Funding the UK’s most biodiverse regions – what’s working and what isn’t?
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Funding the UK’s most biodiverse regions – what’s working and what isn’t?

The UK Overseas Territories (UKOTs) are at the forefront of the world’s biodiversity and climate crises. Yet many UK environmental funders are not aware of the UK's responsibility for them, or that they host 94% of the nation’s biodiversity.

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    Announcing our new report: Where the Green Grants Went 9

    Where the Green Grants Went 9 reveals that environmental grants from UK-based foundations have almost tripled since our last report in 2021 Yet, the report highlights worrying trends in environmental philanthropy that need addressing for the sector as a whole to maximise its potential.

    snow covered mountain under cloudy sky during daytime

    Lessons and reflections from 15 years in the climate community

    Tom Brookes updates his 'Ten – reflections on a decade in the climate community' from June 2019, which shared key lessons on joining the climate movement. Now five years further on, Tom looks back on what he wrote and presents us with a revised and powerful: 14 reflections on 15 years in the climate community.

    A small green piggy bank sits on a wooden table.

    Demystifying impact investing: an interview with impact investor, Shishir Malhotra

    Shishir Malhotra, the Impact Investment Director for Treebeard Trust, joins us to demystify impact investing. He shares his personal story of how he got into investing, explains why it can work alongside philanthropy, offers some tips for beginners and explains why the free Environmental Impact Investing Group (EIIG) can help.

    Planning to save the planet

    Kat Jones from Action to Protect Rural Scotland raises awareness of Scotland's new planning system, National Planning Framework 4, and how it could better address the environmental and nature crises.

    Can we talk about organisations and not just projects?

    CEO of Pilotlight, Ed Mayo, shares findings from their new research, 'The organisational needs of charities and social enterprises in the UK working on climate and sustainability'. In this survey of 298 organisations, Pilotlight shows the huge range of professional development and support needed with Ed proposing that funding organisations rather than projects is key to fill in this gap.

    Moving our finances out of fossil fuels

    Following a decision by staff and trustees, in late 2023, we closed our business bank account with HSBC after reporting showed that they are still heavily financing fossil fuels. This blog shares our decision, the full letter and further resources for those interested in greening their finances as well.

    Where’s the funding for council and community climate action?

    Climate Emergency UK have recently published the first-ever UK-wide assessment of local government climate action: the Council Climate Action Scorecards. The results? Not good - the average council scored 32% on the actions they have taken towards net zero. Annie Pickering from Climate Emergency UK shares the barriers to local climate action and why funders can spark real progress on local government's journey to net zero.

    The challenge of light pollution

    Climate change and the destruction of entire ecosystems attract most of our attention. But we face another environmental threat - one which is insidious and fast-growing: light pollution.

    Why aren’t we putting our money where our mouth is?

    What if we saw the opportunity before us and decided to make it our number one priority to invest in food growing in urban areas? In this blog, Marie-Amélie Viatte discusses the need for a food revolution and how deliberate investment into regenerative urban food growing can be the catalyst for change we’ve been looking for.

    How to be a good environmental fundraiser

    Being a good environmental fundraiser goes beyond simply securing funds. In this blog, Natasha Ratter, explores core qualities of being a good environmental fundraiser and illustrates the importance of finding your voice, understanding your role in the bigger picture, prioritising relationships and wellbeing, and joining a supportive community.

    It’s time we stopped ignoring the ‘Cinderella issue’ of consumption 

    Why is it that campaign groups and funders are neglecting consumption, a fundamental driver of environmental harm? In this blog, Libby Peake, explores why this is, the significant impact overconsumption has on greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss and why we must turn our attention to what we need to do to win on this issue in the long run.

    Supporting young people to transform biodiversity policy

    Last December, we attended COP15, the United Nations Biodiversity Conference in Montreal, together with many other young people of our network. This was not the first summit where youth was represented. However, our voices were never as strong as at COP15, where the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) was decided on.

    Harnessing the law for climate justice: EFN 2023 retreat keynote talk

    Nani Jansen Reventlow’s keynote talk during our annual retreat for funders this year was titled ‘Harnessing the law for climate justice.’ Nani laid out what long-term funding in strategic litigation can achieve and how to use it as a tool for climate justice.

    How funders can make conservation more effective

    Whatever the scale, and wherever the location, most of our funding could be better spent if we ensure the work being proposed is based on reliable evidence, whether that be from academic literature, from centuries (or millennia) of local understanding, or from other sources. Funders can be instrumental in encouraging applicants to check the available evidence for the actions they are proposing, to ensure they have the best chance of success.

    COP15 in Montreal: Reasons to be cheerful?

    COP15 of the Convention on Biological Diversity has set a course for nations to significantly step up their actions to halt the loss of biodiversity. But will the new ‘plan of action’ for nature adopted at COP15 – termed the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework – succeed? In this blog, Catherine shares her personal reflections on the conference and the 'reasons to be cheerful', despite the challenges left unresolved.

    Five ways to become a better climate justice funder

    To truly address the impact of the climate crisis, funding must be anti-racist and address social injustice. In this blog, Nani Jansen Reventlow sets out five ways to become a better climate justice funder.

    What does addressing root causes look like?

    Why is 'new economy' work relevant to environmental philanthropy? Reflections on how can funders support work to redesign the economic system to be life-supporting, not life-eroding.

    What does it take to win on environmental issues and how can funders help?

    Insights from our new sector survey show that there is a vital role for philanthropic funding in recognising the importance of environmental action and giving it the stability needed to really make a difference. In this blog, Harriet Williams and Hugh Mehta explore common themes from the What The Green Groups Said survey respondents and what funders can do in response.

