funding: zoos; aquaria; botanic gardens: nature sites. Tel: 00 44 (0)161 4341681

New document available on links between EU policy and the deliver of zoos and aquaria

johnregan — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 08:34:58 +0000

On behalf of a grouping of 19 leading zoos and aquaria throughout the EU, we recently completed this study which draws out the close alignment between the EU’s principles and policues and what good zoos and allied sites are all about.

It comes complete with an introduction from the former Deputy Prime Minister of the UK, John Prescott, and we would welcome the help of any one reading this site in winning some future wording from other senior EU politicians for a future edition.

This document is not a signpost to where zoos can find funding ( contact me on this) but rather an advocacy and lobbying document to be used in advance and alongside any applications you may care to make.

John Regan (00 44 161 434 1681)

Save The Rhino International’s application to the EU’s ENTRP programme

johnregan — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 13:48:42 +0000

Renaud Fulconis.

We recently assisted Save The Rhino International to complete an initial Concept Note to the European Union’s “enviromental and sustainable management of natural resources, including energy” This is for the protection of the Great One Horned Rhino in Nepal’s Terai grasslands. The overall project looks to cost 2.5 million €, and we hope to win 1.87 milion € from the EU. We will know at the end of April whether we are invited to proceed to full bid.

Cathy Head, CEO of Save The Rhino International said: “We immensely enjoyed working with John Regan on the Concept Note stage - and hopefully round 2 in due course - for a major bid to the EU. John’s experience of working on EU proposals, his insight into the kind of things they look for in grant applications, and his focus and direction on getting a good job done on time were both welcome and necessary”.

EU LIFE+ Information and Communication funds undersubcribed!

johnregan — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 18:48:27 +0000

This source of funds, introduced for the first time ever in September 07, seems to have been badly undersubscribed. In the UK only 3 applications were made.

Whilst this financing cannot support major infrastructure, it can fund signage, information points and possibly walkways. Restricted to EU environmental issues, it seems especially well suited to collaborative projects involving more than one zoo or botanic garden or similar organisation.

This programme could double the finance available to a given grouping or single organisation on a theme such as endangered amphibian species native to Europe. or European carnivores. A collaborative, project seen to be funded by the EU would also have the benefit of elevating the zoo community’s identity in the public arena.

The remit of the Inf & Com component (unlike the rather tight other LIFE+ components) is wide to the point of complete vagueness. Furthermore, various lobbying missions on my part to DG Environment before LIFE+ was finally formulated stressed the huge public awareness raising potential inherent in zoos, and seems to have met with some results. So a funding programme in part specifically designed to address zoo potential risk now being ignored by them.

Partnerships to access EU funding.

johnregan — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 16:10:58 +0000

Currently membership for the EU Interreg zoo and botanic garden funding partnership lead by Bristol Zoo Gardens is closed.

We are likely to bid together for a sum in the region of 5 million €. The ‘in principle’ membership for this project is: Emmen Zoo, Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp, Munster Zoo and the Eden Project, UK.
However if any zoo, botanic garden or similar organisation is interested in drawing funds down through a partnership bid with other such institutions, please contact us without delay.

The Interreg Fund has not been hugely used for the benefit of zoos, aquaria and botanic gardens to date, but as bids are made, the novely aspect will decline. As it takes a lot of time to discuss , form partnerships and prepare matters, it is important to start discussions early.

John@johnreganassociates.com

Former post (January 0

The EU’s Interreg programme can, in the right circumstances, release fairly substantial funds for projects on zoo, similar sites or institutions allied to zoos, such as universities.

In each case, a number of partners needs to come together to bid collectively for the funding. There are a number of different Interreg programmes that apply to different kinds of partnerships in different parts of Europe ( - and some non EU states as well, such as Switzerland).

This particular post however is a specific invitation to European zoos, nature sites, botanic gardens, public sector organisations that take an interest in such sites, or other organisations who might want to be involved, to join an existing ‘in principle’ partnership within North West Europe to bid for funding. The current ‘in principle’ partners are: Bristol Zoo Gardens, the Eden Project, Fota Wildlife Park, Ireland, Emmen Zoo, Netherlands, and Nordens Ark, Sweden. Only organisations in certain parts of Europe are eligible in this specific instance. This map shows the eligible areas: northwesteurope.pdf. This Q & A document explains what is involved in the project: q-a-for-partners.doc q-a-for-partners.doc q-a-for-partners.doc

There is probably only room for a further organisations so please contact us very quickly if you are interested. The overall project budget might be in the region of €10 million

If you are not within the eligible area, but are still curious as to how the overall Interreg programme might benefit you, please also contact us, and we will inform you on the potential available to you.

