The Whitley Impact Accelerator (WIA) strengthens the impact of Whitley Award-winning conservation leaders enabling them to deliver greater benefits for wildlife and communities.
Whitley Award winners join a community of over 230 grassroots conservationists working across 84 countries. Through the Whitley Impact Accelerator, WFN supports awardees in building stronger organisations, expanding their skillsets, sharing knowledge, and collaborating across borders.
By connecting awardees with peers facing similar challenges and providing access to targeted support, funding opportunities, and WFN’s in-house conservation expertise, the programme enables conservation leaders to scale successful approaches, strengthen resilience, and achieve greater impact.
Together, we’re creating a world where conservation leaders are better connected, better resourced, and better equipped to drive lasting change for both people and nature.
What is the Whitley Impact Accelerator?
The Whitley Impact Accelerator reflects WFN’s long-term commitment to investing not only in conservation projects, but in the people leading them. Formerly known as Winner Network Development, the WIA programme provides awardees with ongoing support and resources long after their initial Whitley Award funding period has ended. The programme offers:
- Peer-to-peer learning and mentorship
- Regional workshops and collaboration
- Expert-led webinars
- Leadership and organisational development opportunities
- Emergency response and legal support
- Wellbeing support
- Advice on other funding opportunities and sustainable funding streams
Collaborative projects between awardees are also eligible for further WFN funding through the Whitley Gold Award and Continuation Funding.
“The network of Whitley awardees that I have come to meet is inspiring and helps expand my perspectives on my own work. This is one of the things I value the most of the whole Whitley experience.” – Rodrigo Medellin, 2012 Whitley Gold Award winner
The Whitley Impact Accelerator has three core goals
1. Foster a thriving global conservation community.
Strengthen connections between Whitley Award winners to create lasting opportunities for on-the-ground collaboration, support and partnership.
2. Enable peer learning and knowledge exchange.
Facilitate the sharing of expertise, lessons learned and proven approaches among leading grassroots conservationists.
3. Accelerate the impact of community-led conservation solutions.
Support awardees to strengthen their organisations, overcome challenges, and deliver greater benefits for wildlife and communities.
“WFN is a valuable network reminding me I’m not alone. We learn, share, and strengthen each other to drive real impact for biodiversity and community wellbeing.” – Hotlin Ompusunggu, 2016 Whitley Gold Award winner
What makes the Whitley Impact Accelerator unique?
The Whitley Impact Accelerator combines WFN’s 30+ years of experience supporting grassroots conservation leaders, its in-house team of field conservation practitioners with decades of first-hand experience, and the expertise and insights of a global network of conservation partners.
The elements of the programme, including the Regional Workshops, are co-designed with Whitley Award winners, ensuring support remains practical, relevant and responsive to the realities of conservation leadership.
This combination of peer expertise, trusted partnerships, and long-term support helps conservation leaders navigate challenges, strengthen their organisations, and grow their impact for people and our planet.
Learn more about Whitley Award winners
Regional Winner Workshops
As part of the programme, each year WFN hosts a Regional Winner Workshop, rotating annually between Africa, Latin America and Asia. These week-long workshops are open to all Whitley Award winners across the region and provide a unique opportunity for awardees to connect in person.
Throughout the week, participants hear from fellow awardees, the WFN team, and external experts on a range of topics related to conservation. Past workshops have also included a visit to the field to see some of the important work local conservation leaders are doing firsthand.
2026 Regional Workshop: Colombia
This year’s workshop will be on the banks of the Amazon River, and is being co-hosted by 2007 Whitley Gold Award winner, Fernando Trujillo and his team at Fundación Omacha. Discussions are set to cover key topics identified by Whitley Award winners from across Latin America, including wellbeing and resilience, conflict resolution, fundraising, and leadership. Whitley Award winners from across Colombia, Brazil, and Chile will also share their experiences and stories from the field.
2025 Regional Workshop: Madagascar
Last year’s workshop in Madagascar was the largest yet, convening 18 conservation leaders with over 350 years of collective experience and work spanning 10 African countries. The sessions focused on a wide range of issues from topical debates around sustainable fundraising approaches amidst government funding cuts to much broader questions such as ‘who is a conservationist’.
“After attending the WFN Regional Training in 2025 in Madagascar, I improved my project planning, monitoring, and reporting approaches, strengthened stakeholder engagement practices, and enhanced peer collaboration, and these changes remain integrated into my work.” – Serge Alexis Kamgang, 2023 Whitley Award winner
2024 Regional Workshop: Kyrgyzstan
WFN’s first workshop in Asia was hosted by 2022 Gold Award winner, Charudutt Mishra and the Snow Leopard Trust. 12 Whitley Award winners from across the region led and participated in hands-on workshops with a focus on ethical, community-driven conservation, with dedicated sessions on Conservation Standards and the PARTNERS Principles, a programme for community-led conservation developed by Charudutt and funded by WFN.
“After attending the WFN Regional Training, we refined our long-term conservation strategy with measurable targets and clearer theory of change. We strengthened governance structures, improved financial reporting and compliance systems, and introduced regular team review meetings. We also adopted stronger safeguarding practices and more structured community engagement tools.” – Purnima Devi Barman, 2024 Whitley Gold Award winner
Awardees also shared their professional experiences and took part in peer-to-peer training to expand on innovative solutions for biodiversity protection, strengthening skills, exchanging knowledge, and building localised networks in the process.
2023 Regional Workshop: Brazil
Our first Latin America workshop was held at IPÊ in Brazil. 14 winners joined the workshop, many with two or more decades of experience in their field, coming together at this critical moment in the battle to save biodiversity.
“My participation in the Brazil 2023 workshop proved invaluable for Entropika. It enabled us to refine our Theory of Change and adopt more robust methods for assessing our conservation impact. Engaging with fellow small NGOs helped us explore shared challenges and develop practical solutions. It was reassuring to confirm the strength of our policies, and to exchange insights on navigating security and political pressures in similar contexts.” – Angela Maldonado, 2010 Whitley Gold Award winner
The discussions focused on NGO management and operations, stakeholder engagement, nature-positive livelihoods, measuring impact, succession planning, wellbeing, sustainable fundraising, and the PARTNERS Principles.
2022 Regional Workshop: Kenya
Our inaugural workshop took place at the Mpala Research Centre in Kenya in 2022, bringing together 14 of our Africa-based Whitley Award winners for a week of learning, networking and ideas sharing based on their own stated needs and experiences.
Each Whitley Award winner who attended brought with them a wealth of knowledge and experience from their own projects taking place across Africa, with experienced awardees guiding sessions on NGO operations, management, and communications, and academically led sessions on conservation planning, theory of change, and measuring impact.
