Overall GiG Score: 22 based on 18 data points
Finance: 4
Governance: 3
Support: 15
Low unrestricted reserves: -2, Large legacies income: +1, Strong growth: +2, Fundraising costs low: +3,
Gender balanced board: +3,
Supporters: +15

ACTION FOR CONSERVATION 

Overview

Action for Conservation run school based workshops, host residential camps, organise work placements and build online networks for young people that educate them about the environment while developing a proactive youth conservation movement in the UK.

They have reached thousands through their various channels including an online programme developed through the pandemic. Ambassadors of their programmes have consistently been proven as confident action takers that go on to lead environmental youth groups and social action campaigns.

Their team continues to attract major funders and their dynamic founder has even directed some proceeds of his book published in 2021 to the organisation, that shows young conservationists how best to save the planet.

Source: Giving is Great

Mission:

To bring the magic of nature into young people’s lives, inspiring a youth movement committed to conservation, restoration and to the Earth
Analysis by Giving is Great

Positives:

  • This charity has received considerable income from legacies in recent years
  • There has been strong growth in spending over the last 5 years
  • There have been no income shortfalls in recent years
  • Fundraising costs are unusually low relative to funds raised
  • A significant proportion of recent income was derived from major grant makers including the Government and there are significant future grants due to be received
  • The Board appears to be well diversified in terms of gender

Financial issues to consider:

  • Unrestricted reserves appear to be dangerously low at the latest year end
Established: 10 years

www.actionforconservation.org

info@actionforconservation.org

07766307675

Charity Commission for England and WalesTwitterFacebookInstagramYouTube
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How you can help

Financial Data ?

Income & Spending ?
Sources of Income ?
Y/E Income
£k		 Spending
£k		 Surplus/
Deficit		 Fundraising
Cost £k		 Total
Funds £k		 Unrestricted
Funds £k		 Mths
Rsrvs		 Staff Volun-
teers
31/03/22£1,228£1,130£98£1£374£2692.91117
31/03/21£423£305£118n/an/an/an/an/a22
31/03/20£287£280£7n/an/an/an/an/a50
31/03/19£200£181£20n/an/an/an/an/a100
31/03/18£167£82£84n/an/an/an/an/a100
31/03/17£62£39£23n/an/an/an/an/a0
31/03/16£22£17£5n/an/an/an/an/a0
31/03/15£19£2£17n/an/an/an/an/a0
Show more rows -->

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Financial Ratios
Fundraising Costs/Relevant Income: 0.1%
Fundraising Costs/Total Spending: 0.1%
Senior Staff Costs/Total Spending: 7%
Highest pay band: £60,000-£70,000
Liabilities/Assets: 32%
Liabilities/Income: 14%
Unrestricted Funds/Total Funds: 72%
Reserves/Spending: 2.9 months
Net Current Assets/Spending: 4 months
Quick Ratio: 2.8
Asset Split ?
What it does
  • Arts/Culture/Heritage/Science
  • Education/Training
  • Environment/Conservation/Heritage
Action for Conservation educate young people about environmental conservation by running workshops and events in schools, providing learning materials, organising work experience placements, and building online networks to develop a proactive youth conservation movement in the UK
Who works here?
  • 11 employees
  • 17 volunteers
Who it helps
  • Children/Young People
How it operates
  • Provides advocacy/advice/information
  • Provides services
Where it operates
  • Throughout England And Wales,

Who's supporting them? ?

Donations from Grant Makers ?

We have details on the following significant donations. Multi-year donations are allocated to the years for which they are earmarked.

