Endowment Fund

An endowment fund is a non-profit private legal entity that receives and manages assets and rights of any kind, which are granted to it free of charge and irrevocably. These assets are capitalized, and the income generated from the investment of this capital is used to carry out activities or missions in the public interest, or redistributed to support another non-profit legal entity in fulfilling its activities and public-interest missions.

WASF has an endowment fund of €24.2 million for its “Benin Window”, composed of:

• €1.5 million contributed by the Government of Benin;
• €21.9 million contributed by the German Government through financial cooperation (KfW);
• €0.8 million contributed by the World Bank through the GEF/FEM and IDA.

By 2020, FSOA aimed to mobilize at least €30 million in capital in order to meet the growing financial needs of Protected Areas (PAs).