 |
HSBC Private Bank are sponsoring a Whitley Award for nature conservation this year as part of our quest to find sponsorships making a real difference.
The Whitley Awards are a highly respected and well-known name that is associated with excellence. They are known for their indelible support of individuals from grass roots organisations around the world making a proven impact on the conservation of nature for both people and wildlife. The Whitley Awards recognise achievement, but the difference is the organisations they support – like the charity behind the Awards itself - are small, meaning that there are fewer layers between the donor and the recipient. The money, simply, goes further.
Because the Awards are so high profile, the projects that they support get a 'double echo'. As well as giving crucial funding, the Award is a recognition that opens doors. For instance, one of the recipients last year was photographed with patron of the Awards, HRH The Princess Royal, a photograph that appeared in all the national papers of his home country. The publicity it generated caught the eye of the President, whose official commendation helped swing government funds and support behind the winner's research. This has completely transformed what it is possible for his organisation to achieve. Less than one year on, his project area has been protected and declared Eastern Turkey’s first wetland of international importance (Ramsar status), the only one in an area the size of Germany.
The charities and organisations the Whitley Awards support are all local. There are plenty of supranational charities that can appeal to big donors but the smaller charities are limited as to how and where they can get their support. This is despite their often being the best placed to catalyse change. The Whitley Awards are very focused, designed to first of all identify who are the worthiest recipients by actively seeking them out and secondly to get funds to them without layers of bureaucracy eating into limited funding. In doing so they have developed a simple but effective system of recognition linking those who want to fund effective conservation with the people making a difference on the ground.
Where it’s going and how much gets there are the two things that matter to us as sponsors. The Whitley Awards this year are announced on 13 May 2009 and we are proud to be behind them.
For more information on the Whitley Awards, which are offered by UK charity The Whitley Fund for Nature, please visit www.whitleyaward.org. | 