Question from Martin Rule re funding for Varna Zoo, Bulgaria

johnregan — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 11:25:35 +0000

Thanks for your website.

I have just visited a Zoo in Bulgaria, Varna. This Zoo suffers from stereotypical underfunding and is in dire need of all the support, advice and change that the EU accession treaty intended.
I am working with a young activist who is currently designing the Zoo’s website. He has recently appeared in negotiations with the Zoo Director on Bulgaria’s national news television and and a discussion programme for local Varna TV and radio. Some of the conditions are dire there for the stressed animals, particularly the wild cats and bears. Bulgaria has shown some positive intent on animal wefare, so we are working with this intention on spawning the connection between civic democracy ,animal welfare and developing succesful post communist economic models based on progressive policy and strategy. There is virtually zero debate at this level, and even less responsibility.
The potential for developing these issues into successful outcomes is a large as the curent paucity of attention given to them.We want to reverse the situation by starting with whats necessary, attending to the possible and then letting beneficial chaos theory take over!

WE and I would appreciate any and all advice you can offer on EU funding streams for Zoos to develop our ideas and civic outreach intentions.

Thank you
Martyn Rule

johnregan
March 22, 2008 at 11:16 am

Dear Martyn,

Thanks for your email. I have visited Bulgaria myself with EAZA and know only too well of the distressing condition of some animals in certain zoos there. I believe matters are even worse in some Romanian collections. I admire your work in trying to better the situation.

Whilst EU legislation exists (the EU Directive on Zoos) exists to mandate higher welfare standards within the enlarged EU, I am afraid that sadly, amongst the very many EU financial instruments, there exists none that directly and specifically supports improved accommodation for zoo animals as such.

However there are plural opportunities to secure major funding for
1. economic development involving zoos
2. wildlife conservation and public awareness of environmental matters

These all require political will on the part the authorities that operate the zoo (in this case, I would guess, the municipal authorities of Varna??) I can imagine that these will not be putting animal welfare at the top of their list, but the great trick is to get them to see that tens of millions of euros are potentially available to transform their site ( in keeping with the EU Zoo Directive) from an embarrassing old fashioned menagerie with dwindling audiences, disseminating a negative, retrograde image internationally for Varna and Bulgaria as whole, into a 21st Century environmental and natural heritage awareness centre, generating jobs, tourism, small businesses, positive image for Varna and perhaps promoting Bulgaria’s native wildlife heritage. This would be especially appropriate in Varna as a major tourism city. Such a metamorphosis will naturally also embrace dramatically improved welfare conditions. Varna zoo is almost certainly sitting on a high and growing value land bank, and EU legislation (and popular international opinion such as your own) will eventually force closure of the site or change anyway. So the zoo authorities look to lose everything unless they embark early on an imaginative and inspirational paradigm shift.

JRA Ltd occasionally visits zoo sites across Europe to run a short workshop matching the realities and aspirations of an organisation with a strategy to secure transformational EU funding (I don’t claim it is straightforward to bid successfully for these large funds). This is how I pay my bills of course (!), so the fee is realistic, but as the exercise only takes a few days, not exorbitant.

Anyway the animals in Varna Zoo could potentially benefit in different ways from:

• Bulgaria’s EU Structural Funds in the zoo’s identity as means for regional economic development and positive identity
• EU Cohesion fund – as above but with extra emphasis on the environment
• LIFE+ could part fund a public campaign around Bulgarian biodiversity with knock on effects for the individual treatment of animals in captivity, as well as wild based conservation
• Interreg could establish a pan-EU partnership to upgrade Varna zoo
• TAIEX could pay for exchange of expertise between a high welfare standard zoo elsewhere in EU and Varna

Further details are available scattered around the Zoo Funding blog, and upon further investigation there may be other funding possibilities (EU and otherwise)

Good luck, keep in touch and let me know if the Varna authorities would wish to work with JRA on a professional basis.

Updated LIFE+: LIFE+ when to start thinking about your project

johnregan — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 09:45:58 +0000

The EU’s LIFE+ application process finally opened on the 28 September 2007. A total amount of €187 million was available for this first call for proposals, and it will be slightly more this year., 2008 The ‘closing date’ ( by when proposals have to be submitted to the national authorities) for 2008 is likely to be the 21/11/08, and applications open 15 July( but you can and should prepare your project well in advance).