    Making climate action everyone’s business at the UK’s leading community funder

    As the largest funder of community activity in the UK, The National Lottery Community Fund plays a critical role supporting communities to unleash their energy and potential, especially on important issues such as the climate emergency. In this blog, John Rose discusses the work the National Lottery Community Fund is doing to take environmental action and support grant holders to be more sustainable and regenerative.

    Ancestral land rights of Indigenous Peoples are essential to conservation

    In this blog, Katy Scholfield aims to help build awareness and attend to the intersection of social and environmental justice to bring about increasing recognition and respect for the intrinsic value of all beings, human and nonhuman. This blog explores the Arcus Foundation's Great Apes and Gibbons Program goal of reconciling the well-being and resilience of local, Indigenous, and forest-dependent communities with wildlife conservation objectives.

    Inspiring People: Forgotten freshwater

    In this episode, Catherine Bryan (Synchronicity Earth & EFN) speaks to Brian Zimmerman (Bristol Zoological Society), Mike Baltzer (Shoal), Monti Aguirre (International Rivers) and Tess Gatan-Balbas (Mabuwaya Foundation) about freshwater.

    UK foundation giving to environmental causes is on the up, but still a drop in the ocean

    After years of little change, annual giving from UK foundations for environmental work nearly doubled between 2015/16 and 2018/19, a hugely encouraging upswing. At £222 million, annual giving levels still have a long way to go to meet the scale of the challenge, but our forecast indicates that the trajectory will continue to rise steeply. In this blog we summarise the key findings from the latest edition of the Environmental Funders Network’s 'Where the Green Grants Went' series.

    Inspiring People: Toxics and pollution

    In this episode, Devika Waney, (Savitri Waney Charitable Trust) speaks to Dr. Apolline Roger (ClientEarth), Elizabeth Salter Green, (CHEM Trust), Josie Cohen, (PAN UK) and Dr. Kerry Dinsmore, (Fidra).

    What does a good food system look like? (Says who?)

    Summary of Dr Garnett's presentation at the EFN Retreat. Most people agree that our food system is broken, but views on what constitutes a good food system are wildly divergent. Tara sketched out four different sustainable food discourses, the arguments they make, and the questions they leave unanswered.

    EFN 2021 retreat keynote with Farhana Yamin

    How can funders use the tools we have — our power, privileges and positions — to tackle those things that are most systemic? How can we support climate action that is truly intersectional, supporting both nature and people, and inclusive of everyone? Farhana Yamin put forward various suggestions in her keynote talk at EFN's annual retreat.

    Mental health and the underfunded environmental determinants

    It is widely documented that mental health is affected by a complex interplay of genetic, psychological, social / lifestyle factors, and environmental exposures. In recent years evidence of the environmental determinants of mental health has grown, yet these emerging concerns are often under the radar in the third sector.

    Where the climate grants went in 2020

    Given the urgency of the climate crisis and the shortfall in funding, current and prospective climate funders face extremely challenging decisions to ensure their grantmaking is as impactful as possible. Information on which particular issues, approaches and organisations other funders are supporting, and which are receiving less attention than others, can be very helpful to funders when making difficult grantmaking decisions. With this in mind, EFN gathered information on climate-related grantmaking from funders that participated in EFN’s Climate Funders Group - here are our key findings.

    Grant funding versus the climate crisis

    In the summer of 2020, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation were considering how they could help tackle the climate crisis. They engaged us – Lucent Consultancy – to help with some background research and have graciously agreed that we can share some of our findings and thoughts here. This blog focusses on what we learnt about green funders’ grantmaking, as one of the main – but by no means the only – tools funders use to influence change.

    Inspiring People: Marine conservation in Scotland

    In this episode, philanthropist Hugh Raven, Alison Lomax (Hebridean Whale & Dolphin Trust), Dan Renton (Seawilding), Kerri Whiteside (Fauna & Flora International) and Phil Taylor (Open Seas) reveal what most excites them about marine conservation in Scottish waters.

    Inspiring People: Youth & climate

    In this episode, funder Kristina Johansson (Solberga Foundation) speaks to Hilma Angula (Next Generation Climate Advisory Board, Global Greengrants Fund, Namibia), Joy Munthali, (Green Girls Platform, Malawi) and Shamiso Mupara (Environmental Buddies Zimbabwe).

    Inspiring People: Plastics

    In this episode, Julia Davies, environmental funder and the founder of We Have The Power, speaks to Louise Edge, (Greenpeace), Jo Morley (City to Sea), Julian Kirby (Friends of the Earth) and Tanya Bascombe (European Outdoor Conservation Association).

    Watch | Fundraising training 3: Telling stories to inspire action

    Bright Spot Director Rob Woods shares techniques to help you bring to life the key issues that your supporters care about, so that you talk and write less about what your charity does, and more in ways that help supporters want to take action.

    Inspiring People: Rewilding

    On this episode, passionate environmental philanthropist, Ben Goldsmith, who funds rewilding projects, speaks to Isabella Tree from Knepp Estate, Alastair Driver from Rewilding Britain and Derek Gow, ecologist.

    Rethinking consumerism for the sake of young people’s mental health (and the planet)

    British millennials have the second worst mental wellbeing in the world, second only to Japan. One in four young women between the ages of 16 and 24 report having self-harmed and 93% of teachers report increased levels of mental illness in children and young people. What if the solution to the mental health crisis facing young people is the same as tackling environmental degradation?

    The most effective environmental groups, as rated by their peers

    We asked 92 chief executives of environmental organisations, “Which non-profit UK environmental organisations (not including your own) do you think accomplish the most, given the resources at their disposal?” Here's what they told us.

    Some thoughts on systems change

    It becomes clearer with each passing day that simply ameliorating current problems is not going to be sufficient. This blog is about how we might scale up transformative change.