Objectives
Fund scope
The Earth is facing its sixth mass extinction: up to 100,000 species could soon be wiped out. This threat is reversible, however, provided the world’s largest corporations are actively on board. Fighting alone we will not get far but, together, we can rewrite the future and protect the animal kingdom.
A multi-partner platform, the Lion’s Share Fund supports private and public sector partners in the design and roll-out of innovative and inclusive ideas that make a difference to animal welfare and biodiversity. When an image of an animal or the wilderness is used to promote goods or services there is no monetary kick-back—unlike people who appear in advertising campaigns, animals and their habitat receive no remuneration from advertisers.
Lion’s Share works to change this practice by shifting corporate visions and building sustainable, peaceful and compassionate societies that are more empathetic to animals and nature, and committed to maintaining, restoring, and enhancing endangered biodiversity and ecosystem services. This is accomplished through four funding streams:
- The Lion Cub. Small grants for community-based action and grassroots work.
- Transformative partnerships. Long-term programmatic support for wildlife and habitat conservation in middle and low-income countries with significant outcomes achieved through coordinated and concerted action among members of civil society, the private sector, and government.
- Crisis-flash point. Responding to a wildlife crisis requiring urgent, targeted assistance, including emergencies related to restoring critical habitats for wildlife and supporting time-sensitive actions.
- The Lion’s Share award. Recognizes and promotes successful conservation and animal welfare initiatives by individuals or through innovation, entrepreneurship, bravery, conservation advertisements, and advocacy campaigns.
Harnessing corporate leadership and consumer support helps the Fund not only accelerate behavioural change on environmental concerns but also reverse biodiversity loss. Partners of Lion’s Share defend the need for healthy wildlife populations and habitats, and instill a renewed compassion for all animals. Their promotion helps increase individual and collective appreciation for nature, including the multitude of (unspoken) ways it contributes to equitable and sustainable development for humans.
Theory of change and strategic framework
The problem: Rapid loss of wildlife and habitat erodes the Earth’s natural ecosystems along with human well-being and development—a state of decline that has been underway since the early 1970s. Losses are caused by a cascading set of direct and indirect causes such as: habitat loss; fragmentation and degradation; pollution; encroachment; climate change; killing of animals (including over-exploitation, poaching for illegal wildlife trade including exotic pets, and retaliatory killing); irresponsible pet ownership; market, governance, and policy failures; community and institutional failures (or gaps), and social and cultural failures.
Detached from nature and unaware of the significance of biodiversity loss, people continue to engage in unsustainable consumption patterns and social practices that deepen inequalities and chip away at animal and environmental ecosystems. Given the challenges, social and political policies and measures must address all drivers if the 2030 Agenda, the ones that target nature, consumerism, and the environment in particular. This means safeguarding and restoring biodiversity and ecosystems through expanded, inclusive, and equitable conservation approaches that correct market distortions, are championed by governments and business leaders, and result in a continuum of practices.
The Lion’s Share platform helps ensure that nature and animal welfare are protected at the same time development objectives are met.
> $55M 
$55M - $25M
$25M - $5M
< $5M
