as overpopulation threatens our world. Your support will make a difference in our work and in our world. There are many different ways you can ensure that your commitment to population stabilization will live on—learn more about all of the different ways you can include gifts as part of your estate plan, and how to become a member of the ZPG Society.

If we can provide more information or answer any questions, please contact us at 202-974-7756 or legacy@popconnect.org! Thank you for your commitment to making our world a better place, where people live in harmony with nature, and where we can preserve our natural resources for future generations.

Environmental and socioeconomic benefits

Women who have reproductive autonomy generally choose to have smaller families. This slows population growth and creates opportunities for social, economic, and environmental improvements. Slower population growth reduces pressures on natural resources, habitats, and food systems. Within the context of climate change, slowing population growth is key to achieving greenhouse gas emissions targets, and the health, education, and economic benefits afforded through family planning help reduce climate vulnerability and increase resilience for communities around the world.

Low Section Of Women Taking Water From Tubewell In Village Area Of Haryana, India

Health benefits

When women and couples have access to the resources necessary to freely and intentionally choose the number, timing, and spacing of their births, a wide variety of health benefits ensue also, including reductions in maternal mortality and morbidity, infant and child mortality, and unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions.

People walking down main road in Jinka town, Naciones, Ethiopia, Africa

The powerful, neglected solution

Read more about how empowering women and girls to take charge of their bodies and lives is key to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in this blog post.

This one action could save the world—so why does no one talk about it?

How Your Gift Helps

Your generous contribution will aid our fight to stabilize global population. You’ll underwrite our continued work to ensure women everywhere can gain access to modern family planning options and reproductive health care, while raising public awareness about the dire impacts of rapid population growth. Together, we will strive to achieve a more balanced world where Earth’s resources are capable of sustaining all life.

The ZPG Society

If you include a gift in your will or trust, establish a Charitable Gift Annuity, or designate Population Connection as a beneficiary of your retirement fund or other financial account, we’ll be honored to include you as a member of our ZPG Society! This is a recognition group intended to pay tribute to your commitment and far-sightedness. ZPG Society members receive a lifetime subscription to our magazine, Population Connection, as well as recognition in our annual honor roll listing published in the magazine, and special program updates throughout the year.

Inspiring Stories

Joyanne Bloom

“I’m looking out of my window and there’s haze from the fires in Canada and the interior,” Population Connection member Joyanne Bloom tells us. “There is pollution from the mines spilling into our rivers. The ocean is warming and acidifying. The fish stocks are diminishing, especially in areas where our Native Alaskans are reliant subsistence on salmon. The Mendenhall Glacier, just 13 miles away, has shrunk back about a mile since I got here in the 1970s.”

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Kevin and Kristin Curtis

As a nature lover and a frequent traveler concerned about the impact of rapid population growth, ZPG Society member Kevin Curtis has supported Population Connection’s mission since the 1970’s.

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Rebecca Weiner

Rebecca Weiner joined Population Connection in 2019, but she was introduced to our organization as a child by her mother, who was a member in the ’70s, when we were known as Zero Population Growth, or ZPG. Rebecca loves the way Population Connection “makes the connection” between individual family planning choices, the economy, the environment, and everything else: “The personal truly IS political!”

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Rob Verner

One of the most profound experiences of my life occurred in the Appalachian hills around Athens, Ohio – the site of Ohio University. I was hiking in the woods and came across an abandoned coal mine. I went in a few feet, but it was quite dark and, frankly, scary. There was a small stream flowing out of the mine so I followed it.

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James O’Callaghan, Ph.D.

ZPG Society member James O’Callaghan, Ph.D., can hardly remember when he first started supporting Population Connection, then Zero Population Growth or ZPG: “I think it was in college in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, when I took ecology courses and had a series of lectures on population biology at Purdue."

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