Synchronicity Earth’s Amphibian Conservation Programme aims to: catalyse conversation about the need for conservation action, and support efforts for threatened amphibians through the mobilisation of new resources and information. This is achieved through three goals:

• Improve the knowledge base to guide amphibian conservation.
• Fund and support increased amphibian conservation on the ground.
• Support the development of amphibian conservation organisations.

Recognising the vital relationship between nature and culture, Synchronicity Earth’s Biocultural Diversity Programme works to support partners to:

1. Defend IPLC ‘Territories of Life’ as insecure land tenure fuels poverty, social and gender inequalities, food insecurity, conflict and environmental degradation.
2. Protect and revive biological and cultural diversity.
3. Increase understanding of how biocultural approaches are integral to delivering conservation.

The programme focuses on regions where this diversity is greatest and most threatened, providing increased funding to grassroot partners, whilst establishing strong, long-term relationships and supporting Indigenous leadership growth.

Conservation work in the area faces huge challenges, but empowering IPLCs to protect their territories is essential for biodiversity, ecosystems and human wellbeing in the long term.
Synchronicity Earth’s Congo Basin Programme supports its partners working in the Democratic Republic of Congo (“DRC”) and Cameroon to:

• Empower civil society to resist and reduce threats to ecosystems and biodiversity from destructive developments.
• Secure the rights of forest peoples to remain on their territories and defend them from threats.
• Support IPLCs to revive ecosystems and biodiversity through regenerative approaches to development, for example, by championing agro-ecological approaches to food production.

Synchronicity Earth’s Freshwater Programme is committed to addressing the challenges facing freshwater ecosystems. The programme focuses on catalysing collaborative conservation action through advancing knowledge systems and empowering local communities to advocate for, and protect, freshwater ecosystems. This programme is based on ten years of institutional knowledge gained from funding, engaging with, and researching freshwater conservation, as well as working with a network of scientific and grassroots advisors.

Synchronicity Earth’s Ocean Programme focuses on critical yet less familiar and vastly underfunded conservation challenges for the global ocean. The programme encompasses three strands:

• Communities and Culture – promoting local community and Indigenous knowledge, culture and experience in ocean conservation and fisheries management.
• Species and Ecosystems – supporting targeted conservation action for some of the most threatened yet overlooked marine species and ecosystems.
• Research and Policy – addressing key research gaps and systemic changes in policy that are falling through the cracks of ocean conservation work.

Through SHOAL’s work it seeks to engage a wide range of stakeholders to accelerate and escalate action to save the most threatened fish and other freshwater species. SHOAL aligns with and extends the work of Synchronicity Earth’s Freshwater Programme.

The SHOAL 2032 Strategy aims to transform freshwater species conservation from being almost entirely neglected, to receiving a level of attention proportionate to the crisis freshwater species face. Its five current priority regions are: Mexico, the African Rift Valley Lakes, the Western Ghats in India, the Mediterranean, and Southeast Asia.

To achieve this vision, SHOAL have set the following goals:

• Inspire as many people as possible globally to appreciate and take action for the amazing and vital life that freshwater supports.
• Mobilise a global action network, built from the communities that care, to take action for freshwater fishes.
• Act to make a direct and immediate difference for at least 1,000 of the most threatened freshwater fish species.

Established in 2018, Africa Nature Investors (“ANI”) Foundation is an African founded, African-led not-for- profit organisation committed to bringing best-practice nature conservation to West Africa. It aims to promote the participation of African opinion leaders in conservation to make sure efforts are relevant to Africans. By being African, ANI understands how to navigate stakeholders and politics in Nigeria from community to state and Federal Government-level.

ANI is working to protect and restore landscapes that are facing serious threats from human activity including: illegal logging, farmers practicing slash and burn agriculture, and expanding palm oil and rubber plantations. Currently this work is focusing on two precious landscapes in Nigeria: Gashaka Gumti National Park on the border with Cameroon, and the Okomu Landscape in southern Nigeria (comprised of Okomu National Park and two adjoining forest reserves).

Buglife is the only organisation in Europe devoted to the conservation of all invertebrates. Founded in 2002, Buglife is the very first conservation organisation that incorporates all aspects concerning the preservation and protection of invertebrates. Its aim is to halt the extinction and achieve sustainable populations of invertebrate species. The overall vision is for a wildlife-rich planet where other species thrive alongside people.

