Nature Trust Alliance

Collaboration for Conservation

Nature Trust Alliance (NTA) is a unique collaboration between three of Europe’s leading conservation trust funds: the Caucasus Nature Fund (CNF) and Prespa Ohrid Nature Trust (PONT) and the newly established Blue Action Fund.

Established in 2016 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, NTA provides operational support services (financial management, administration, communications, reporting, etc.), so the funds can focus on their core missions of employing innovative and sustainable financing mechanisms for nature conservation.

While conservation trust fund cooperation had been discussed within the trust fund community for a number of years it is believed that the NTA shared services initiative is a first.

Blue Action Fund supports national and international non-governmental organizations in their efforts to conserve the oceans and coastlines in the developing world, focusing on the most sensitive coastal waters of Africa, Latin America and Asia/Pacific. Our goal is to contribute to reducing the dramatic loss of marine biodiversity and to advancing local development, e.g. through stabilizing incomes in coastal communities or enhancing coastal protection.

Learn more at: www.blueactionfund.org

Caucasus Nature Fund (CNF) is a regional conservation trust fund created to protect the unique biodiversity of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. Starting with only €7 million in endowment capital, CNF now has a total capital, including endowment and sinking fund, of over €30 million. Established in 2007, CNF gave its first grant in 2010 and has built its grant program steadily over the last five years; CNF’s current annual programmatic budget is more than €1 million.

Learn more at: www.caucasus-naturefund.org

Prespa Ohrid Nature Trust (PONT), also a regional conservation trust fund, was established in late 2015 with an initial focus to conserve the unique biodiversity of the Wider Prespa Area on the borders of Albania, Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. With an initial capital of over €20 million. It will begin its grant program in late 2017.

Learn more at: www.pont.org

APPROACH

As relatively small organizations, conservation trust funds (CTF) in general struggle to find the right balance between the size, qualifications and cost of administrative and support staff. Combined with volatile financial markets, limited funding opportunities, and sometimes rigorous reporting and compliance, CTF’s can find stability by collaboration and consolidating their “back office” activities to streamline their operations. Sharing services can be a key strategy for supporting CTF effectiveness: sharing overhead costs and eliminating redundancies across organizations helps the CTF sector be more efficient, reduce costs and risk, improve access to high-quality services and foster the collaborations that lead to program innovation.

TEAM

Alba Carreras
Prior to joining NTA in 2017 Alba worked in the international banking and finance sector for nine years. She held various positions in Spain and the …

Alba Carreras
Finance & Administration Coordinator
Marion Dumitraskovic
Marion has a degree in biology. Prior to joining NTA, she worked for over 20 years in sales and marketing for smaller companies and …

Marion Dumitraskovic
Communications & Operations Coordinator
Danielle Megyeri
Danielle joined NTA in 2016 and opened its first office in Frankfurt shortly after. She played an integral role in developing NTA’s shared-service model …

Danielle Megyeri
Communications & Operations Manager
Ivana Springstein
Ivana has a Masters in Economics and Business Law from Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg. Prior to joining NTA she held various positions in …

Ivana Springstein
Finance & Administration Coordinator

Nature Trust Alliance | Collaboration for Conservation

Nature Trust Alliance

Collaboration for Conservation

APPROACH

TEAM

Alba Carreras

Marion Dumitraskovic

Danielle Megyeri

Ivana Springstein