The Waterloo Foundation

Organizational profile:

The Waterloo Foundation (TWF) is an independent grant-making Foundation created in 2007, and based in Cardiff, Wales. TWF is a registered charity with the Charity Commission for England and Wales (charity number 1117535).  TWF gives grants to organizations in both the UK and worldwide. TWF is most interested in projects that help globally, particularly in the areas of the disparity of opportunities and wealth and the unsustainable use of the world’s natural resources.  TWF wants to help both the global community and the local community in Wales.

TWF makes annual grants of around £6 million for charitable purposes in its core programme areas of: world development, the environment, child development, and Wales. In the area of the environment, TWF has a specific program of Tropical Rainforests whose preference will be given to initiatives working to protect tropical rainforests for their value to the climate, communities and biodiversity, principally through avoided deforestation. TWF will consider both practical local projects, and strategic initiatives.

Financing Instrument: Grants

Project scale:
The majority of TWF grants in the environment programme will be for a total of £50,000 - £100,000 spread over multiple years.

Recipient countries regions/country groups: Global

Recipient categories: NGOs

Eligibility Criteria:
Local projects
Applications for practical local projects that TWF will consider would typically be working on a specified tropical rainforest area, defined in hectares. TWF will generally only accept applications for the protection of areas larger than 10,000 hectares. Applicants will need to demonstrate how their project involves:
•    Exposing, addressing and overcoming the local drivers of deforestation
•    Management of the specified area
•    Methods to measure and monitor the protected area
•    Sustainable livelihoods for forest-dependent communities
•    Securing land rights or management rights for forest-dependent communities

Strategic projects
TWF will consider applications for strategic projects that are working on addressing the drivers of deforestation on a wider or international scale. These could include:
•    Working on international or regional forest policy
•    Campaigning for improved practices in commerce
•    Innovative ways of reducing deforestation e.g. financial systems or solutions based on the value of forest ecosystem services
TWF is not able to offer funding for:
•    Tree planting projects
•    Projects focused solely on the use of fuel-efficient stoves
•    Projects with animal conservation as the sole focus
•    Research projects
•    Projects focusing on environmental education
•    TWF is currently not accepting proposals for REDD and carbon finance projects
•    Projects based in countries that are not secure and politically stable. We are therefore unlikely to support projects in conflict-affected areas such as within DRC and CAR.
•    In addition, TWF only considers proposals from US-based organizations under exceptional circumstances, due to the higher availability of environmental funding in the US compared to the UK.

Application guidelines:
TWF doesn’t have an application form, so applicants are free to formulate their proposals as they wish.  However, when applying to the Environment Fund, please follow these guidelines:

• Limit the proposal to approximately 2-3 sides of A4, and send it as an attachment to an email to applications@waterloofoundation.org.uk. Applications sent anywhere else will not be counted.
• State that applicants are applying under our Environment programme, and state which programme they are applying to – Tropical Rainforests. 
• Supply basic information on the applicant’s organisation – name, address, aim, charitable status, annual income and expenditure, website address and contact details.
• Provide the title of the applicant’s project
• Briefly describe the project or purpose for which the applicant is seeking funding. The applicant must outline how this meets the priorities of the programme they are applying to.
• Briefly outline the anticipated project outcomes and how these will be measured, including any post-implementation studies the applicant plans to undertake.
• Please provide a brief outline of the need for this particular intervention. Do reference any statistics, data or research used as justification.
• Provide brief project details such as cost, timescales and activities. TWF doesn’t need to see the full project plan or budget at this stage.
• Provide evidence that the applicant’s previous projects have led to successful outcomes and sustained impact.

TWF may ask at a later stage to see a full copy of the supporting data and evaluation.

Specifically, strategic project applicants will have to provide the following information:

• Evidence of previous successful strategic programmes e.g. an attributable change in policy or improved supply chain. TWF may ask to see a full copy of the supporting data and evaluation at a later stage;
• For the proposed programme, the specific measurable outcomes that the applicant expects the programme to achieve, and the methods the applicant will use to monitor these outcomes;
• The strategy put in place to ensure the sustainability of the programme’s objectives for the long term.

Tropical Rainforests - The 2 deadlines for applications to the Tropical Rainforests programme fall on the following dates every year:

• 1st June
• 1st December