Donations from Aurum Kaleidoscope help to cover IUCN core costs. These contribute to the delivery of a range of activities, from maintenance of the Red List of Threatened Species, to innovation, programme development and delivery, to championing nature’s role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

Aurum Kaleidoscope’s donation to core funding allows the organisation to remain strategic and deliver its mission to ‘Influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to conserve the integrity and diversity of nature and to ensure that any use of natural resources is equitable and ecologically sustainable.’

IUCN actively participated in United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (“UNFCCC”) COP28, which took place from 30 November to 13 December 2023, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (“UAE”). This conference was the conclusion of the first ‘global stocktake’ of the world’s efforts to address climate change under the Paris Agreement, including a call on governments to speed up the transition away from fossil fuels.

In 2023, IUCN was also heavily involved in the agreement of the High Seas Treaty, continued working on the development of the Plastic Pollution Treaty and advocated for a moratorium on deep seabed mining. All these initiatives played a vital role in influencing change in both climate change and biodiversity and in addressing the triple planetary crisis in a more consistent way.

In 2015, the regeneration programme was created as a collaboration between Aurum and Synchronicity Earth and continues to be supported by Aurum. Over time this project has evolved into the More Than Carbon programme which Synchronicity Earth use to support a range of projects which provide carbon balancing.

More Than Carbon places equal emphasis on nature, climate, and people, supporting work to protect biodiversity, reduce the impacts of climate change and contribute to human security, health, and wellbeing. Contributing funding to the More than Carbon initiative helps businesses to balance their impact on the natural world, both in terms of their carbon emissions and their impact on nature, thereby contributing towards meeting environmental and social responsibilities.

Aurum Kaleidoscope directly supports Hutan, which is a locally-based conservation organisation in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. Hutan’s reforestation team, made up almost entirely of women, is working to restore a key wildlife corridor that has previously been decimated through many years of ownership by a large Malaysian oil palm plantation.

Following two years of negotiations with Hutan, this plantation agreed to allocate 45 hectares of land for Hutan’s restoration project in August 2018 to support the conservation of important local species, such as Bornean orangutans and pygmy elephants.

The More than Carbon initiative is designed by Synchronicity Earth for businesses committed to caring for the natural world and reducing their carbon footprint. It maximises ecological and social value by supporting six partner local organisations to protect and restore natural ecosystems. It looks beyond the carbon benefit towards holistic, positive impacts for nature, people and climate and aims to:

• Encourage more funding from the corporate world for environmental projects.
• Provide long-term funding for selected conservation organisations, targeting the “triple win” of biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation and improved community livelihoods.
• Motivate funders to embrace the fundamental importance of protecting and restoring the natural world, and to mitigate their own environmental impact.

‘Ubuntu’ is the African philosophy of togetherness and is deeply rooted within cultural concepts of community and humanity. Adara, an international development organisation focused on maternal and child health, implements the ‘Baby Ubuntu’ programme in partnership with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (”LSHTM”). This programme is an early-intervention, community-based programme that supports children aged between six months and four years with a disability and their caregivers. It ensures caregivers understand their child’s disability and provides them with practical skills to help feed, communicate and play with the child.

AFFT believes in supporting families caring for orphaned and vulnerable children. Early Childhood Development is the most important time in a person’s life and access to good nutrition and a nurturing environment are critical. By removing food insecurity, children are able to focus more on their education and significant improvements can be observed in academic, sporting, and social performance.

Hope and Homes for Children (“HHC”) is a UK-based organisation that works across Europe and Africa with a vision of a world in which children no longer suffer institutional care, working towards a day when every child can grow up in a loving family. It works alongside local partners, governments and civil society organisations in over 30 countries to dismantle orphanage-based care systems. The charity moves children out of institutions into family-based care, helps keep together families who are at risk of breakdown due to the pressures of poverty, disease, or conflict, and works to prevent child abandonment.

To improve the health and life chances of these children, studies have shown that interventions are most successful if introduced during the first 1,000 days after conception. This in the period of a child’s life that the foundations for optimum health, rapid brain growth and child development are laid.

One to One Children’s Fund aims to rebuild and transform the lives of vulnerable children. One to One identifies the greatest risks children and adolescents face and then works with partners to pilot and deliver cost-effective interventions in healthcare, psychosocial services and education. It trains and empowers people who can best fill the critical gaps in care for those children by providing relatable role models to make healthcare more inclusive.

