Overview

Call for Applications: 2025 Whitley Awards

Funding, profile and training for grassroots conservation leaders
Apply: https://whitleyaward.org/apply-for-conservation-funding/apply-for-a-whitley-award/
Contact: info@whitleyaward.org
Deadline: midnight GMT on 31 October 2024

The Whitley Fund for Nature (WFN) is a UK-registered charity supporting grassroots conservation leaders in the Global South. Whitley Awards are WFN’s flagship prizes, worth £50,000 in project funding over one year, awarded to mid-career conservationists leading grassroots action that benefits people, wildlife and the climate.

Whitley Awards offer international profile, training, peer support and eligibility for further funding. These coveted prizes are won competitively following assessment by an expert judging panel and will be presented by WFN Patron, HRH The Princess Royal at a ceremony in London in Spring 2025.

Whitley Awards:

  • are the result of a global search for outstanding conservation leadership
  • are worth £50,000 GBP in project funding over one year
  • champion local leaders working in their home countries across the Global South
  • celebrate individuals who inspire and are backed by a committed team and local NGO
  • significantly boost to winners’ international profile by putting a media spotlight on their work
  • support winners with communications training and PR support
  • provide membership to a collaborative peer-network of more than 225 Whitley Award alumni
  • give winners the opportunity to apply for further WFN Continuation Funding grants

We look for:

  • projects that explicitly address biodiversity conservation issues
  • mid-career conservationists for whom additional funding and exposure could be game-changing
  • community involvement and grassroots approach
  • scientific grounding – although the project leader does not need to be a scientist, they must demonstrate that their team has the required skills and experience, or collaborations in place
  • proven success and an evidence-based approach
  • projects that are poised to scale up with potential for wider replication
  • value for money and likelihood of future sustainability
  • collaborative project leaders
  • measurable impact, not just activity – we support projects that can demonstrate real change
  • marine, freshwater and terrestrial projects

Eligibility (read our full eligibility criteria here):

  • WFN does not fund undergraduate projects, expeditions, MSc, PhD or government work.
  • The project must take place in a country not defined as a High-Income Economy by the World Bank.
  • The awards are aimed conservationists who are local to the country or region in which they work (i.e. they were born there or have lived there a long time and have achieved national status).
  • We seek grassroots conservationists who are embedded in and/or from the communities where they work. Applicants should work for or lead a locally incorporated NGOs in the Global South, rather than be in-country staff employed by NGOs headquartered in the Global South.