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General FAQs

Who is involved in Capacity for Conservation?

Capacity for Conservation is currently managed and run by Birdlife International and Fauna & Flora. 

It was originally created through a collaborative project, funded by the Cambridge Conservation Initiative, between BirdLife International, Fauna & Flora International, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Tropical Biology Association and the University of Cambridge (Geography Department and MPhil in Conservation Leadership). Additional collaborators included the Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity of Kazakhstan, Bird Conservation Nepal, Foundation for the Philippine Environment, Nigerian Conservation Foundation, Society for the Conservation of Nature in Liberia, Te Ipukarea Society (Cook Islands), and Ya’axché (Belize).

Who is this website for?

This website is for members of the conservation community who are looking to strengthen their organisation in order to become more resilient and be able to deliver long-lasting conservation impacts.

How do I use this website?

Capacity for Conservation is an aid to self-led organisational development. It is a growing tool for conservation organisations being grown by conservation organisations just like yours.

Capacity for Conservation helps you and your organisation to:

  • Assess strengths and areas to develop within the organisational assessment
  • Identify priorities for your organisation and plan the way forward using the development plan
  • Strengthen your organisation using the library of resources, including eLearning courses and webinar recordings. 
  • Monitor your progress using our recommended indicators

The process of strengthening your organisation through the website is designed to be bespoke to fit the needs of your organisation. There is no set order for exploring the site. How you use the website is based on the needs of your organisation. The website is designed to be revisited, so you can reassess your organisation and track the progress of your organisation over time.

Who in my organisation should use the site?

The Capacity for Conservation website is designed to be applicable for any individual at any level of their career. We recommend that you invite as many staff as possible to use the site in order to get a broader picture of your organisation's strengths and areas for improvement. We recommend that you involve the relevant stakeholders for each of the areas you are looking at developing. For example, if you would like to review internal finance management, it may be useful to include the Director, the Finance Manager, an administrator who supports finance, and also a budget-holder and a fundraiser.

How do I make my organisation financially sustainable ?

There are many different ways of understanding what “sustainability” means.

Benefit sustainability is when the benefits of an organisation’s work continue to be seen by the target species or communities, whether or not the project or programme continues.

Organisational sustainability is the ability of an organisation to continue to do its work. It has a vision and a financial and organisational infrastructure to support the achievement of its vision.

Financial sustainability is part of organisational sustainability. It has to do with the on-going ability of an organisation to generate enough resources to work towards its vision.

In order to be sustainable, an organisation must:

  • Have a clear strategic direction and be able to scan its environment or context to identify opportunities for its work
  • Be able to attract, manage and retain competent staff
  • Have an adequate administrative and financial infrastructure
  • Be able to demonstrate its effectiveness and impact in order to leverage further resources
  • Get community support for, and involvement in its work.

A financially sustainable organisation:

  • Has more than one way of generating income
  • Does strategic, action and financial planning regularly
  • Has adequate financial systems
  • Has a good public image
  • Is clear about its values
  • Has some degree of financial independence (i.e. is able to make its own decisions about how it generates and spends its fund, and does not have to compromise its vision or values to obtain funding).

In other words, achieving financial sustainability requires a good performance in all areas of organisation, and particularly in the areas of:

  • External Communications
  • Finance management
  • Fundraising
  • HR and Volunteer Management
  • Organisational Planning and Management