Grant

Rufford Small Grant (first grant) for nature conservation

The Rufford Foundation

Applications are taken as they come. They say: "There are no deadlines - applications can be submitted at any time of year" No fee to apply Last checked 11 Oct

At a glance

Deadline: Applications are taken as they come. They say: "There are no deadlines - applications can be submitted at any time of year"
Fee: No fee to apply
Who may apply: The project must be in an eligible country; South Sudan and Sudan cannot be considered at present
Early career: an MSc or PhD student, or graduated from one in the past 3 years; BSc students are not funded
A nature conservation project on species not listed as Least Concern, or threatened habitats or issues; fieldwork costs only
Where: Your project site in an eligible country

Up to GBP 7,000 for an early-career conservationist's small or pilot fieldwork project on threatened species or habitats in an eligible country, most of Africa included. Applications are taken all year, and later stages fund up to GBP 8,000, 12,000 and 18,000.

Applications are taken as they come. They say: “There are no deadlines - applications can be submitted at any time of year” Read it on their page

The facts

What you get: Up to GBP 7,000 for a first grant; later grants up to GBP 8,000, 12,000 and 18,000
Where: Your project site in an eligible country
How long: Apply any time; one application per 12 months

Where you stand

This one is free. There is no fee to apply, and nobody should ask you for money at any point.

What they ask for

The project must be in an eligible country; South Sudan and Sudan cannot be considered at present
Early career: an MSc or PhD student, or graduated from one in the past 3 years; BSc students are not funded
A nature conservation project on species not listed as Least Concern, or threatened habitats or issues; fieldwork costs only

Get ready to apply

Built only from what this listing states.

The application takes real work, by our reading.

1. What to get ready

The listing does not say what it needs. When you open their page, write down everything it asks for before you start.

2. Dates

No closing date is stated.
Openings with no closing date can close once they have enough people, so sooner is safer. Our advice

Download checklist (.txt) Send to WhatsApp

The download is a small text file. You can read it later without data. It also lists each condition they set, so you can tick yourself against them. WhatsApp sends the same list to you, or to somebody helping you.

No CV yet? Make a plain one from your answers. Nothing you type is kept.

Tips for applying for a grant

General advice from us, the same for every grant. It is not what this organisation says; that is above.

Say what the money is for, exactly, and how much of it goes where. A simple budget in a table is enough.
Describe what you have done so far, with numbers you can prove: customers, people served, sales, months running.
Check whether they need your business registered, and in which country.
Answer their questions in their order. Reviewers score each one.

If there is an interview or a test

Expect questions on your numbers. Know them without reading them.
Be ready to say what happens to the project if you do not get the grant.

All our tips and messages to copy. Practise answering, with nothing kept. Received an offer? Check whether it is real, then read before you say yes.

How to apply

You apply on The Rufford Foundation's own website, not here. We never send an application for anybody and we never ask you for anything to pass on. Check their page for anything not shown here.

Go to the application

How we checked this

This was opened and verified at The Rufford Foundation's own website on 11 October 2026: it was real, still open, and open to people from African countries. If anything here is wrong, tell us.