Conservation Workshop Grants

Workshop grants are part of EFN’s larger goal to build institutional capacity at a local and national level. Sixty-seven percent of organizations that receive these grants have less than 24 employees and are classified as non-governmental organizations. More than 90 percent are local or national organizations. These numbers show the commitment EFN has to supporting small organizations that work at a local level to improve conservation efforts within their communities.

Almost 60 percent of all recipients have a working relationship with WWF on the ground while the remainder is working in places important to WWF’s work. WWF depends on strong partnerships and EFN works to improve these relationships by offering funding for partners to train their staff and local stakeholders on topics that align with WWF’s mission. To date, the majority of workshops have focused on training stakeholders, issues connecting conservation and indigenous communities, and protected area management.

Seventy percent of workshop grant recipients report that funding is a major barrier to their mission of contributing to conservation in their home countries. EFN aims to fill the gap by providing these critical funds to advance conservation in the field. More than 50 percent reported that they would not have been able to hold the workshop without their Workshop Grants, and the remainder said that their Workshop Grants funds were very helpful, allowing them to hold a significantly longer, larger, or better training opportunities than would have been possible without the funds. Seventy percent were able to leverage EFN funding to attract other financial support to their organization. EFN grants provide opportunities for institutions to, not only train local stakeholders, but to improve their own institutional capacity as well.