Synchronicity Earth USA is a 501c3 non-profit organization established to support Synchronicity Earth, a UK-based charitable foundation focused on protecting and restoring biodiversity where it is most threatened around the world.
Synchronicity Earth works with over 150 partners in more than 35 countries. From grassroots, community-led organizations and Indigenous Peoples protecting their ‘territories of life’ to national and international advocacy groups pushing for stronger international action on biodiversity and climate.
What We Do
Synchronicity Earth’s work has a global reach, but a local heart. We nurture deep and lasting relationships with individuals and organizations protecting Earth’s natural wonders; from the extraordinary natural and cultural diversity of the forests of Papua New Guinea, to the overlooked Atlantic Forest in Brazil; the precious but highly threatened freshwater ecosystems of the Mekong in Southeast Asia, to Earth’s great, forgotten rainforest in the Congo Basin; from the coastal communities of Indonesia, and the little known and even less protected deep ocean, to the Critically Endangered amphibians of Central and South America. Synchronicity Earth champions overlooked and underfunded species, regions, ecosystems, and environmental defenders.
Image © Chris Scarffe
Alexandre Krob, of Instituto Curicaca (a Synchronicity Earth partner), works with communities in the Atlantic Forest, southern Brazil to protect amphibians and their habitats.
Southern Rufous Hornbill (VU)_credit Talarak Foundation Inc
Image © Talarak Foundation Inc.
Endemic to the Philippines, the Southern Rufous hornbill is found in the region where Synchronicity Earth partner Talarak Foundation Inc. is working to conserve Asian species and habitats.
While the US public has shown strong philanthropic support for its parks, wild places and species, there has traditionally been less support for conservation in the rest of the world. But the natural world is not defined by national borders, trade barriers or political affiliations. Species and ecosystems are our global heritage. What happens to the oceans, rivers, and forests and the millions of species in Earth’s biodiversity hotspots – in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Melanesia, and beyond impacts us all.
With less than three per cent of recorded U.S. charitable giving going specifically towards biodiversity and ecosystem conservation, the need to scale is more urgent now than ever
Giving USA, 2023
Our Programs
We believe that by protecting nature, we protect ourselves. If we are serious about putting an end to the environmental crisis, we need to dramatically increase the level of funding for conservation, globally.
Synchronicity Earth USA recognizes that the United States is a global leader in charitable giving and aims to harness that generosity and direct funding to the grassroots, local organizations delivering real change through their conservation efforts.
Our aim is to grow our pool of funders in the United States and drive effective approaches to conservation in the places that it is most needed for the benefit of us all.
Over the past 15 years, Synchronicity Earth has developed six core programs, to address overlooked and underfunded conservation challenges in some of our planet’s most ecologically and culturally rich regions.
Amphibians
Catalysing conservation for threatened amphibians
Asian Species
Supporting species at a critical time
Biocultural Diversity
Supporting nature’s guardians to help diversity flourish
Congo Basin
Coordinating forest protection in Central Africa
Freshwater
Altering the course of freshwater conservation
Ocean
Building a flourishing future for ocean life
Funding Synchronicity Earth
Synchronicity Earth USA is for donors interested in leveraging funds to support a global effort to protect and restore Earth’s biodiversity by championing people on the frontline of conservation. Synchronicity Earth gives 100% of funding received to partner organizations, so donors can be confident that all of their donation is reaching the ground. Whether you are an individual donor, a foundation, or a corporation, Synchronicity Earth has a range of programs and funding options available.
Synchronicity Earth Pooled Funds
Congo Basin
Synchronicity Earth’s Congo Basin Pooled Fund was launched in 2017. The fund currently has seven contributing donors and provides support for 19 organisations working in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon.
Donate
Interested donors can support Synchronicity Earth USA in a variety of ways. Donations are tax-deductible.
Please send checks to:
Synchronicity Earth USA
P.O. Box 78
New York, NY 10024
For bank transfer, please contact supporters@synchearthusa.org
Donors are also welcome to donate through their Fidelity Account.
If you would like to donate directly via a Donor Advised Fund, please select the appropriate Fund, then type Synchronicity Earth USA in the ‘Designation’ box, before adding an amount below.
