The BBC Wildlife Fund

With global warming frequenting headlines across the globe on a much more frequent basis, it is not surprising that charities are hard at work, raising money for those projects which support endangered species.

And this is exactly what the BBC Wildlife Fund was set up to do. Please note that the BBC Wildlife Fund closed in 2011 and no longer accepts donations or applications; no direct replacement was set up. As a charity that was registered with the Charity Commission, the BBC Wildlife Fund was responsible for the distribution of donations to those projects that are working to protect endangered wildlife throughout the world.

This could include animals and plants and the wild places that each project needed in order to ensure the safety, and improve the natural conditions that they need to survive.

You may recall that the BBC filmed a number of programmes in 2007 – the Saving Planet Earth season. This enabled the fund to raise £1,603,488 before the end of 2007 and it has now been agreed where this money will be allocated.

How Did The Programmes Help?

The series of Saving Planet Earth programmes, put together by the BBC and shown in the summer of 2007 gave an insight into how these projects can make a difference to animals and plants.

It was off the back of these programmes that the BBC set up its Wildlife Fund and worked to raise money to help support the projects that were featured in the series, along with many others.

The BBC itself, however, did not donate to the charity because of broadcasting regulation, but instead worked behind the scenes to get the Wildlife Fund up and running.

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How The Decision is Made

Obviously, from the example above, it is clear that this fund had a lot of money to designate to worthy wildlife charities.

But, in order to make sure that all the money is spread out evenly, and goes to the right people, the BBC Wildlife Fund had a board of trustees made up of people with experience in business administration, environmental issues, or who have been involved in conservation projects.

Applications to the fund by projects were submitted to Board of Trustees and assessed according to the strict criteria set out when the fund was initially set up. Now, unlike many other grant applications, the criteria for the BBC Wildlife Fund weren’t as complicated.

It was very simple in the fact that the project had to protect a key species within an ecosystem, involve the community and address a clear plight. The application also had to have some evidence of being a success in the past and demonstrate how it will continue to be a success in the future.

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Where Does it Come From?

The money that the BBC Wildlife Fund was able to donate to the various projects chosen by the Board of Trustees was raised in a number of ways. Obviously, the public paid a huge part in this. However, the fund also had two corporate sponsors help in other ways to make the fund a success.

Firstly, British Telecom (BT) provided the online donation facility that allowed people to pledge money to the fund in a very quick and efficient way. BT, in particular, have a very strong commitment to reducing the threat of climate change.

The second corporate sponsor is high street bank, HSBC who was the initial sponsor of the Saving Planet Earth event that raised money for the fund. HSBC developed their technology to enable people to donate to the fund via ATM machines and also worked with staff within their branches to make the pledging process much easier.

The Next Step

Now that you have read through the advice above, you might want to put it into practice. Our Grant Eligibility Finder lets you tell us what you need funding for and we will match you with the types of UK grant most likely to accept your application. Try it now →