ODIG
AMPLIFYING LOCALLY-LED RESOURCE MOBILISATION
Thomas Vellacott, CEO of WWF Switzerland, says it best, “Imagine you were a business wanting to grow, you’d get a loan or issue equity. We are an NGO and can’t do this. There is a danger we would grow our impact slowly because we can’t access capital markets. This is why I love ODIG. ODIG is our way of accessing capital to speed up our growth. And – we dearly need to speed it up!”
Over 80% of all WWF’s income worldwide comes from North America (27%) and Europe (57%). WWF offices in the South and East are dependent on this income to deliver their conservation efforts and impact. ODIG exists to shift this dynamic, enabling these offices to further develop local fundraising capacity and generate more unrestricted income to build stronger offices on location delivering conservation impact.
The end goal? Offices in the Global South are more resilient, more resourceful and more result-oriented – and they increasingly generate their own (unrestricted) funds so they, and WWF as a whole, can achieve greater conservation impact.
The ODIG programme was launched in 2020 by WWF CH. Since then, it has invested over 5 million Swiss Francs, approximately 1 million per year.
Between 2020 and 2025, the ODIG team has collaborated with eight offices, Adria, Caucasus, Chile, Colombia, Kenya, Namibia, Philippines, Vietnam, and two regions, Asia Pacific and Latin America Caribbean. The results? For every Swiss franc invested, these offices generated 5.4 Swiss francs in FY24.
new skills, new connections
The ODIG programme exists to amplify locally-led resource mobilisation. This is achieved by engaging our global network to enable teams to develop their fundraising, innovation and leadership skills.
Upskill & connect peers
The ODIG programme upskills fundraising staff through peer-to-peer learning, group workshops and 1-1 coaching on topics such as corporate engagement, philanthropic giving, individual and digital fundraising, innovation and recruitment. Developing more strategic and aligned fundraising plans is core to the skills development offers, too. In addition, the ODIG team creates spaces for teams to share, test, and co-create innovative fundraising approaches tailored to their local contexts.
Since 2019, 700+ hours of capacity building have been delivered!
Engage the network
The ODIG team strengthens relationships and expands visibility of ODIG across the network to encourage further investment in fundraising capacity. This helps grow the impact of ODIG, and with that, accelerate conservation impact. ODIG partners with the international Innovation team, Global Development Centre (GDC) for individual giving, the global Organisational Development (OD) hub, the international Corporate Engagement team, and People and Culture teams to enable ODIG offices to be (even) more resourceful.
ODIG impact in action
Five years of technical reporting and interviews with country CEOs and fundraising staff led to stories of ODIG impact in action.
MEET THE WOMAN LEADING THE ODIG MOVEMENT
Small team, big results
A diverse group of WWF CH and international staff (only 1.4 FTE combined) share their time and skills to support ODIG offices in their journey towards financial sustainability. We sat down with Bella Rosher, the lead of the ODIG programme!
When we asked Bella what ODIG was all about she said, “ODIG empowers WWF staff to do stuff, to pull in money for what matters to our organization - people thriving on a healthy planet.” She shared that, “Thanks to ODIG, WWF now has five times more money than when we started. To enable and see the change inspire me and give me energy to keep going, to explore what may be possible when we join forces, when we unlock the fundraising potential sitting with the offices in low- and middle-income countries. WWF only has one asset - our staff - and I thrive on making it possible for our crew to grow who they are, what they know, boosting fundraising across WWF offices through peer exchange and skill shares.” Bella truly believes that together it is possible to change the status quo, to leave the current setup of 85% of WWF funding coming from global north behind for good.
“Thanks to ODIG, WWF now has five times more money than we invested in this programme. Our organisation has one key asset: our staff. I thrive on making it possible for our crew to grow who they are, develop what they know, and boost fundraising across WWF offices in low- and middle-income countries through peer exchange and skill shares.” ”
Bella Roscher, ODIG
Excerpts from the interview of Thomas Vellacott, CEO of WWF Switzerland, about the ODIG-programme.
“There’s a strong pull of the status-quo in the network. Fundraisers in the north, implementers in the south. Whenever you start changing perceived roles, that can be discomforting for a certain amount of time. I can understand some people feel rattled in their comfort zone. But I just think we can’t afford to remain in that comfort zone. ODIG is helping us build a more resilient and more up-to-date organisation.”
Thomas Vellacott, CEO WWF Switzerland
Want to turn 1 euro into 5 for conservation impact?
ODIG partner offices (investees) multiply WWF Switzerland’s investment in ODIG to maximize local conservation impact. With additional investment, ODIG can expand its reach – geographically, financially, in terms of organizational capacity, and – conservation impact. In the words of Thomas Vellacott, CEO of WWF Switzerland, “Don’t think of investment in the ODIG programme as taking away money from nature conservation. It actually does the opposite! Instead of investing 1 dollar in conservation, you invest it into fundraising and it turns into 5 dollars. Which you can then put into conservation. It’s a multiplying machine!”
Invest in ODIG
Get in touch with Bella Roscher to invest in ODIG – and help the organisation accelerating its local resource mobilisation capacity – and with that, WWF’s conservation impact.
“ODIG is a critical programme that empowers offices to be stronger, locally visible and influential, and more financially independent and sustainable. Take Armenia’s individual fundraising programme which began with their ODIG investment. With relatively small investment, they have developed a self-sufficient individual fundraising programme which will quickly begin to generate unrestricted funds for the conservation strategy. I am constantly amazed by the capacity and entrepreneurial approach of the team!..”
Ajay Barai, Regional director Europe and North Africa
