The objective of the funding ‘arm’ of the Foundation is: ‘to support environmental research and campaigning actvity, particularly in the areas of Climate Change and Biodiversity‘. In fact ‘environmental grants represent less than 3% of total trust funding’ (Where the Green Grants went 2009), and of those only a small proportion will then support explicit campaigning.
So delivering this objective inevitably involves concentrating the financial resources available on a quite small number of projects, programmes and organisations, usually over a number of years; otherwise impacts would be dissipated. Finding these takes time and requires some expertise, contacts, and relationships built on trust and quality of performance. I usually try to find an opportunity to add in matched funding.
The Foundation is under my sole direction but I’m also a member of two organisations – the Environmental Funders Network and the Network for Social Change. – who work collectively to increase their overall effectiveness.
Please note again: the Foundation does not consider unsolicited requests for financial assistance. It would be impossible for me to respond to or assess such applications, and my portfolio would lose focus.
You can read about each of the individual activities the Foundation has supported financially in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012. In the current year – and setting two new biodiversity projects with the Environmental Investigation Agency and the Rainforest Foundation alongside support for the Friends of the Earth international climate work – the Foundation has now achieved the balanced portfolio envisaged at the start; also global in reach and coverage (so both the Congo and SE Asian rainforests). Support via Network for Social Change of the NEF ‘Great Transition‘ programme has added the essential economics third pillar.
ARF will always be a relatively small ‘niche’ funder, but that’s all the more reason to make the right choices.
Page last updated March 2012