Rufford Foundation: Small Grants for Nature Conservation

Overview

The Rufford Foundation provides funding for nature conservation projects in developing countries.

General Criteria

• Applicants should be in the early stages of their conservation careers. Our priority is funding those undertaking an MSc or PhD (or equivalent) or who have graduated from such studies in the past 3 years. We will only consider fieldwork costs. We consider applications from others if they fit the additional General Criteria outlined here but we do not fund students studying for a BSc or equivalent. For more detail see What is "early career"?.
• Projects must have a nature conservation focus.
• Applicants must be working in an eligible country
• They support small-scale or pilot projects. Ideally, they should provide between 50 and 100% of the costs of the project. Where The Rufford Foundation is not the only funder, they require evidence of co-funding.

Project focus

• Projects can focus on particular species, threatened habitats or issues like human-wildlife conflict or community education. Their website shows the range of work they fund.
• For projects focusing on species, they consider work on any NOT listed as Least Concern at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. They also consider species that do not appear on the list because they have not been assessed but are thought to be globally threatened.

Funding Process

The Rufford Foundation provides a staged funding process with four types of grants. In sequence, these are:

• 1st Rufford Small Grant (up to £7,000).
• 2nd Rufford Small Grant (up to £8,000).
• Booster Grant (up to £12,000)
• Completion Grant (up to £18,000)

On receipt of a Completion Grant, you cannot apply for further funding.

On successful completion of a 1st Rufford Small Grant and having provided updates and a final report, you can apply for a 2nd Rufford Small Grant, though there is no guarantee of support. You cannot make a 2nd Rufford Small Grant application for at least 12 months after the date of payment of your 1st Rufford Small Grant. Find out more on the details of each grant here

On receipt of a Completion Grant, applicants cannot apply for further funding. At this stage we expect the project we have funded to be financially stable and supported through larger-scale funders.

You can only make one funding application in any 12-month period. If your application is rejected, you will have to wait 12 months before you can make another one. If you receive a grant, you will not be able to make a further application for at least 12 months after the date of payment.