In the rural Eastern Cape, South Africa, the Enable Project targets the most vulnerable mothers and children up to the age of five, through door-to-door visits. Local women are empowered and equipped with skills and knowledge to carry out basic health checks. These women are referred to as Mentor Mothers.

Fair Play playground opened in February 2024. It was installed as a model playground for local authorities and landscape designers in the UK to be able replicate in part or in whole and is part of a campaign for all playgrounds across the UK to become more inclusive.

The Seneca Trust supported by Aurum Kaleidoscope spearheaded the development of Fairplay Playground partnering with Barnet Council in February 2022 to design a new public playground, project manage the build and run the administration around funding and fundraising.

Fair Play is, the first of its kind, as an accessible and inclusive playground in the UK, has been purposefully designed to enable people of all ages and abilities to play together. This playground is located in Barnet, North London. It was designed in co-ordination with disabled residents, parents, carers and accessibility experts, and features enjoyable play equipment that everyone, able-bodied or with cognitive or physical disabilities, can use.

The arts are able to inspire and include people of all ages and from all walks of life. Through the arts, learning-disabled young people and adults can acquire the freedom to express themselves, learn new skills, develop confidence and gain communication and social interaction skills. In doing so, they can feel empowered to be who they are – and consequently challenge societal perceptions.

Given the right support, and fantastic opportunities such as those provided by Aurum Kaleidoscope’s allied charities, everyone can be a superstar!

The Sierra Leone Autistic Society (“SLAS”) started in 2014 as a Community Based Organisation (“CBO”). It became a national NGO in 2017, with the aim of facilitating access to health, education, psychological and social interventions and strategies for people with disabilities, with a specific focus on those with Autism Spectrum Condition (“ASC”). Today, SLAS provides much needed services in various parts of the country, and many families who receive its services claim it is a ‘lifesaving’ and one-of-a-kind organisation in Sierra Leone.

No major renovation had taken place at Beacon House, where Vision Bermuda operates from, since the early 1960s. The physical plant had deteriorated over the years, with electrical, mechanical and plumbing systems becoming out-dated.

It was no longer possible to provide the full range of in- house services required due to safety, modern building code requirements and practical considerations. Therefore, an extensive renovation of Beacon House was required.

Camp Simcha is an organisation who supports seriously ill children and their families in the UK. Its mission is to provide bespoke, unconditional, practical and emotional support tot these families and to bring hope and joy by providing powerful, positive experiences.

Bringing fun and laughter to seriously ill children and their siblings makes a huge difference and can give them strength to face the challenges ahead. Camp Simcha believes the power of positive experiences, such as parties, retreats and outings, can have a hugely therapeutic impact for children dealing with difficult treatments and siblings struggling with worry and unsettled family life.

Camp Simcha trains its Family Liaison Officers (“FLOs”) to assess what family members need to get them through dark days, often before the families themselves do. Whether it is a lift to hospital when parents are juggling multiple appointments with the needs of their other children, or overnight respite for a much-needed break, they work to ensure that Camp Simcha is always there to lighten the heavy load.

Access to appropriate, quality assistive technology can mean the difference between enabling or denying education for a child, participation in the workforce for an adult, or the opportunity to maintain independence and age with dignity for an older person. Access to assistive technology empowers and enables individuals and communities and is a key pre-condition for realisation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. Put simply, assistive technology is a life changer.

The Essl Foundation is an Austrian non-profit organisation, working to find, promote, and support the implementation of innovative solutions worldwide that can significantly improve the lives of disadvantaged people. Since 2012, the annual Zero Project Conference has worked to identify and research innovative projects focusing on solutions that can benefit those with disabilities. At the heart of many of these projects lies Information and Communication Technology (“ICT”) and AT due to the potential it has to support persons with disabilities.

Since 2019, at least 70 people, including lone children, have died attempting to cross the Channel, according to official figures. No one should risk their lives simply for needing somewhere safe to rebuild their lives, but the lack of safe routes only pushes refugees into the hands of smugglers and these perilous journeys.

Safe Passage believe every person has the right to be safe – both safe to be with their family and safe to rebuild their lives. Its vision is a world where the people who need it have safe passage to a place of safety, family, and justice.

