Funding Conservation2025-02-11T16:35:21+00:00

Funding Conservation

Image © Chris Scarffe

More effective funding to protect nature where the need is greatest

Synchronicity Earth funds global nature conservation, focusing on regions, species, and ecosystems that are overlooked and underfunded.

We support a diverse range of partners, from small, locally led organisations acting with and for the communities they are part of, Indigenous Peoples and Indigenous-led funds, to larger national and international NGOs working on policy and advocacy.

Since our founding in 2009, we have distributed over £17.5M in grant funding to more than 180 organisations protecting forest, freshwater, and ocean biodiversity in sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America and Melanesia.

We are committed to increasing funding to address urgent but neglected conservation challenges, and to working closely with other funders to scale up and improve philanthropic funding to the sector.

The funding gap

As the impacts of climate breakdown and nature loss continue to sound the alarm, increasing financial flows that benefit nature is an urgent and immediate challenge for our governments and global institutions. The United Nations Environment Programme’s State of Finance for Nature report estimates that in 2022, $1.7 trillion was spent subsidising activities that were harmful for the environment (fossil fuels, agriculture, forestry, fisheries). Meanwhile, the gap in funding for biodiversity is estimated to be between $700 billion and $1 trillion.

The value of philanthropic funding

While this huge funding deficit requires a globally coordinated, multilateral response, philanthropic funding has a key role to play. Effective environmental philanthropy can lead the way in signposting solutions that work; what it lacks in scale, philanthropy can make up for in innovation, agility and direction setting for larger multilateral sources of funding. 

Free from many of the constraints and bureaucracy of more institutional types of funding, it can catalyse new, more effective approaches to funding and respond rapidly to help vital funds reach the places and communities where they are most needed.

It can also provide direct support to smaller, often locally led and community-based organisations working on vital conservation issues, allowing them to flourish and develop to best protect and restore their lands and waters.

A white mother Lar Gibbon or White-handed Gibbon with baby feeding on a fig tree, colorful ripe fruits of fig in season, winter morning.

Image: Istock

The best philanthropic funding for environmental issues can have a transformational impact for nature and communities. But this funding needs to grow exponentially, and it needs to change: more funding and better funding can support a flourishing future for nature and people.

Image © Chris Scarffe

Creative and collaborative funding for long-term impact

There is an urgent need for more philanthropic funding for environmental issues. But alongside this, we believe there are better ways to fund, so we are adopting innovative approaches in our funding to ensure that more money reaches the places it needs to go, and the best individuals and organisations are supported in the ways that they identify as most effective.

We have developed a range of approaches and funding mechanisms, collaborating with other funders and joining forces to reimagine environmental philanthropy. We are committed to continuous learning and improvement in how we fund.

Our approach to funding

Endowments

Reimagining Philanthropy

Images: Top row – iStock, Chris Scarffe. Bottom row – Chris Scarffe, Alexandra Radu/HUTAN, Chris Scarffe

Two men looking at a picture on a camera

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Image © Chris Scarffe

Building relationships

Icon featuring a British pound sign and three blades of grass, one with a flower, symbolising growth
  • We generally do not hold open calls for proposals, as we do not want to promote a culture in which small organisations spend their limited resources and capacity writing proposals and chasing funding where chances of success are slim.
  • Instead we actively seek out partners through our networks, and we only ask for a written overview of the work planned once we have money committed and available.
  • Our philosophy is that first and foremost we partner with an organisation to deepen our understanding of their work and get to know them, before working with them to decide how they will use our funding.

Diversified funding

Arrows pointing to a British pound sign, representing various sources of incoming income.

Synchronicity Earth receives funding from a range of sources. We are extremely fortunate to have our core costs (our team and office costs) covered by our primary donor, Aurum Fund Management Ltd., co-founded by Adam Sweidan, Synchronicity Earth Co-Founder. The stability we gain by having our core costs covered means we can focus our attention, and the funding we receive from Foundations, family offices and trusts, and individuals on the developing our programmes and providing the most effective support to our partners.

Butterfly with black, blue, and yellow wings

Image © Shutterstock

Our Funding and Philanthropy news

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“Money earmarked for Indigenous people that sits in a bank because of worries about Indigenous ‘capacity’ is wate (...)

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Rethinking African conservation funding

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“The most important things in the world that need doing cannot be done by large organizations. They will be done by ma (...)

Placing trust at the heart of environmental philanthropy

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Innovative partnerships and approaches for capacity building

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Synchronicity Earth recently took part in a capacity building conference hosted at ZSL London Zoo. Katy Scholfield, our (...)

Funding better conservation, funding conservation better

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Joining forces to fund conservation where it’s most needed

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Pooled funding - where several donors and foundations contribute funds to a central pot - can reduce the burden on small (...)

The Role of Philanthropy

The Role of Philanthropy

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There has been a lot of discussion in the media of late about the value and role of philanthropy. Is it well-directed? C (...)

Reimagining Philanthropy

Reimagining Philanthropy

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An uncharitable view of the charitable sector is that it is unprofessional and ineffective. According to this perspectiv (...)

If you would like to learn more about our Reimagining Philanthropy goals and activities, please contact: philanthropy@synchronicityearth.org

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