Starting a New Project

Once a project is accepted, staff at both Rainforest Trust and the applicant organization begin work to ensure a successful project launch and set the project up for achieving its goals for habitat and species conservation. Below, we take a look at some of these preliminary activities.

Handover from Strategy to Programs Team

Our Conservation Department has two separate teams that work together to develop and then manage projects. Our Strategy Team works directly with applicant organizations throughout the concept note and application process, and are in part responsible for determining whether the proposed project is a good fit with our strategic direction and has a good likelihood of success. Once a project is accepted, management is handed over to a member of our Programs Team. This individual—the Agreement Lead—will guide the project through the remainder of its time with Rainforest Trust, serving as the primary liaison with the partner organization. This role monitors progress to ensure success, helps identify and address potential challenges, and provides hands-on support as needs. This may include travel to the project site or partner headquarters for capacity-building or strategic meetings.

Prepare and Sign the Project Agreement

Once the project is handed over to the Programs Team, the Agreement Lead begins drafting the agreement. This document outlines the specific goals and milestones for the project, establishes a reporting schedule—often quarterly or twice yearly—for receiving comprehensive updates from the partner, sets up a payment schedule, and determines any project milestones that might be necessary to achieve before receiving future payments. Once complete, the agreement is signed by both parties, the first payment is sent to the partner, and the project’s Rainforest Trust funded work can begin.

Develop Fundraising Plan and Materials

While the Agreement Lead works on developing the project agreement, our Philanthropy Team begins work on developing materials and a fundraising plan for the project. This includes the creation of a two-page summary document about the project, which identifies the key goals for the project—acres to be projected, for example—highlights the priority species, habitats, and/or local or Indigenous peoples that will benefit from the project, shares how local communities will be included in the project, and explains the primary challenges to the project, such as poaching of threatened species, illegal timber harvesting, or encroaching agriculture.

Once the agreement is signed, a fundraising plan is developed, and the supporting materials and webpage are ready, we publicly launch the project.

Our Partner Begins Work as Well

We are not alone in this work. Our partner is also busy with early project activities. These vary from project to project, but often include holding initial meetings and consultations with any local and Indigenous communities that might be affected by the project, registering with any relevant government agencies, and starting on-the-ground surveys at the project site to finalize its boundaries, and document its habitat and species diversity. For most projects, this is also when our partner begins work to ensure the Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) process is conducted properly. This process ensures that Indigenous and local communities are provided accurate information about the proposed project prior to the start of any work, and that they have the right to freely grant or withhold consent for that project. We strive for 100% of our projects to conform to FPIC standards.

   Know the Lingo

Conservation work at Rainforest Trust and elsewhere relies on a number of terms that may be unfamiliar to many readers. These terms are shown with bold text in the article, and are defined here.

Agreement Lead

The agreement lead is the individual staff member on the Conservation Department’s Programs Team who is responsible for managing the progress for a specific accepted project. Rainforest Trust has several agreement leads on staff, each of whom specializes in one of our three primary regions of focus: the tropical and subtropical regions of (1) Africa, (2) the Americas, and (3) Asia and the Pacific.

Applicant; Applicant Organization

The applicant or applicant organization is the organization that submits the concept note and application to Rainforest Trust. Applicant can also refer to the primary contact at the applicant organization.

Concept Note

The concept note is a short document submitted by the applicant that briefly explains the proposed project and its expected outcomes.

High-Integrity Forest

A high-integrity forest is a forest with minimal impact from human activity. These forests are often of great value to biodiversity conservation. Rainforest Trust relies on the Forest Landscape Integrity Index to identify high-integrity forests in our projects.

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) maintains the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, which is the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global extinction risk status of animal, fungus and plant species. Scientific research and analysis is used to determine the conservation status of individual species. The majority of our projects at Rainforest Trust seek to protect species with an IUCN Red List status of vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered which we collectively refer to as threatened.

Partner; Partner Organization

The partner or partner organization is the organization that submits the concept note and application to Rainforest Trust. Partner can also refer to the primary contact at the applicant organization.

Science & Monitoring Team

The Rainforest Trust Conservation Department has three separate teams: Strategy, Programs, and Science & Monitoring. The Science & Monitoring Team harnesses the best available scientific data, analyses, technology, and advances in conservation science to support, improve, and monitor the conservation impact of Rainforest Trust’s work.

Strategy Team

The Rainforest Trust Conservation Department has three separate teams: Strategy, Programs, and Science & Monitoring. The Strategy Team reviews incoming concept notes to determine which would be a good fit, and works with partner organizations to finalize application materials for accepted concept notes.