Watch | Innovation in environmental funding in the UK Overseas Territories
Watch the third event in the UKOTs Learning Series run in partnership with the John Ellerman Foundation.
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.
Watch the third event in the UKOTs Learning Series run in partnership with the John Ellerman Foundation.
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.
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.
Watch the second event in the UKOTs learning series in partnership with the John Ellerman Foundation.
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.
Inspired by our new UKOTs learning series, this piece explores some of the UK's most biodiverse regions, why we need to protect them, and how funders can get involved.
Jack Durant, the Co-Founder & Co-Director of Youngwilders, shares how funders and EFN stepped up to help their youth-led organisation in its early days by providing much more than financial support and helping them grow more effectively.
Watch the first event in the UKOTs Learning Series run in partnership with the John Ellerman Foundation.
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.
Alex Jacobs, Executive Director of the Joffe Trust, reveals the truth about illicit finance, how it funds anti-environment forces and why funders can both help stop dirty money and accelerate a just climate transition around the world.
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.
This #InternationalWomensDay, we wanted to spotlight this incredibly important intersection: how gender-based violence affects environmental action.
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.
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.
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.
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.
In this episode, Grace Yu (Aurora Trust) speaks to Alison Baker (EcoCascade CIC), Jemima Cooper (EcoCascade CIC) and Dr Kyla Orr (KelpCrofters Ltd) about seaweed.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Third sector organisations have a critical contribution to make in response to the climate emergency. But reducing their carbon footprints isn’t it. In this blog, Nick Addington offers some thoughts about a possible framework to help organisations think more broadly about their role and recognise opportunities to help achieve a sustainable future.
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.
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.
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).
Our Healthy Planet, Healthy People series explored the many interconnections between human health and the environment.
EFN and New Philanthropy Capital (NPC) collaborated to deliver this training for environmental charities on what it means to be an impact-focused organisation
In this episode, Robert Macfarlane (author) and Hendrikus van Hensbergen (Action for Conservation) speak to two young environmental leaders.
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.
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.
Notes from Steven Smith's presentation on his hugely useful research on climate-focused organisations, followed by a discussion with his collaborator, Ian Christie, at the 2021 EFN Retreat.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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).
What is currently working well in digital fundraising, and what are some of the common pitfalls to avoid? Hear from an environmental charity which is raising money successfully through digital channels during the coronavirus crisis .
The full impact of coronavirus on the economy and your prospective corporate partners is still unknown. So how do you find out who to target, how to engage them, and how to secure them?
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.
A training webinar for anyone entering the world of fundraising and wanting to quickly learn the fundamentals. Are you a non-fundraiser who is now supporting your organisation’s fundraising? Or perhaps you’re very new to fundraising and want to learn the key principles.
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.
With Ella Saltmarshe and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, EFN co-hosted a workshop for people from across the environment sector (funders and NGOs) on reframing issues.
By connecting young people to their sense of rebellion, their values and their communities, we can help turn on its head the increasingly pervasive norm that success is defined by what you earn and what you own. In so doing, we can improve young people's mental health and help protect the environment at the same time.
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?
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.
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.