Endowments2025-02-19T12:31:27+00:00

Endowments

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Donations can be more than just a one-off.

We need to invest in a sustainable future for people and wildlife, and the next 10-15 years are crucial for turning the tide on the environmental crises.

Rather than just a straightforward donation, supporting an expendable endowment promises increased returns over time, providing a sustainable source of long-term financial security for the conservation partners we support.

How it works

Synchronicity Earth Living Endowment - Statistics and icons

Our Endowments

Man showing a turtle

Living Endowment

Yellow Frog

Amphibian Endowment

chimp holding a tree

Ape Endowment

black and white bird

Asian Species Endowment

two people in a small boat sailing on the ocean

Neptune Endowment

Images: Andre Dib/Instituto Jurua, Robin Moore, Christian Ziegler/National Geographic, Pierre de Chabannes, Sei Media (Teupoko Ariihee)

Why it works

Investing in long-term action

This decade is critical for conservation action. The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, agreed at the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, has 23 global targets for urgent action over the decade to 2030. This includes the ambitious ’30 by 30’ target of protecting at least 30% of terrestrial and inland water areas, and of marine and coastal areas.

“We are at a critical moment in history. […] We are walking when we should be sprinting. […] Action now along many dimensions could result in the transformational change essential for the future we all wish for – a future not just for ourselves but for generations to come. The [choices] we make now and in the next few years will reverberate around the world for hundreds, maybe even thousands of years..”

Hoesung Lee, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Chair, 2023

Why fund through an endowment?

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Benefits to funders

Many funding cycles are short-term, lasting one year, or maximum two. But lasting success for biodiversity and local communities takes much longer. The long-term spenddown of expendable endowments provides guaranteed funding, strengthening relationships with our partners over longer timescales with flexible and core support.

Short-term grants require our partners to spend their valuable time chasing funding deadlines with paperwork, which is why we are shaping our funding models to be able to guarantee multi-year grants, pooling funders together to minimise reporting requirements, and sharing opportunities to learn from the changemakers on the ground.

Our target investment return is 4-8%, and the more we can grow our endowments, the greater the impact will be. As our endowments are in USD or GBP, they also provide our partners with valuable defence against inflation or erosion of local currencies.

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Andressa Scabin, from Instituto Juruá, a partner supported through our Freshwater Programme. Image © Andressa Scabin/Instituto Juruá

Benefits for funded partners

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Members of the local community consulting on manatee conservation with our partner AMMCO, funded through our Congo Basin Pooled Fund. Image © Hermann Peka

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The Endowment model is particularly effective at supporting:

Many vital environmental issues are overlooked due to lack of awareness, overwhelming complexity, or lack of exciting details or beautiful photos which attract press coverage and donor excitement. The commitment of funds means that we can support important work regardless of whether they are perceived as ‘attractive’ or newsworthy to ensure their longevity.

So much important conservation is carried out at the grassroots, community level, led by small organisations. Our Endowments can absorb large amounts of money which can be distributed to these types of organisations without overwhelming their capacity, helping them to manage their cash flow and grow sustainably.

The reliable nature of annual payments from the endowments ensures security for organisations’ essential costs such as staff salaries. In an unstable climate where a natural disaster or pandemic could impact day-to-day work or fundraising capability, core support provides a buffer to carry them through difficult times and improves overall staff retention.

“Our endowments create a financial safety net for ourselves and our partners and as a result, the species and ecosystems we are all working to protect. Having long-term annuity income available for ourselves and our partners means we can plan and prepare for the future, knowing funds are available over time.

When addressing urgent environmental threats, alleviating the burden of fundraising – wherever possible – is an incredible gift.”

Adam Sweidan, Chief Investment Officer at Aurum, co-Founder and co-Chair of Synchronicity Earth

Spotlight on the Amphibian Endowment

The Amphibian Endowment (In Honour of Dr George B. Rabb) was founded in 2017 as a response to the dramatic amphibian declines and extinctions taking place around the world, and the urgent need for sustained, core funding to conservationists tackling threats to amphibians over the following decades.

The endowment is named after the late Dr George B. Rabb, who was one of the people who brought the amphibian extinction crisis to the attention of the global conservation movement.

One of the great achievements made possible by this endowment has been the publication of the second Global Amphibian Assessment in 2023, a monumental effort which reviewed and updated the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (Red List) assessments for all known species of amphibian (8,011).

A woman smiling at a small frog

Our Amphibian partner Instituto Curicaca are conserving the admirable red-belly toad. Image © Chris Scarffe

Frequently asked questions

An endowment is a funding mechanism for charities whereby large donations are held in investment portfolios to protect against inflation and derive further income which can be spent over time, providing a secure source of long-term funding.

