Thought Leadership in Conservation

A Diversified Approach to Fundraising

By Jeanné Poultney - Executive Manager: Marketing, Fundraising and Media Relations

In creating a shared vision for conservation in Africa to succeed, backed up by the necessary training, skills development and thought leadership, we can collectively be the change.

The Southern African Wildlife College has, since its inception, trained over 20,000 people in the conservation sector. In doing so we have helped to ensure that people have the necessary skills to protect and manage Africa’s natural resources and biodiversity responsibly and sustainably whilst also testing for best practice through our applied approach.

As a non-profit, public benefit organisation, and private regional training institution, the College does not receive any government subsidies. It thus has to raise its own funding to support the institution, which apart from its core functional and training departments, includes a full maintenance team, hospitality team, a field ranger training base, a canine unit and an air wing.

In support of this, we have used a diversified approach to income generation, and have also reviewed and weighted our funding streams which includes income from Foundations and Trusts, Earned Income (via training), Collaboration with Government and Multilateral Organisations in respect of projects, ?Corporate Social Investment as well as funding from individual donors including High Net Worth Individuals (HNWI's).

In 2019, we realised that we needed to better build reliable and resilient revenue streams based not only support for our programmes but also for the institutional mission. The primary weakness was that most of our funding was restricted with core costs being supported by a percentage added onto course fees to cover operational costs and salaries, which was not sustainable. We thus identified a change in the business model/strategy, which also helped create resilience in a time of crisis (Covid-19) via anchor and core support. Without this support in 2020, the College’s financial situation would have been dire. This was largely as a result of our training income being heavily impacted due to mandated Covid-19 regulations and the fact that regional and international travel was also impacted.

Opportunities and gaps were also identified which have helped lead the way in our plan of action, which included the establishment of an endowment fund as part of our sustainability strategy. As such, our revenue/income streams now include Legacy/Sustainability Funding, Anchor Support (Institutional), Core Support (Departmental), Cause-Related Funding (donor funding based on our offerings and projects), and Programmatic/Generated Income (via Training).

This approach also means that the College should be able to minimise revenue volatility by having expanded its sources of income and by further pursuing market-based opportunities whilst also engaging in multi-partner relationships through a more collaborative approach.

Exciting times indeed as we continue to explore opportunities around the exciting work we are involved in both from an institutional, departmental and project point of view.