Our approach

As a small environmental funder with limited resources, the Gosling Foundation is very selective about what we support.  We focus on:

Expanding and enhancing capacity
We want to help make nature organizations stronger and more self-reliant, rather than constantly chasing grants in order to achieve their mission. Increasingly, the Gosling Foundation looks for proposals to use the Engagement Organizing  model to expand and enhance the capacity of nature organizations. This data-driven, people-powered approach focuses on building more and better relationships with supporters and fostering grassroots leadership.

Creating long-term relationships
Rather than funding a large number of projects, we tend to focus on building deep, ongoing relationships with a few grantees to support organizational change and maximize our impact.

Investing in strategic, scalable projects
We look for projects with the potential to grow or be replicated, creating impact on a meaningful scale to address the threats facing nature.

Co-learning and piloting innovative ideas
There are no easy answers to the challenges facing the planet. That’s why we encourage an inquiry approach that involves a co-learning relationship with our funding recipients. We believe in exploring and testing new ideas with the potential to be applied broadly. We understand that the outcomes of innovative projects aren’t always clear and require testing and course corrections as they unfold.

Investing in science-based conservation priorities
Our funding decisions are informed by scientifically determined priorities for conservation action.