Amphibian Conservation Fund

a white frog infront of a green circle Two in every five amphibian species are threatened with extinction, making amphibians the world’s most threatened class of vertebrates. Synchronicity Earth’s Amphibian Conservation Fund was launched in 2020, in collaboration with Fondation Segré, to help reverse this trend.

“I am delighted to see both the breadth and depth of the Amphibian Conservation Fund’s impact in the few years since we launched it.”

Simon Stuart, Chief Scientific Advisor, Synchronicity Earth

Image © Hadlee Renjith

Scaling up funding for amphibian conservation

The Amphibian Conservation Fund gives donors the opportunity to pool their resources to support the goals of Synchronicity Earth’s Amphibian Programme. Our Amphibian Programme aims to improve the amphibian knowledge base to guide conservation priorities, fund increased amphibian conservation on the ground, and promote the development of amphibian conservation organisations.

Drawing on our conservation network and relationships, and on the findings of the second Global Amphibian Assessment (2023), the Amphibian Conservation Fund helps us bolster long-term, core support for key local and national conservation organisations and individuals, increasing the average size of grants we provide, helping organisations to grow, and supporting early career amphibian conservationists to flourish.

Why pool funding?

Our Amphibian Programme team draws on a wide network of amphibian conservation scientists and practitioners to help us to understand the key gaps, opportunities, and priorities for conservation action. Through this network, we have developed strong and lasting connections with impactful organisations and grassroots local groups.

The fund provides a forum for partners to share their knowledge and challenges, increasing understanding among donors of the issues they are addressing and the solutions that will have most impact. Building trust and understanding this way allows us to increase long-term and core funding (e.g., for staff and organisational development), the kind of funding that many smaller, locally led organisations struggle to access.

Through a combination of reporting, webinars for donors, updates and briefings, donors can hear directly from implementing partners on the ground, increasing their knowledge and understanding of the context and the impact their support is having. Relationships with grantee partners are held by Synchronicity Earth, reducing the time spent by each donor on grant management, reporting, and administration.

A woman at night searching for frogs in a bromeliad against a starry sky

Dr Bela Barata, Instituto Biotrópicos, one of the partners supported by the Amphibian Conservation Fund. Image © Michel Becheleni

Benefits of the Amphibian Conservation Fund:

For funders

Research and expertise

Donors contributing to the Amphibian Conservation Fund get access to the research and expertise of our Programmes Team and our wider network of amphibian conservation advisers and partners, supporting greater understanding of the key gaps and priorities for protecting amphibians. This includes input from our Chief Scientific Adviser, Dr Simon Stuart, alongside knowledge gained from working with multiple amphibian conservationists and organisations through our Amphibian Programme, from small, grassroots NGOs to national and international organisations and scientific bodies.

Reaching smaller more diverse local groups

Contributors to a pooled fund are connected to smaller local and grassroots groups which are historically underfunded and can be hard to reach, particularly for larger funders.

Relationship building and grant management

Building strong long-term relationships and managing grants takes time and commitment when supporting local and community-led organisations. Many funders simply do not have the time or capacity to devote to this deep relationship-building work. Joining a pooled fund bridges this gap, reducing the burden for funders as relationships with partners on the ground are held and grants managed by Synchronicity Earth.

Sharing knowledge and learning

Donors can take part in webinars hosted by Synchronicity Earth with participation from conservation partners implementing the work, experts in the field, and other funders. This helps to strengthen understanding of the local context, the challenges our partners face and impact of funding, and deepens the connection between the donor and the people and organisations carrying out the work.

A smiling man holds a toad in front of him in his blue gloved hands

A member of the Asociación Pro Fauna Silvestre team with a toad – Rhinella Popoeggi – in the Peruvian Andes. Image © Chris Scarffe

Two scientists taking a photograph of a frog

Members of Instituto Curicaca, a partner supported through the Amphibian Conservation Fund. Image © Chris Scarffe

For funded partners

Stable, long-term, and flexible support

Pooled funding provides a stable source of long-term, flexible income for partners, often providing for core support, one of the most difficult types of funding to obtain for many smaller organisations. Since the Fund was established, we have significantly increased the amount of core support to the partners in our Amphibian Programme; on average, partners use around 50% of the funding provided to support staff salaries. Just under half our partners are currently on multi-year grants, and we plan to increase this substantially over the next few years.

Visibility and access

Receiving pooled funding support increases visibility for smaller organisations, giving them access to larger foundations that would otherwise not be reachable. Our partners have often successfully accessed significant funding directly from larger funders as a result of our pooled funding approach.

