Change hearts and minds

Application Deadline: 1st April 2025 - 1st June 2025

Award: £5,000 - £15,000

Opportunity: x 6 storytelling grants made available to filmmakers, photographers, musicians, artists, actors or creatives who want to contribute to the protection of EDGE species or EDGE zones across the world. Grants will be awarded over a 1 year period, with an optional 1 year no-cost extension offered to all candidates.

Scope: Storytellers will be paired with conservationists to influence local behaviour change towards nature. Please note, the purpose of this grant isn’t to create a communications campaign around the conservationist and their work; rather, we want you to be inspired by their work and the species and spaces they’re working to protect. We want you to use storytelling as a way to change hearts and minds towards nature and boost the impact of conservation activities at a local level, shining a spotlight on species and spaces that are often overlooked.

Eligibility criteria: Storytellers can be of any background (filmmaker, photographer, musician, artist, actor, creative etc), and we encourage out-of-the-box thinkers! Your project must be centred around EDGE species and focus on local impact and engagement. Preference will be given to storytellers applying from the country they will be working in. Please submit a portfolio of work and explain which of the conservation projects or species you’d be interested in supporting (released in March 2025).

What’s included: Grant of up to £15,000 | Capacity Building In-Person Workshop | Mentorship and Scientific Support | Pairing with a conservationist or conservation organisation to increase engagement, impact and visibility of your work | Access to On the Edge’s network.

How to apply?

Applications will open on our website on 1st of April 2025. Further details about what to include in your proposal are provided below. Proposals should be submitted to On the Edge’s Natural History team. Applications can be submitted in any language. Though English is preferred, we will work with translators to ensure equitable distribution of funding.

If you’re selected, you’ll receive one-to-one support to develop and deliver your project further.

Here’s a sneak peek at what we'll be asking.

Tell us a little more about yourself…

- What is your name?

- What’s your date of birth?

- What is the best way to get in touch with you if not by email?

- What’s your country of origin?

- Where do you intend to carry out your proposed work?

- Please list relevant qualifications and experience.

- Please show us your portfolio of work (submit in any form you’d like)

Tell us about your project…

- Project summary: what story do you want to tell?

- What EDGE species or Zones will benefit from your project?

- Why do you want to work with your chosen species?

- Why does this story need to be told?

- What impact do you hope to achieve by telling this story? And how will you measure this?

- Why are you the best person to tell this story?

- Who is your audience? And how will you reach them?

- Please outline your timeline. (Project can be 12 to 24 months long)

- Please provide a budget breakdown. (This can be uploaded as an Excel Spreadsheet or on a Word document.) Grant budget should be between £5,000 and £15,000.

- Do you have any training needs or requests?