Major supporters in last 5 years
Esmée Fairbairn Foundation£661,383
The Dulverton Trust£250,000
OVO Foundation£185,000
Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust£100,000
John Ellerman Foundation£100,000
Garfield Weston Foundation£100,000
The EQ Foundation£21,000
Specific Donations
Amount When
Months		 To be used for
John Ellerman Foundation
£100,000 27/07/2023
core costs
Esmée Fairbairn Foundation
£41,383 28/06/2023
Towards project costs to understand how intergenerational mapping methodologies could support holistic bio-cultural recovery in the Upper Usk River catchment
Esmée Fairbairn Foundation
£22,500 06/02/2023
Towards unrestricted core costs as a Cost of Living Uplift
The Dulverton Trust
£135,000 19/10/2022
Action for Conservation Core Funding
The EQ Foundation
£16,000 16/05/2022
Big Give Green Match
Garfield Weston Foundation
£50,000 18/03/2022
Unrestricted
The EQ Foundation
£5,000 15/05/2021
Unrestricted
Garfield Weston Foundation
£50,000 12/03/2021
Unrestricted
Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust
£100,000 28/11/2020
24
Youth Environmental Action Project
Esmée Fairbairn Foundation
£60,000 23/10/2020
24
Towards Core costs To deliver 'Race for Nature', a partnership initiative that uses the Government's Kickstarter programme to place young people from Visible Minority Ethnic (VME) backgrounds into ....more
OVO Foundation
£165,000 13/07/2020
This grant will be used to deliver Action for Conservation's WildEd workshops focusing on environmental improvement projects in schools.
Esmée Fairbairn Foundation
£37,500 05/05/2020
6
towards unrestricted core costs as a COVID-19 Fast Response grant
OVO Foundation
£20,000 01/08/2019
This grant was used to cover the staff, travel and venue hire and various material costs of AFC WildED programme including secondary school workshops and Conservation Camps.
The Dulverton Trust
£105,000 12/06/2019
Core costs for North East expansion
The Dulverton Trust
£10,000 12/06/2019
Core costs for North East expansion ? Big Give Christmas Challenge 2019
Esmée Fairbairn Foundation
£500,000 30/04/2019
60
Towards unrestricted core costs to enable a suite of work to inspire and empower young people aged 12-18 to engage in environmental issues and work towards change across the UK
The Funding Network
£17,966 18/06/2018
We aim to scale our existing three-part programme across the UK, strengthening our regional presence to facilitate youth leadership and embed our approach and impacts in local communities.
Esmée Fairbairn Foundation
£60,000 07/08/2017
24
Towards the salaries and other costs of the director and programme manager to empower young people to engage and make a difference on nature conservation and environmental issues.
Garfield Weston Foundation
£30,000 24/07/2017
Action for Conservation Core Programme Costs
The Dulverton Trust
£15,000 14/06/2017
AFC Work Programme (Core Costs)
Show more rows

Data sourced from Donors via 360 Giving

How do they operate?

WildED Programme

Objectives: To educate young people about nature conservation and provide opportunities for their involvement in related projects

Intervention period: One school year

Beneficiaries: Young people aged 11-17, with an emphasis on young people from underrepresented backgrounds living in underserved urban areas

Description: The WildED Programme is delivered in secondary schools and youth groups in under-resourced urban areas across the UK. Through inspiring workshops and hands-on activities, young people learn about environmental issues globally and close to home, and design and deliver action projects in their community that benefit nature and people locally. This year they have piloted a new annual delivery model and additional ‘inspiration’ days where young people can take practical action with a community partner to inspire and motivate them as they deliver their own independent projects

Residential Camps

Objectives: 1. Provide transformational experiences in nature 2. Build young peoples connection to a like-minded peer group 3. Give young people the skills, knowledge and motivation to lead change as they return home to their communities

Intervention period: One week

Beneficiaries: Young people aged 12-16 from diverse backgrounds, with a particular emphasis on those from underrepresented and/or underserved communities

Description: Residential camps allow students to spend time connecting and learning how to protect nature alongside other young people from across the UK. They include conservation activities and careers advice spearheaded by young conservation professionals, the Action for Conservation team and partner organisations. Students return ready to drive change in their local community and make a difference to nature