The Commission will then spend much of 2009 assessing the projects submitted in this round. Successful applicants will not be able to actually begin their projects until 1/1/2010 at the earliest.

It is also worth pointing out that conceiving, testing and then fully articulating your project according to the application requirements of LIFE+ takes a good deal of time.

So zoos and allied organisations wishing to consider a LIFE+ project - to begin in 2010 - would be wise to start the process soon.

I would remind you that there are 3 components to LIFE+ as follows, all of which are potentially of interest to our community

LIFE+ Nature & Biodiversity
LIFE+ Environment Policy & Governance
LIFE+ Information & Communication

In the case of the latter, co-operative, multi-site projects ( national or trans-national) would seem to be the most likely to be successful

If you want further information, please post a comment below, rather than email me direct

Thanks

John

ENRTP Funding from EU for conservation throughout the developing world

johnregan — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 10:25:29 +0000

We have just completed and submitted two ‘concept notes’ for this EU funding programme ( “environment and sustainable management of natural resources, including energy” ENRTP:

One on behalf of EAZA and Bird Life International for a project in Madagascar, and another on behalf of Save the Rhino and ZSL for work in Nepal.

This opportunity is now closed, but will likely open again towards the end of 2008. It offers up to 80% funding and projects can range from EU contributions of €800,000 to €3,500,000.

Although the initial 4 page Concept Form looks relatively straightforward (if these are successul, the applicant is invited to proceed to a full bid), a strong and appropriate concept is needed, as well as the partnership to go with this. All of which takes a lot of time to develop. So organisations thinking of bidding at the end of this year would absolutely have to start developing their project from now on.

ENRTP is one programme belonging to AIDCO. Occasionally other calls for bids may be of interest to conservation or zoological interests.

Here is the link:http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/cgi/frame12.pl

‘Fundraising’ versus ‘Development’…?

johnregan — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 09:24:27 +0000

So what’s the difference? What route should a given organisation choose when first resourcing some kind of external funding programme and philosophy..?

To my mind, ‘fundraising’ is a function logically tucked inside a larger marketing or communications department, and probably not reporting directly to the CEO. It concerns tactical activities to secure extra resource to fund those iniatives that the organisation would carry out as a matter of course. It is likely to embrace fundraising events (uggh!), legacy promotions ( hurray!), modest corporate partnerships, community or ‘grassroots’ fundraising. Properly resourced and managed, it is an extremely valuable addition to a zoo or other organisation’s other revenue streams ( …and in the case of legacies of course huge sums can be involved)

But ‘development’ is a fundamentally strategic activity. It is about engagement with the external decision making landscape so as to find resource opportunities that can profoundly transform one’s organisation (RDA funding, capital campaigns, VAT recoup, elective pound programmes, major sponsorship, high level major gifts, etc). It is about the patient, high level marketing of the zoo, its work and its ethical mission to the most senior decision makers possible. It is about the entire growth future of the organisation, in so far as this is dependent on the external world ( - which it probably is).

Development is a quasi-CEO activity. You may have of course to hire someone with the specific skills and an exclusive focus on the external world, but the Head of Development must report directlyto the CEO. The CEO will always have be personally very involved as well.

Which approach do I think is the more exciting..? Guess..!

Happy to hear dissenting views or experience

John

http://www.johnreganassociates.com/

John@johnreganassociates.com

Zoos and regional/local identity

johnregan — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 09:05:48 +0000

Are zoos and aquaria perceived by the outside world as sufficiently different to one another?

If not, do we lose ‘out of area’ visitors and funding potential, because we are seen as having little to offer that is part of the particular authentic ‘flavour’ of that part of the world?

The fact is, from within the zoo world, it is obvious that no two zoos are alike. However, the public and the media tend to speak of ‘the city zoo’, as if the content (”lions, tigers, elephants, etc…”) is interchangeable wherever you go in the the world.

I am sure that most organisations could do mucg more to project some kind of unique story or special ambiance ( around star animals, around human characters, some special piece of organisational heritage, distinctive architecture, some tie in with charismatic native fauna…?) that would help drive traffic and allow the zoo to be seen as somehow essential to the distinctive regional or local identity. Jersey certainly did this in through the iconic personality of Gerald Durrell, and Bristol ( in a very different sense) through the semi-fictional Johnny Morris. I confess I have never been to either the Biblical Zoo in Israel and the Nahavo Zoo in Arizona. but both of these must punch above their weight because of the ‘must see whilst in area’ packaging they have cleverly enveloped themselves in.

