At the time of writing in 2023, our staff team is made up of about 25 full and part-time staff across four teams (Communications, Finance and Risk, Philanthropy, Operations, and Programmes) led by our Senior Leadership Team. In addition to our staff, we also have a board of trustees, advisers, and affiliates.
The Communications team are responsible for our website, email newsletter, printed publications (such as our annual review Spotlight), social media, film projects (such as Bringing Conservation to Life and Champions of the Endangered), and working with other teams for events and donor-specific projects such as donor reports.
The Finance and Risk team ensure that the organisation’s funding is well looked after through systems and processes, overseeing the organisation’s annual budget, and regular financial reporting to the Board. They also are in charge of managing risks associated with our finances such as grant commitments and investments.
The Philanthropy team manage the income stream of the organisation. This includes identifying opportunities for fundraising, supporting events management, and ensuring we meet the commitments we have made to our donors such as donor reports.
The Operations team handle all Synchronicity Earth systems, workflows, and processes to ensure Synchronicity Earth is efficient with its resources. They work with and across teams to create and manage pipelines, ensuring teams are aware of the work required for each output, such as the cross-team grant funding process.
The Programmes Team is accountable for the development and delivery of Synchronicity Earth’s Conservation Programmes, building relationships with conservation partners, and supporting those partners to achieve their goals. This may be financial, in the form of grants from donations made to a programme, but can also include advice, connecting organisations to experts in our network who can advise, providing training to build an organisation’s in-house financial or communications expertise, or providing creative solutions (for example, when our partners in the Democratic Republic of the Congo were not able to attend the 2021 IUCN World Conservation Congress in Marseille, our Congo Basin Programme Manager Sophie Grange-Chamfray worked with our Congo Basin affiliates Bihini Won wa Musiti and Merline Touko Tchoko to hold the first ‘Mini-Congress’ for nature in Kinshasa).
Every charity in the UK needs to have a board: a group of unpaid individuals who are all responsible for the governance and strategic direction of an organisation, and hold legal liability. They are responsible for the organisation’s direction and strategy; making sure the work of the charity is effective, responsible, and legal; and safeguarding people as well as the charity’s finances, resources, and property. The Synchronicity Earth Board of Trustees is small and very engaged with our organisation; Jessica and Catherine are regular visitors to the London office.
To help keep our programmatic work as effective as possible, Synchronicity Earth has an Advisory Board that helps us to ensure that our approach, strategies, programmes, and activities are based on a combination of the best available science, real, lived experience, and local knowledge. They advise on interventions or points of change and highlight opportunities and innovative ways of thinking or doing.
We also receive more in-depth support and guidance for our programmes from our network of affiliates who live within and/or are from some of our most crucial regions, including Latin America, particularly Brazil; Cameroon; and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Our affiliates are highly experienced individuals with a host of important skills who help steer our programmes with their local expertise and extensive networks.