This first edition of Where the Green Grants Went Scotland examines grants for environmental work in Scotland from UK-based trusts and foundations, Landfill Communities Fund distributors and lottery sources over the four years from 2012-2016.
It includes interviews with leaders in the sector and funders about the context for their work, the most pressing environmental concerns in Scotland, the benefits of funding environmental work in Scotland and the kinds of work that NGOs find it hardest to fundraise for.
Amongst other insights, the report finds that:
- On average, grants to support environmental work from trusts and foundations averaged just £1.9 million per year. Those are the levels of philanthropic support available for everything from landscape-scale conservation to marine work, community-based green-space projects, climate change advocacy, fresh water protection, biodiversity preservation and other environmental work in the country.
- Only six of the 41 trusts and foundations we found that support environmental work in Scotland are based in Scotland. The others are south of the border.
- From 2012-15, private foundation support for environmental work in England and Wales was 20 times greater than in Scotland. That’s the equivalent of…
- £2 per capita in England and Wales versus £1 per capita in Scotland and
- £768 per square kilometre in England and Wales versus £70 per square kilometre in Scotland.
- Scotland is home to 56 per cent of the UK’s coastline, but coastal and marine ecosystems receive just 3 per cent of total environmental grant funding in the country.
- Climate and atmosphere-related work receives even less: 0.4 per cent of all environmental grants by value. This suggests very little funding available to support campaigning and advocacy work for all things related to climate change, as well as to air quality.
Download the report here to learn more.