How many different ways could a given zoo, aquarium or similar organisation add to their mystique, mythos, glamour? How many different ways can they shine a searchlight into sky and say ‘I am here, and in this sense I am unique in all the world’..?

Best

John

A handful of funders for zoos: grants for conservation; funding for widlife; funds for biodiversity education; zoos and capital investment

johnregan — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 16:56:36 +0000

We will constantly update this post with more potential sources of funding for zoos. As potentially zoos and botanic gardens from all around the world may access ( and contribute to…?) this forum, we will try and reference funders with a relevance to different parts of the world.

Obviously “zoo projects” can mean lots of different things ( capital on site projects, educational programmes, in situ conservation projects, etc), and the following funders all fund different kinds of needs. So this is quite a rag-bag of opportunities, and it is up to you to sort through it.

For some of the large international funders, I really think it is also worth considering the virtues of inter-zoo collaborations for many of these sources of finance, as well as looking for highly innovative (even risky?) approaches amenable to eventual replication. The whole idea of changing the zoo paradigm through international co-operation could be very appealing to funders.

Naturally we are not responsible if our references to their funding remit is out of date …or just plain wrong. It should also go without saying that any would be applicant needs to look very carefully at the funder’s own details before proceeding.

Here are the potential funders ( latest added at the top)

The Leverhulme Trust, UK can fund

http://www.leverhulme.ac.uk/grants_awards/grants/international_networks/

Organisations working in developing countries and with projects where conservation elides with human economic development and agriculture might look at USAID. Normally does not support unsolicited proposals, but worth making a link with their in country office. See: http://www.usaid.gov/about_usaid/

A nationally specific fund is the Namibian Nature Foundation, whose main objective is to contribute toward sustainable environmental development in Namibia. Make grants of up to 50,000 namibian dollars. http://www.nnf.org.na/index.php

The Ford Foundation, under its overall theme of “Asset Building & Community Development” has an Environment and Development programme that “helps people and groups acquire, protect, improve and manage land, water, forests, wildlife and other natural assets in ways that help reduce poverty and injustice”. The Ford Foundation has no connection these days to the Ford Motor Company by the way. See: http://www.fordfound.org/

Alcoa is one of the world’s biggest providers of aluminum and aluminum based products, and operates a large international grant maling foundation, supporting conservation. If your zoo or botanical garden is near an Alcoa site ( …and the company has hundreds of sites in dozens of countries), you may be eligible for funding . See: http://www.alcoa.com/global/en/community/info_page/Foundation.asp

The Australia France Foundation supports bilateral cooperations between the two nations in “the broadest possible range of activities”. Potentially this could apply to zoo interests ( and I bet no zoo has ever approached them)http://www.france.embassy.gov.au/pari/Affintro.html

The Aga Khan Foundation supports amongst other areas, rural development and income generation to alleviate poverty in Africa and Asia. A properly articulated in situ zoo project with human poverty alleviation might well qualify. The allied Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan Fund for the Environment specifically supports biodiversity. http://www.akdn.org/agency/akf.html

The American Himalyan Foundation funds environmental projects in the Himalyan region http://www.himalayan-foundation.org/live/home/home

The William Cadbury Trust has certainly made grants to zoo run projects in the past and lists environment as an aim (both in the UK and internationally) http://www.wa-cadbury.org.uk/page.asp?id=8

Rufford Small Grants for Nature Conservation (RSGs) are aimed at small conservation programmes and pilot projects: http://www.rufford.org/rsg/

The Nando Peretti Foundation, based in Italy makes grants to international conservation projects. Currently closed to new applications, but likely to open again soon: http://www.nandoperettifound.org/

Biffaward is a multi-million pound fund which awards grants to community and environmental projects across the UK. The fund’s money comes from landfill tax credits donated by Biffa Waste Services. Biffaward is managed by the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts on Biffa’s behalf. http://www.biffaward.org/index.php/contact The Darwin Initiative is a small grants programme for biodiversity and conservation projects around the world. It tends to favour projects with a strong scientific rationale: http://www.darwin.gov.uk/The Lubee Foundation, based in Florida, is dedicated to the conservation of old world fruit bats. It provides small grants and partnership initiatives within this area: http://www.lubee.org/default.aspxThe International Herpetological Symposium makes (very) small grants to individuals working in relevant fields. No restriction to the USA is specified on theur website: http://www.kingsnake.com/ihs/grant.html