Safe Passage champions the rights of refugees and displaced people as they flee persecution, using the law to help them access a safe route to a place of safety. It works alongside refugees to campaign for change and build public support for safe passage for all.

Since Safe Passage started in 2016, it has supported nearly 3,000 children and their family members to reach safety.

Choose Love is a UK-based non-governmental organisation which provides humanitarian aid to, and advocacy for, refugees around the world. It provides fast, flexible, transparent, accountable funding and support to refugees in areas where the need is greatest. It works with agile local community organisations doing the most vital and effective work to support refugees along migration routes globally.

Mercy Ships are a pioneering international health charity, who deploy hospital ships to provide free, life- changing surgeries in sub-Saharan Africa. Alongside this they also train healthcare professionals and build stronger medical services for everyone, creating change for decades to come. This new educational and advocacy pillar of work builds on the Dakar Declaration, which sets out a strategic roadmap to improve surgical care for African nations by 2030.

Since 1990, Mercy Ships has conducted 42 field services in 14 African countries, most of which are ranked by the United Nations Development Index as the least developed in the world. Each year, more than 3,000 volunteers from more than 60 countries serve onboard the world’s two largest charity hospital ships, the ‘Africa Mercy’ and the ‘Global Mercy’. The inspiring crew includes surgeons, nurses, dentists, cooks, engineers and teachers who all dedicate their time to give patients expert and vital medical care.

Medical Justice offers independent medical advice and assessments to people held in immigration detention. The charity was founded in 2005 by a Zimbabwean asylum seeker, who was on the verge of organ failure following a hunger strike in a UK IRC, and the volunteer doctor who saved his life. After he recovered, these two men went on to found Medical Justice with the aim of assisting others in detention, organising more doctors to volunteer and to encourage people to campaign for the end of medical mistreatment in detention. The vision of Medical Justice is that “immigration detention in the UK does not harm anybody’s physical and mental health in the UK as it no longer exists” highlighting its ultimate goal as an organisation to end immigration detention entirely.

This is because existing solutions have assumed that today’s youth have a resilience deficit, thus creating programmes to ‘build’ or ‘create’ resilience. However, this is not the case as resilience is built-in and innate to every human being. Therefore, to help address this problem today’s youth need coaching to realise they do not lack the qualities required to deal with the challenges they face.

iheart’s mission is to help youth and the community around them to uncover their innate mental wellbeing to become resilient, contributing members of society. It educates young people that they do not have a resilience deficit and empowers them with the confidence that they can uncover their built-in mental health and resilience so that they can overcome their challenges and realise their extraordinary potential.

The charity, founded in 2017, has developed a series of innovative, evidence-based mental wellbeing educational programmes which challenge current practices and outlooks. Over the past seven years, iheart services have reached and impacted over 55,000 young people in 22 countries.

The Aurum bursaries combine financial support to cover both tuition fees and living expenses with practical support in the form of a comprehensive internship programme and ongoing mentoring. This combined approach will remove the financial burden of higher education and provide excellent opportunities for the students in two competitive fields. From this ongoing relationship, we are building an enduring association with these students.

The internships provide an insight to both Aurum and our allied charity Synchronicity Earth. As part of the internship programme, the students have attended internships at both Aurum Research Limited and Synchronicity Earth. This has expanded their experiences by providing insight into another industry. And, by collaborating with Synchronicity Earth, we will continue our work to enhance the links between finance and conservation.

Acumen is a global non-profit that invests in sustainable businesses leaders and ideas. This is done by supporting grass roots projects to reduce poverty and create opportunities for marginalised communities across healthcare, energy, agriculture, financial inclusion and education.

Acumen’s vision is a world based on dignity, where every human being has the same opportunity. Rather than giving philanthropy funds away or investing in traditional capital, Acumen invests in philanthropic, or “patient,” capital that provides start-ups the flexibility and security to grow their business.

However, many charities who are striving to change the world for the better are struggling to be seen due to unaffordability of conventional film production companies.

HelpFilm uses professional filmmakers or video producers to create high-end videos and animations and to provide productions and editing services at no cost to small and medium sized charities across a broad range of valuable causes. HelpFilm strives to tell creative and compelling stories. Videos that highlight a variety of causes and achievements, as a well told story will move an audience to think, reflect and then act – to enable those charities to further their purposes and achieve their goals.

Aurum Kaleidoscope is registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales and conducts a grant-making process intended to promote the advancement of environmental conservation, social welfare and education.

