Funding Conservation
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.
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.
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
Images: Top row – iStock, Chris Scarffe. Bottom row – Chris Scarffe, Alexandra Radu/HUTAN, Chris Scarffe
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Image © Chris Scarffe
Building relationships
- 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
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.
Image © Shutterstock
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If you would like to learn more about our Reimagining Philanthropy goals and activities, please contact: philanthropy@synchronicityearth.org
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