I'll pass on donating...

If something happens that is catastrophic enough to wipe out every food source on the planet, it is going to wipe out the human race too.

They don't have a GoFundMe account, since Gates, Monsanto, Syngenta and others are on the hook for financing the goodwill and social responsibility portion of their financials, the Norway project is approximately $1 billion financed by grants.

Since there has been only one withdrawal from this I wonder about tomato seeds, what is there, who owns it, and its renewal now that the project has matured a few years. Even under the best of preservation these seeds need to be grown out and renewed. Maybe there is an opportunity to raid the seed bank if we can slip in the burocracy and get seeds, like wily people used to do all the time with the USDA, in pre-internet years.

Anyone wants to "do the right thing ... and be part of the legacy", and join the movement closer to home, Boyce Thompson Arboretum, which prides itself on being the third US seed supplier to the Norway Bank, has an urgent opportunity with impending plant death happening on July 1, 2017, they need us now! GoFundMe account needing $2 million to save the plants (2000 of them from the wood chipper, of which only 10 plants at $21K are funded so far). At $2K per plant paid directly to the movers, maybe send them your resume now that it is crunch time:

"We all have heard about climate change, the scarcity of food and water
and that one third of all plants may be extinct in our lifetime. We
believe that arid plants may hold the key to these global issues and we
must preserve their germplasm before it is lost. We are affiliated with
the University of Arizona and Arizona State Parks, so these plants can
be studied by reseachers [sic] and enjoyed by the public. Without your help, a
plant collection that was collected over 25 years and may hold the key
to crops that use less water may just end up in a chipper.

Help
us do the right thing and save these plants. Thank you so much for
taking the time to understand why gardens and plants are so important to
our future. Be part of the legacy.

I support these virtuous efforts, though not with my poor beat up old wallet, and think they are worthwhile endeavors: some targeted projects are pretty exciting and free trips to Ecuador and Peru could be included. That does not change the fact that my mind wanders wondering about all this money in the air for these timely causes.

For $30K maybe I'll get a degree at Haaaaaarvard. They joined the online degree mill now, and here's my first course in my spare time from GardenWeb, to go through the online materials, a bargain at only $2,550 considering the amount of money available for the asking. Harvard MGMT E-3310 Grant Proposal Writing

Any of our young members who want careers and enjoy tomatoes may want to check this out. Worrying about feeding the children is most definitely an easier and more lucrative area than laboring in a field or greenhouse to feed hungry mouths today, where you can lose the farm in a single season, and no one is there to throw you a lifeline or save your plants!

Cheers

PC

Elsewhere; Turns out the Svalbard seed vault is probably fine | Popular Science - "The tunnel was never meant to be water tight at the front, because we didn’t think we would need that,” Fowler says. “What happens is, in the summer the permafrost melts, and some water comes in, and when it comes in, it freezes. It doesn’t typically go very far.”