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Our work

Community & Small Charities

In this area BLFCT seeks to leverage its flexibility as a funder to support small organisations and community-focused activity. We work with small organisations working in aligned arenas either directly or through organisations that are already in position with links to a network or smaller organisations. Much of the community activity reflects the Trust’s heritage. As a whole the programme provides a broad foundation of support.

Spotlight: Sea Changers

“ Working with BLFCT has been a fantastic experience for Sea-Changers. Their obvious shared enthusiasm and passion for our conservation projects has been apparent from the start. They take a keen interest in all we are achieving through their funding support. It goes well beyond ticking an impact or evaluation box, instead it is a genuinely collaborative partnership. It has been such a positive relationship enabling us to increase our impact, funding more and bigger community based marine conservation all around the UK. Whilst of course the money they have provided has been important, they have also been a listening ear, giving us advice, feedback and helpful suggestions along the way.”
Rachel Lopata, Co-Founder Sea Changers

Sea-Changers is a marine conservation grant giving organisation. Since giving out our very first grant in 2012, we have been supporting communities around the UK to conserve, protect and restore their precious coastal and marine habitats and species. Sea-Changers’ grants are unique in UK marine conservation. We provide a place for small, local and grassroots organisations to seek funding for their work, based on the priorities that they identify. This is a bottom-up rather than top-down approach to encourage community engagement, and has proven, year on year, to have wide ranging social, economic and environmental impacts. 

Our mission is to empower local communities and organisations that care about the marine environment and to identify and proceed with conservation projects that make a difference to its future. We achieve this with the support of corporate partners, funders, donors and volunteers who collectively help us in our mission. Since 2012 we have funded almost 500 vital marine conservation projects right around the UK’s shores and seas. Over the past four years BLFCT have supported three vital Sea-Changers funding streams; the Marine Conservation Social Fund, the Innovation Fund and the newly established Sea-Changers’ Step Up Fund. Their approach has been to collaborate, listen and explore ways of continuously improving our marine conservation funding programmes. Their collaborative and supportive approach has ensured we continue to deliver funding programmes with diverse and far-reaching impacts.

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