Guest blog post by Conor Jameson, Trusts Development Manager for the RSPB 

Ever wondered how much money from charitable trusts and foundations is out there, for charities like RSPB to access? Luckily, our friends at the Environment Funders Network (EFN) produce regular, detailed reports on the state of green funding. Their latest report is hot off the press.

We are delighted to see the publication of the latest (the sixth) edition of Where the Green Grants Went

This timely report provides the most comprehensive overview yet of grants to environmental initiatives from UK foundations, the National Lottery, and public sector funding programmes. The report covers almost 6,000 grants from foundations and the Lottery.  Together, these are worth £383 million across the financial years under scrutiny, 2010/11 and 2011/12. 

The RSPB is one of the participating organisations. We provided information to the EFN research team through questionnaires and phone interviews. We took part in a final ‘webinar’ – an online presentation of the findings, with discussion.

What the report covers: 

  • detailed analysis of environmental grants from 180 foundations.
  • insights into the types of funding most needed by environmental groups, and the comparative advantages of foundation grants relative to other income sources
  • It includes perspectives from more than 100 chief executives on why they value philanthropic funding.
  • There is analysis of environmental grants from 31 lottery programmes, together worth almost £200 million over two years.
  • There is an overview of public sector grants programmes, and top-level analysis of their thematic and geographic focus.

There is some good news. After a few years of recession-led decline, UK environmental philanthropy reached £112 million in 2011/12, its highest ever level. It is nudging up to 4% of the total funding available for charities from charitable foundations in the UK.

But this isn’t enough. A key message remains that we need to see more foundations adopt the environment as a cause. The EFN is doing what it can to mobilise funders to bring more of them on board. Everyone has a role in saving nature.

We’re discussing next steps, and bringing more funders together with the sector.

Please click here to download the report, Where the Green Grants Went 6: Patterns of UK Funding for Environmental and Conservation Work by Phil Murray, Jon Cracknell, Heather Godwin, and Katy Scholfield.

The authors would love to hear your feedback. Please use the comments form on their website or contact Florence Miller florence@greenfunders.org