The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List

Originally established in 1964, the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is now the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global extinction risk status of animal, fungus and plant species.

The Brief

In March 2024, we were approached to submit a proposal for producing a Resource Mobilisation Strategy for the IUCN Red List. “The opportunity to be involved in such a renowned and urgent international project was incredibly exciting,” says Amy Stevens. “As a team, we really liked the collaborative element of the brief and for all of us, the conservation message struck a personal chord.”

Building on existing partnerships

Our initial priority was to meet with the Red List Partners separately, so that we could properly understand their views. These conversations were critical to gauging concerns and ideas about what had been challenging in the past and what they would like to see happen in the future. They also gave us valuable insights into how the partnership funding model worked and how they felt about contributing to Red List fundraising.

The work we undertook made it possible to draft a new ‘Partnership Pledge’ which all Red List Partners will sign as part of a collective endeavour to achieve common goals and shared values.

Preparing to fundraise

The next part of our professional support involved a comprehensive feasibility study to explore the IUCN Red List’s capacity to raise as much as $100m through a global fundraising campaign. This included conducting more than 30 interviews with stakeholders representing a range of organisations from around the world. The aim was to gather perspectives on the draft Case for Support and test the potential for generating such a significant level of financial investment. Gifted’s Konna Beeson says, “One of our objectives was to investigate alternative funding sources; those outside of ‘standard’ philanthropy yet still aligned with IUCN’s vision and values. Exploring these avenues was really rewarding in understanding how we can support our charity clients more widely and think about other income streams which could contribute to the funding mix on a given project.”

If your organisation has a project with global reach and you'd like advice on the best way to develop a fundraising plan, get in touch with one of our Directors and ask for an exploratory conversation about your strategic needs.