A Lasting Impact for Wildlife

Over the next four years, we welcomed five more pioneering conservationists into the Network, expanding our impact for wildlife to Zimbabwe, Central Asia, and further into South America: Andean Cat Alliance and Cheetah Conservation Botswana in 2003; Painted Dog Conservation in 2004; Proyecto Tití, and Saiga Conservation Alliance in 2006.

We began the WCN Scholarship Program in 2006, providing funding and support to emerging young conservationists around the world.

Additionally, we expanded our geographic reach, moving our Wildlife Conservation Expos from Los Altos Hills to San Francisco.

With our partner Save the Elephants, WCN launched the Elephant Crisis Fund (ECF) to address the ivory crisis spreading across Africa—which had killed an estimated 200,000 elephants in just six years. The ECF was created to stop elephant poaching and end trafficking and demand for ivory.

We grew the WCN Network by welcoming three new partners: Niassa Lion Project in 2010, Grevy’s Zebra Trust in 2012, and Ewaso Lions in 2013.

In 2016, WCN doubled our presence in Latin America by adding three new partners: Global Penguin Society, MarAlliance (protecting sharks and rays), and Spectacled Bear Conservation. The addition of Spectacled Bear Conservation marked the first time bears joined the ranks of species our partners protect. Additionally, Global Penguin Society and MarAlliance represented WCN’s first marine focused conservation efforts and expanded our work to a truly global scale.

In the U.S., we held four Wildlife Conservation Expos, bringing our partners’ inspirational work to new audiences in Houston, Chicago, and northern California.

In partnership with the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, we launched the Lion Recovery Fund (LRF) in 2017 to recover lion populations and their savannah ecosystems across Africa. We have lost half of Africa’s lions over the past 25 years; through the LRF, we hope to regain those lion populations and restore the health of their landscapes.

With the support of our incredible and generous donors, we raised over $21 million for conservation—our biggest impact yet.

Thanks to our committed and passionate donors, to date we have raised over $100 million for conservation. We continue to bring supporters and conservationists together through our annual Wildlife Conservation Expos and we proudly retain a four star rating Charity Navigator.

We look forward to expanding our impact for years to come by continuing to support highly effective conservationists and investing in the best ideas to save some of the world’s most imperiled animals.