Environmental Funders Network

Thanks to Sophia C. Cooke, Natasha Ratter, Jane Cabutti, Louise Krzan and everyone at the Environmental Funders Network for highlighting the vital role financial advisers can play in normalizing environmental philanthropy. Great to see Global Returns Project featured as a solution!

Excited to see Third Sector sharing the great news Nick Gardner is joining us as Executive Director at the end of February 🙌 https://lnkd.in/eK9Qc459

Announcing our new Executive Director! We are delighted to share that Nick Gardner, current Head of Climate Action at the National Lottery Community Fund, has been appointed Executive Director of the Environmental Funders Network. Taking on the role from late February 2025, Nick will bring his extensive experience in climate and nature-focused funding initiatives, both at community and corporate level. He takes over from Florence Miller who held the role of Executive Director at EFN for 12 years. We are thrilled to have Nick joining us in a couple months and you can find out more here: https://buff.ly/3W7I35q

💚 Philanthropy and the Planet: Time to Step Up 💚 As someone who runs a community conservation organisation, researchers philanthropy and works for a climate change campaigning organisation, I am continually frustrated by the lack of funds that flow into the environmental sector from philanthropic sources. The Environmental Funders Network recent report here offers some valuable insights into the barriers preventing wealth advisors and high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) from engaging more deeply in environmental philanthropy. Yet, one stark reality remains: while the climate and biodiversity crises escalate, funding to address these challenges is still abysmally low. Only 6% of UK charitable giving is directed toward conservation, environment, and heritage—an absolute fraction of what is needed. Many wealth advisors hesitate to discuss green giving, and HNWIs often feel overwhelmed by the enormity of the crises or lack confidence in the impact of their donations. We need to see more state funding here as well, yes, but philanthropy can also play a powerful role. This report highlights systemic challenges but also opportunities for change, including the need for clear pathways into environmental giving, peer-to-peer networks, and a reimagining of the wealth management system to prioritise social and environmental returns alongside financial growth. The intersectional challenges of the climate and nature crises demand bold and immediate action from philanthropy. If you care about health inequalities, food poverty, educational inequalities, gender inequalities, and practically every other issue of justice, you need to also care about the climate and environmental crisis, which exacerbates almost all other cause areas. It is no longer enough to treat environmental giving as an afterthought - it needs to be central to giving strategies. We need a transformative shift in how funding is allocated and supported in this space. #ClimateAction #Philanthropy #GreenGiving https://lnkd.in/ep6ZB8iu

Introducing EFN’s Reading Week… 📖 On Thursday 2 January to Wednesday 8 January, we are very excited to be taking part in EFN’s first ever reading week! During this week, we are immersing ourselves in writing, podcasts, films, documentaries and more to learn more about climate, environmental and philanthropy ideas and issues that closely relate to our work. The aim is to help us build knowledge and feel inspired, so we can do our work more effectively. For this week, the team will have very limited access to their emails and only respond to very urgent issues. Thanks to charities like Glitch for inspiring us to try a reading week. P.S. Find out what our top reads, listens and watches are in the January newsletter. #readingweek #reading #inspiration

And that’s a wrap! Happy holidays folks ❄️❄️ The EFN office will be closed over the festive period from Wednesday 25 December to Wednesday 1 January. During this time, the team is taking a well-deserved break and will not be accessing their emails. We’ll see you in 2025! #endofyear