To quote Hoesung Lee, Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), we are at a critical point in history. At an address in 2023, he said “The [choices] we make now and in the next few years will reverberate around the world for hundreds, maybe even thousands of years.”

It is critical that we use all our resources as effectively as possible during this period when every milestone, every achievement, will reverberate over centuries to come.

The expendable endowment model means that we can grow the income from each donation whilst not wasting the opportunity to invest our funding in direct action now when it matters the most. So, we have chosen a model which spends down each endowments overall capital over time, as well as the income from investments.

No, there is room for flexibility. While each endowment has guidance on its spenddown rate, the trustees of Synchronicity Earth are able to use their expertise and take advice on how to make the most out of endowment income each year if there are special circumstances.

For example, after the strong performance of the Amphibian Endowment over the course of 2022 (end of 2022 value: USD 709,673, representing annual underlying growth of 11% through the year and a 66% increase since the inception of the endowment), the endowment provided additional support to organisations seeking to bridge the gap between academic research and amphibian conservation projects on the ground, especially in the light of the completion of the second Global Amphibian Assessment.

This also meant that the endowment could provide support for an emergency response when our partner Save Ghana Frogs reported that a significant portion of Sui River Forest Reserve in Ghana had been logged to clear space to plant trees for timber harvesting and to contribute to Ghana’s tree-planting targets. The logged area covered one of the only known sites for the Critically Endangered giant squeaker frog and is highly biodiverse.

Synchronicity Earth has a range of expendable endowments (where both income and capital can be used) to support long-term funding. The Amphibian, Ape, Asian Species and Neptune (Ocean) endowments are restricted to supporting our programmatic work, whilst the Synchronicity Earth Living Fund is unrestricted and is used to support all aspects of our work.

Donations to the endowments are invested to comply with our Investment Policy and the performance of our investments and the policy are reviewed annually by the trustees. Our policy uses a framework that specifies use of diversified, absolute return investment funds, with a target of achieving a return of between 4% and 8% annually over the long term, consistent with a diversified, low risk portfolio. You can request a copy of our Investment Policy by contacting: philanthropy@synchronicityearth.org.

The Synchronicity Earth Living Endowment is our best offering for maximum impact over time for your contribution to our work. This endowment is for donors who want to support our trust-based approach to philanthropy, enabling us the flexibility to create new connections and avenues of work whilst developing the relationships with our existing partnerships.

Our approach goes beyond just grant-giving to conservation partners; when we embark on a relationship with a new partner organisation, we strive to understand what barriers there are to its growth such as lack of training, access to other funders, travel to important conferences, and time-consuming fundraising cycles. Supporting Synchronicity Earth’s core costs through our Living Endowment allows us to provide support that goes beyond grants, including capacity building such as hands-on advice from our affiliates; systems change through the Synchronicity Portfolio; and cultural influence to target the drivers of ecological destruction.

As well as supporting Synchronicity Earth’s operations, the Living Endowment is used to fill gaps in our programme funding, particularly for important or emerging areas that struggle to attract funders due to complexity or a lack of awareness of their issues.

This endowment is for donors who want to support that strategic approach and fund some of our most challenging work; donors who value independent analysis and research, and who expect great execution and know what this requires in terms of infrastructure; donors who understand that conservation needs local organisations leading and developing action, often in challenging circumstances and want to help us fund and support them in the best way we can over the long term.

The Amphibian Endowment, Asian Species Endowment, Ape Endowment, and Neptune Endowment do not charge any overhead for Synchronicity Earth, as these funds are restricted to the programmes and partners specified. This means that, by contributing to the endowments, donors receive the benefits of Synchronicity Earth’s research, partner stewardship, and local expertise through our affiliate network without charge. By doing this we aim to significantly increase the amount of funding that is directed to challenging and often overlooked issues, as well as assisting donors to fund with greater impact.

It is thanks to the committed philanthropic funding from the Aurum Kaleidoscope Foundation (and previously from the Synchronicity Foundation) that we can offer this.

However, the scale of what we want to achieve requires more operations costs. For example, as our income grows, we need to spend adequate resources on finding and developing new relationships with local organisations and providing them with core and project funding. As well as providing core and project funding to conservation solutions which are more difficult to fundraise for, the nature of the Synchronicity Earth Living Endowment also helps provide core support for Synchronicity Earth’s operations. This means that as well as being able to invest in growing our network, those endowments can be used to broaden our income streams, compounding the overall value.

Make a donation to an endowment

If you are interested in making a donation which will create a lasting impact on conservation efforts where support is needed most by contributing to one of Synchronicity Earth’s endowments, please contact our Philanthropy team.

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