How we spend your donations

We spend 94% of our income on charitable activities – directly protecting threatened species and ecosystems. The remaining 6% is spent on raising funds, allowing us to sustain and grow the scale of our conservation work – and for every £1 spent on fundraising, we receive £11.97 back on average.

One of FFI’s distinguishing values is that we constantly look to use your donations in the most efficient way. We do this by only working where we know we can make a difference.

We also encourage donors to give unrestricted donations, which means we can spend them where the need is greatest.

The specific project your donation goes towards will depend on the appeal you donated to.

For restricted appeals we will only use your donations for the specific project stated in the appeal – for example to purchase an area of land. These appeals will always clearly state that they are restricted, using terminology like “100% of your donation will go directly to this project”. If the appeal is linked to a specific amount we are trying to raise (such as the price of the land) we will let you know what will happen to any excess donations, or to any donations received if we don’t manage to raise the full amount.

For unrestricted appeals we will use your donation in the areas of our work with the most financial need. We will often discuss an example project and use more generic terminology like “your donation could help fund x” and your money may or may not be used on that example project. The funding from these appeals is absolutely vital in supporting a wide range of projects – particularly the lesser-known animals and plants that are equally important but would otherwise receive only a fraction of the funding.

If you’re a UK tax payer and have told us we’re able to claim Gift Aid on your donation then we will claim 25p from every £1 you donate – claiming from HMRC the basic tax that has already been paid on your donation.

We treat all Gift Aid as unrestricted funding – using it wherever the priority is greatest – even if the original donation is restricted to a specific project.