Maliasili lands $15M from MacKenzie Scott to scale its conservation fund
What's the deal? African conservation organisation MaliasiliDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has received a $15 million unrestricted grant from philanthropist MacKenzie ScottDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. It will use the money as seed capital to expand the Maliasili Conservation FundDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, which provides flexible, long-term financing to locally led conservation groups.
Why now? The grant arrives as Maliasili prepares to launch a new strategic plan running to 2030. It is the second time Scott has backed the group, following a 2021 grant that funded the original conservation vehicle.
What's the endgame? Maliasili wants to move the sector away from project-specific grants toward reliable core funding for staff, institutional development, and long-term planning. The new capital is meant to draw further resources into locally led conservation across the continent.
Building on a proven model: The Maliasili Conservation Fund, created with Scott's 2021 gift, has operated as a pooled vehicle over three years. It has backed 28 partner organisations with flexible support plus help strengthening their operations and fundraising.
Over that period, the fund attracted more than $14 million in additional capital. Maliasili says every dollar it provided helped partners secure roughly three dollars more.
What's next? As it enters its 2030 phase, Maliasili plans to widen the fund's reach while keeping its core principles: multi-year support and partner involvement in designing funding structures. Its focus stays on African groups working directly with local communities and landscapes.
The signal: Large unrestricted gifts like Scott's are pushing conservation finance toward flexible, locally controlled models rather than rigid project grants. For Maliasili, the multiplier effect turns a single $15 million grant into a tool for mobilising far more capital on the ground.
Read more: timesnowworld.com
Image credit: Ray in Manila