Youth Ambassador Programme

Objectives: To empower young people to lead projects for the benefit of nature in their communities, and have a voice in environmental decision-making at local and national level

Intervention period: One year

Beneficiaries: Young people from disadvantaged backgrounds

Description: Following on from the WildED programme and Residential Camps, young people participate in a mentoring scheme where they further develop conservation skills and knowledge to help them take action in their communities and become Ambassadors for environmental action

Intergenerational Action Sites

Objectives: To support young people to have meaningful engagement and decision making capacity in landscape-scale nature restoration projects

Intervention period: Ongoing

Beneficiaries: Young people

Description: Our Intergenerational Action Projects put our Ambassadors and other young leaders in the driving seat of influential, replicable and ground-breaking projects at scale, underpinned by youth-centred decision-making processes, that equip them with the skills to avert climate and ecological breakdown and seed a greener and fairer future for us all. The Penpont Project, our flagship intergenerational initiative, supports a Youth Leadership Group (YLG) of AFC Alumni and local young people to work in equal partnership with tenant farmers, landowners, and scientists to restore bio-cultural diversity and build climate and ecological resilience across a 2,000-acre estate

Sectoral Change

Objectives: To inspire and support a youth environmental movement that shifts culture, shapes environmental policy and transforms conservation practice nationally

Intervention period: Ongoing

Beneficiaries: Young people, the environmental sector and wider society

Description: The active contributions of all young people across all of their programmes form the basis of their Sectoral Change work, which seeks to create a revitalised, diverse and effective environmental sector that puts young people at the heart of change

How effective are they?
Outputs
Outcomes
Y/EWildED Workshops deliveredStudents participating in WildED WorkshopsStudent-led environmental change projects complete% of Participants now aware how their behaviour impacts the environment
30/03/20231521,34526058%
30/03/2022541,08019059%
30/03/20215781613774%
30/03/20201231,04211874%
Notes: There was a reduction in WildED Workshops run in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic preventing Action for Conservation from delivering in-person workshops in the summer term as well as a reduced programme in the autumn. Data will highlight participation numbers of students from both online and off-line delivery combined

Commentary: High quality educational workshops in their main programme have given students an in-depth awareness of environmental issues teachers may be unable to provide, and which they can share with friends and family. Core behavioural changes in young people are where they primarily measure impact and their hopes are that by instilling values in nature and conservation, young people will cause systematic change in the long term. The number of students continuing to attend group camps and volunteering activities highlight the enthusiasm the programme infuses, and partner charities providing practical, real-life experiences drive home the impact humans are having on nature
See what you could achieve with a donation of: £
How do we calculate this?

Who works here?

  • HENDRIKUS VAN HENSBERGEN
    Founder/Chief Executive
    Appointed: June 2014
Hendrikus has previously worked as a government policy adviser and studied at Bristol and Oxford University, with an interest in Evolutionary Biology.
  • LANI DINES
    Fundraising Manager
    Appointed: January 2023

How is it governed?

Trustees (8)
Current Trustees appointed
Gender Split

David is a zoologist and sine graduating from Oxford University, has been an active wildlife conservationist. He is the Director of the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU) at the University of Oxford which he founded in 1986, and holds a Senior Research Fellowship at Lady Margaret Hall with the Title of Distinction of Professor of....more
Legal constitution
  • Charity registered in England & Wales on 03/06/2014, number: 1157297
  • Registered with HMRC for Gift Aid
Policies in force
  • Complaints handling
  • Conflicting interests
  • Paying staff
  • Risk management
  • Safeguarding vulnerable beneficiaries
  • Volunteer management
Main office

15 Wytham Street
OXFORD
OX1 4SU

Objectives

TO EDUCATE CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE ABOUT NATURE CONSERVATION AND TO PROVIDE OPPORTUNITIES FOR THEIR INVOLVEMENT IN RELATED PROJECTS.

Data Sources

Charity Commission for England and Wales
360 Giving
CharityBase

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