Conservation funding during the time of COVID: Tips on what you should be thinking about now

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Maliasili’s CEO, Fred Nelson, has spent a lot of time thinking about conservation funding over the past several months. He’s been engaging with donors, international NGOs, and African conservation organizations to understand the issues, plan, and strategize. Recently he participated in an online webinar hosted by WildHub that explored the topic of funding and conservation during COVID. Watch the short clip here.

Fred also posted these three top fundraising tips on LinkedIn recently, which highlight some key points in thinking about how to sustain and strengthen organizations during the COVID crisis and beyond. 

  1. Look to the future and its risks.

    Organizations are going to be facing a range of new, different and evolving risks as a result of the uncertainty created by the COVID pandemic, and its many social and economic impacts. It’s critical to lengthen planning horizons and be thinking about resource needs and potential shortfalls at least as far as 2021, and to be adapting plans accordingly. 

  2. Maintain an ‘opportunity mindset’.

    The COVID pandemic and related disruptions create new risks but also new opportunities. The successful organizations will be those that are ever alert and agile to new opportunities resulting from the many changes that are unfolding. Organizations need to stay alert to those opportunities and how to capitalize on them during periods of flux and uncertainty. 

  3. Double down on communications.

    Right now it is really important that organizations communicate frequently with their funders, especially those that are core funders and who have stepped up to provide flexible and critical support during COVID. These donors don’t just want to know about what’s happening in the field, but they also want to know what’s happening at the organizational level: how are you planning? What resources do you have (or don’t have)? What changes are you making? Donors want to know that you’re being thoughtful and adaptive and thinking through these crisis scenarios. With so much of life and work moving fully online during the past several months, it’s also a really important time to take stock of your organization’s web-based communications and presence and review how that does - or doesn’t - support fundraising. 


Read the full newsletter here: Maliasili Reader Issue 3

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