The UK Overseas Territories (UKOTs) are critically underfunded, receiving just 0.03% of UK philanthropic funding Yet, they include critical ecosystems - for instance the UKOTs holds the fifth-largest marine estate in the world! Read our new blog by Sophia C. Cooke and Sufina Ahmad MBE exploring how the UKOTs Fund, led by John Ellerman Foundation, is stepping up to fill this gap. By funding practical conservation, capacity building, policy advocacy, and land acquisition, the Fund has already achieved incredible results: 🪸 The creation of Coral biobanks in Turks and Caicos 🏞️ New and expanded national parks in the Falkland Islands and Anguilla 🦈 Groundbreaking whale shark research in St. Helena 🤝 Core funding empowering local environmental organisations With over £1.8 million distributed over two funding rounds, this is a hugely successful model, where strategic and even modest funding can deliver huge conservation impacts. The UKOTs Fund plans to launch a new funding round in 2025. If you’re looking to make a global environmental impact, this is your opportunity to protect biodiversity on an unparalleled scale. Learn more about the UKOTs Fund’s impact and how you can get involved: https://buff.ly/4ix5UoR #UKOTs #UKOverseasTerritories #biodiversity #environment #conservation #species #ecosystems

Our latest report, Exploring the Role of Wealth Advisors in Green Giving, dives how we can encourage advisors to help increase philanthropy giving to the environmental sector. Through 60 in-depth interviews with wealth advisors and high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs), we share: 🔍 Barriers facing advisors & HNWIs: they often feel overwhelmed by environmental issues or lack the confidence and knowledge to engage effectively. 💡 Opportunities across the sector: from empowering Next Gen philanthropists to creating pooled funds 🤝 The role of EFN & environmental groups: exploring how can we help raise awareness of existing resources, foster sector-wide collaboration, and advocate for systemic change to support advisors and donors in navigating this space. Read the full report here: https://buff.ly/3OYx1ve #wealth #hnwi #philanthropy #foundations #advisors #wealthadvice

UK’s Overseas Territories (UKOTs) are home to 94% of the UK’s endemic species, yet they receive less than 0.1% of environmental philanthropic funding. That’s why we at EFN, in partnership with the John Ellerman Foundation, hosted a UKOTs Funder Learning Series this year. Check out our new blog, by Sarah Tulej, exploring how organisations are financing vital environmental work in the UKOTs in new ways: 🪸 Alizee Zimmermann from the TURKS AND CAICOS REEF FUND INC is protecting coral reefs from the devastating impact of stony coral tissue loss disease. Her innovative Coral Biobank is preserving reef-building coral species, while her sustainable funding initiatives, like the Reef Keepers’ hotel programme, are breaking new ground. 🌊 Alicia Gibson from Finance Earth is supporting the establishment of environmental trust and endowment funds are creating long-term income streams to support the creation of marine protected areas. The UKOTs are leading the way with creative solutions to secure a future for their unique biodiversity. But philanthropic support is vital to provide a stable base for further fundraising 📖 Read the full blog: https://buff.ly/3VEkqkJ 💻 Watch the recording back: https://lnkd.in/eBsiAr-i #ukots #ukoverseasterritories #coralreef #coral #biodiversity #funding #philanthropy #marineprotectedareas

The heiress on a mission to spend the lot protecting the planet 🦈🏞️ It’s wonderful to see one of our advisors, Becky Holmes, featured in The Times Magazine, Luxx. The article shares how Becky and her sister are funnelling their family wealth into protecting the planet’s biodiversity, and encouraging other multimillionaire children to do the same: 👉 ‘“We don’t want to be a multigenerational wealthy family,” she says. “Our number one goal is not growing our wealth, it’s doing good with it.” This, she says, is unusual in the UK, where most financial advice is based on building and protecting wealth rather than donating it.”’ Becky also kindly mentioned EFN during her interview: 👉 ‘According to the EFN, only 8.5 per cent of UK donations from foundations goes to environmental causes. “It is such an enormously complex, interconnected global problem that people find it difficult to know where to put their money,” Holmes says… This is where EFN comes in, providing resources to inform donors and connect them with the right causes.’ Becky is trustee of her family’s grant-making foundation, The Helvellyn Foundation, which funds biodiversity-focused charities and Chief of Staff at Langland Conservation. Read more from Becky: https://lnkd.in/egs3pBvP #biodiversity #nextgen #philanthropy #environment #climatechange #climate #nature