Connection to others working on similar issues

Pooled funds help to bring both funders and conservation organisations together, providing our partners with opportunities to meet and learn from their peers, strengthen their own networks and nurture new collaborations.

Reduced administrative burden

With support from a pooled fund, partners are released from the burden of having to write multiple proposals and reports for donors who may have very different reporting processes and requirements. Synchronicity Earth helps to streamline the information required from partners, and manages reporting and grant administration processes for donors.

“The importance given to people and values is outstanding, the whole team feels confident in our mission establishing a purposeful teamwork. The Amphibian Fund has had a positive impact on our institutional development, and our partnership was built on a strong trustworthy relationship. In my opinion, the impact of this approach goes beyond our institution, resulting in stronger and more capable organisations and amphibian conservationists worldwide.”

Dr Bela Barata, Instituto Biotrópicos

How the fund works

Joining the fund

The amphibian pooled fund currently has five contributing donors and supports 19 conservation partners working on amphibian conservation around the world. By joining the pooled fund, donors gain access to Synchronicity Earth’s research capacity and network of amphibian experts, including that of our Chief Scientific Adviser, Simon Stuart, and our conservation partners working to conserve some of Earth’s most threatened amphibians. Pooled Fund donors will have the opportunity to participate in three sharing and learning webinars per year, and receive briefings on key highlights and an in-depth annual report at the end of each year.

Each donation to a programme is managed alongside other donations, allowing funding to be allocated more strategically to our partners (grantees).

Decision making

Current donors to the fund have the opportunity to put forward two individuals to join the Amphibian Conservation Fund Executive Panel (ACFEP). ACFEP members can join learning webinars with members of the Synchronicity Earth team and funded partners, and are also asked to read proposal packs to keep them up to date with new partners and funding opportunities and raise any concerns they might have.

Learning and Engagement

Along with maximising effective funding for amphibian conservation, a key goal of the Amphibian Conservation Fund is to strengthen connections and learning between funders – most of whom are based in the Global North – and the individuals and organisations implementing conservation on the ground, mostly in the Global South. Creating space for learning between funders and partners on the ground facilitates greater understanding of both the challenges and the successes of the work, allows for peer to peer knowledge exchange, and deepens trust between funders and grantees.

CASE STUDY: Conserving amphibians in Cameroon

Head and shoulders photo of Marina Kameni against a green backdrop

Marina Kameni, Herp Cameroon

“Every time I see a new frog species, it becomes a new love story in my life, and I would like more people to know about it. That is why I am trying to involve more children and women in my work.”

-Marina Kameni, Herp Cameroon

Marina Kameni has established Cameroon’s only organisation dedicated to amphibian conservation. With support from Synchronicity Earth, she has legally registered Herp-Cameroon to protect species on Mount Manengouba. This extinct volcano is a hotspot for biodiversity – it is home to more than half of the most threatened frogs and toads in the country, many of which are found nowhere else in the world. However, its iconic rainforest is highly vulnerable to deforestation.

Initially, Marina’s work was funded via our partner Herp-Ghana, who carry out similar conservation projects, but now she is ready to operate independently. This will help to build Marina’s reputation as she emerges as a new leader in amphibian conservation – a big win for women in herpetology. She will continue to work closely with Herp-Ghana, as well as receiving help from Julie Gagoe, one of our Congo Basin Programme affiliates who has experience in supporting young organisations.

“Cameroon has a diversity of unique amphibians and most of its species are declining. Urgent local action is needed to help save them. Previously, only external researchers were working on Cameroonian amphibians. But now people know that if they want to learn more, they can contact us. There is much to be done, but with mentorship, support, and funding, we hope Herp-Cameroon can achieve so much more for the future of these species.”

In the three years since the Amphibian Conservation Fund was established, there has been a five-fold increase in the average grant size we provide to partners, including multi-year grants, and the average length of grant we provide has gone from 13.5 months to 24.5 months.

16 of our partners are local or national organisations that would be unlikely, on their own, to be able to access the funding of the major philanthropic foundations that represent our pooled fund donors, and would not be able to absorb the amount of funding that they would want to give out.

Our amphibian fund is generously supported by these organisations:

Fondation Segré | Oak Foundation | BAND Foundation | Fondation Hans Wilsdorf

*The Fund also received some donations from individuals who are not part of the pooled fund.

If you would like to contribute to the Amphibian Conservation Fund, or are interested in learning more about it, please contact Pria Ghosh, Senior Programme Officer for the Amphibian Programme: Pria@synchronicityearth.org