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At the foundation, we like to hear from new organisations like Action for Conservation, a group that supports young people to be the protagonists of the future on environmental issues. The organisation came about when, in 2012, young conservationist Hendrikus van Hensbergen took two of his colleagues to his old secondary school to talk about their work. Through this experience they caught a glimmer of what might be possible if they inspired more young people to take up their cause. They decided to recruit all of their friends working in conservation to do the same: visit schools, talk about what they do and encourage involvement in local groups. With the steady decline in UK wildlife, a conservation movement that felt stale and a distinct lack of diversity in the sector, they saw an opportunity to re-energise the movement. Action for Conservation was born with a vision that every young person in the UK is moved and empowered to protect the natural world. 

We initially gave the organisation £60,000 over two years, which allowed Hendrikus to go from being a committed volunteer to giving the organisation all of his working energy. And as some of the funding paid for a supporting member of staff, it also freed him from day-to-day admin. Our grant also sent a signal to other funders that Action for Conservation was worth backing – that endorsement can be pretty powerful. 

The group now runs a programme of school workshops, hosts all-inclusive residential conservation camps, facilitates a one-to-one mentoring programme for young people, and in 2019 launched the world’s largest youth-led nature restoration project on a two-thousand-acre estate in the Brecon Beacons National Park. There, they are working with landowners, tenant farmers, scientists and a group of twenty young people to create a gold standard for youth-led action on the ground, which will act as an exemplar for government and other NGOs while also restoring nature. They are inundated with people desperate to work with them – they’re so effective at getting young people enthused and making sure they get some really good hands-on opportunities to make a difference. 

There is something special about funding new initiatives at the early stages, in some part because it means taking a punt. We usually get it right, if not always! There’s also a special energy that comes with a new initiative. We tend to start in a small way but if the organisation really takes off, we will give them a much bigger grant. So, for example, after our initial £60,000 grant over two years to Action for Conservation, we gave them a second grant of £500,000 over five years. We liked the ambition that their second grant request represented, and I think that this grant is a fantastic example of the fusion of two key areas of interest for us – young people and the environment.

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