About Jessica
Jessica Sweidan has been an active philanthropist for the last 20 years. Her journey began almost straight out of university, when she formed a partnership with Adam Sweidan, to create The Synchronicity Foundation. She oversaw donations to a range of projects, including themes in education, environment, social justice, economic upliftment, art, health care, relief efforts and children’s well-being. The Synchronicity Foundation has worked with over 70 projects in nearly 40 countries. In 2007, the environment became a priority: it underscored most themes that they were addressing, and upon close examination, found it to be a severely under-funded, and under-supported sector.
Exploring how to have a greater impact within the conservation realm – and recognizing that biodiversity loss was the least well appreciated and most poorly addressed of all – they launched Synchronicity Earth in November 2009. Jessica plays an active role at Synchronicity Earth, developing its profile, networks and events. Jessica is also an IUCN Patron of Nature, helping to raise the visibility of global conservation needs worldwide. She was appointed Honorary Conservation Fellow at the Zoological Society of London in March 2015. Jessica has a degree in Philosophy from Northwestern University.
About Edward
Professor Edward Cunningham is Director of the Ash Center China Programs at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, which has trained nearly 2,000 senior Chinese government officials, NGO leaders, and business executives since 1999. He also directs the Kennedy School’s Asia Energy and Sustainability Initiative and is an Adjunct Lecturer of Public Policy. Edward focuses on China’s integration into the world economy, primarily through its energy/environmental markets and governance, philanthropic sector, and international trade.
He first lived in China in 1992, speaks Mandarin and Italian, and his work has appeared in media such as The New York Times, The Financial Times, The New Yorker, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fortune, and Bloomberg. He graduated from Georgetown University, received an A.M. from Harvard University, holds a Ph.D. from M.I.T., and studied at Peking University and later at Tsinghua University as a Fulbright Fellow. Edward also advises private and publicly listed companies, investment banks, and venture/PE funds focusing largely on energy and environmental technologies, infrastructure assets, as well as financial and technology-enabled services. He is on the Advisory Council of Greentech Capital Advisors, a board member of the Community Therapeutic Day School, and co-founded Harvard Square Educational Associates, an educational consultancy.
About Emma
Emma Lindsay is a partner at Withers and leads the firm’s international arbitration team in the Americas. Specializing in investor-state arbitration, international commercial arbitration and public international law, Emma represents corporations, governments, individuals and organizations around the world and across a wide range of industries. She also appears in U.S. federal and state courts in international litigation matters. In addition to her work as counsel, Emma sits as an arbitrator. Emma has an active international pro bono practice and has acted in proceedings before the International Criminal Court, the European Court of Human Rights, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (the Khmer Rouge Tribunal) and various United Nations bodies. Having spent part of her childhood living in the mountains of Tasmania and on the beaches of Fiji, Emma grew up loving the world’s faraway wild places. Emma is proud to support the conservation work of Synchronicity Earth USA to protect wild places and support the people who live in them.
About Tom
Tom Fernandez is a founder of Balto Therapeutics, a specialty pharmaceutical company in New York. Previously, he co-founded Retrophin, Inc., a public biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and marketing innovative therapies for rare, catastrophic childhood diseases. Before that, he was a partner at a family of hedge funds, Galleon Group, where he led Investor Relations and the global marketing effort. Prior to Galleon, Tom was Assistant Dean for MBA Career Services and Director of The Chazen Institute of International Business at Columbia Business School. He is a member of the advisory board of Equity for Children, a nonprofit organisation that strives to advance an agenda of social justice, human rights and social equality for children worldwide. Tom holds a BA in History from Yale University and an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
About Katy
Katy Scholfield is Director of Strategic Grantmaking, Great Apes and Gibbons Program, at Arcus Foundation. Katy came to Arcus after 10 years at Synchronicity Earth, most recently as head of biocultural diversity, where she co-led programs and led efforts to center indigenous rights and the revival and protection of biocultural diversity across the organization.
During her tenure, she played a key role in developing the organization’s forest grantmaking in Africa, Brazil, and Papua New Guinea, as well as establishing collaborative funding initiatives to amplify conservation impact. Prior to this, Katy held various conservation and development posts before completing her doctor of philosophy degree using a case study of mountain gorilla conservation to explore how different people and their ideas are included or excluded in conservation.
She also holds a bachelor’s degree in environment, ecology, and economics from the University of York and a master’s in environment and development from the University of Manchester. Katy has sat on the executive committee of the AgroEcology Fund since 2015 and has a strong interest in how agroecology can help conservation re-imagine its relationship with agriculture to support all species to flourish.