Delivering funding to protect rare and endangered species

In conservation, opportunities to purchase important lands—and as a result save rare and endangered species—may arise abruptly and require an immediate financial commitment to secure broader protections. The Quick Response Fund for Nature (QRFN) provides a solution-oriented approach toward saving the world’s most important places for nature. QRFN works at a speed unparalleled in the funding community to rigorously review applications and deliver funding—within a week when necessary—so that sites essential to the protection of rare and endangered species can be conserved when the opportunity arises.

The goal of the project is to ensure that any globally significant land deal—one that protects one of the last homes for rare and endangered species—has access to the necessary funds. We seek to provide funding that can secure the property, show commitment and investment so that the conservation buyer has the ability to make a down payment, and hold the property while remaining funds are raised.

Biodiversity and Wildlife Solutions Program Director Eric Dinerstein and Don Weeden of the Weeden Foundation conceived of the fund and launched it together in 2015. In 2017, management and administration of the fund was turned over to RESOLVE. Our staff provide scientific review of proposals, handle funding decisions, and administer all subawards. Our Expert Advisory Panel, who are world-renowned conservation biologists and taxonomic specialists, volunteer their time and commit to reviewing proposals in a timely manner. They are crucial to the ability of QRFN to expedite decisions and select and fund the most deserving projects.

In 2018, thanks to generous support from the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation and others, QRFN funded thirteen high-priority land conservation deals on four continents and helped conserve more than 12,000 acres of globally significant habitat that will contribute to the survival of unique species, such as the cotton-top tamarin, Chinese pangolin, great green macaw, mountain tapir, and black-footed ferret. We expect to see these acres leverage additional habitat protection.