Aurum is an Embedded Impact business that looks to provide profit with purpose. Aurum’s purpose is to grow and protect its client’s capital alongside environmental capital; the planet and species and social capital; healthcare and education.

Over many years, Aurum has selected worthy beneficiaries and has donated to them directly becoming a solid supporter of a wide range of organisations in the process. The growth of the Embedded Impact® Approach itself then led to a realisation that, in order to maximise positive environmental and social impact, the due diligence of beneficiaries should be performed by a suitably qualified entity that is structurally designed to exist for the public benefit.

Aurum Kaleidoscope is not a company; it is formed as a corporate body directly regulated by the charities commission. This means Aurum Kaleidoscope is subject to the legal framework that applies to charities and so refines the focus of the trustees to the pursuit of their charity’s charitable purpose. With the power to do anything which furthers its charitable purpose, Kaleidoscope is thus freed of the conflict that many companies face under the doctrine of shareholder primacy. This functional segregation provides the perfect balance for Aurum to carry out its Embedded Impact Approach.

Aurum Kaleidoscope has minimised operational expenses due to the resource support provided by Aurum and its subsidiaries (the “Aurum Group”). Aurum Kaleidoscope does not employ any staff and does not require office space so can instead concentrate on identifying and verifying the beneficiaries of its grant-making process.

Aurum Kaleidoscope’s Trustees are predominantly made up of Aurum Group colleagues but there is also an independent member who provides additional insight and oversight.

Aurum is a fully Embedded Impact business, meaning that donations are structured to proportionately increase as firm AUM increases.
Aurum also offers two specific Embedded Impact Funds where Aurum uses part of the revenue it generates from these funds to finance donations to environmental and social causes:

• The first Embedded Impact investment fund launched in 2002. Aurum makes donations from the investment advisory fees earnt from this fund predominantly to environmental charitable causes including Synchronicity Earth, a registered charity that supports the conservation of biodiversity, ecosystems and species at risk around the world.
• The second Embedded Impact fund launched in 2019, Aurum makes donations from the investment advisory fees earnt from this fund to social causes including The Seneca Trust a charity focused on disability, health, displacement and education and environmental causes including Synchronicity Earth. This is achieved by Aurum Kaleidoscope providing grants and direct assistance to charities and organisations.

Since inception, the Embedded Impact approach has given more than $31 million to support charitable endeavours around the world.

Aurum has a goal to galvanise the hedge fund industry to have a net positive environmental impact. To achieve this Aurum engages and collaborates with external stakeholders including underlying managers. This primarily involves candid discussion and providing educational materials and guidance on how environmental philanthropy can benefit both their businesses and wider society.

Aurum has a goal to galvanise the hedge fund industry to have a net positive environmental impact. To achieve this Aurum engages and collaborates with external stakeholders including underlying managers. This primarily involves candid discussion and providing educational materials and guidance on how environmental philanthropy can benefit both their businesses and wider society.

The Aurum Group runs a programme that supports group employee fundraising by up to £1,000 annually per employee. Group employees are also able to give a £50 birthday donation to a charity of their choice.

In 2018 the Aurum Group introduced an employee volunteering programme, where staff are allocated two days per year to volunteer. This was enhanced in 2021 from providing London based volunteering opportunities, to the following options:

1. For colleagues who already have volunteering commitments, to be able to use these days for charity of their choice.
2. To provide group volunteering opportunities to facilitate team building.

The PRI reporting is assessed using a numerical grading system ranging from 1 to 5 stars. The questions are weighted by their relative importance to responsible investment practices and/or the PRI’s overall mission, with a multiplier applied to questions that are deemed to be of moderate or high importance.

Comparing the last six months of 2023 to the same six months of 2022, incoming email level volumes remained broadly similar. However, there was a significant reduction in malware and phishing emails of 30% and 40% respectively. This reflected a material improvement in the processes of the upstream providers.

The overall level of cyber-attacks remains at a high level and to reduce the risk to the Aurum Group, the group runs a multi-supplier security model utilising independent breach databases with over 30 million events currently being reviewed every month.

Aurum have always been cognisant of the environmental challenges of climate change and both the risks and opportunities this has for us as a business. This TCFD reporting is an important step to strengthening our reporting and transparency in this area.

Aurum believes a robust ESG approach is both our moral and fiduciary duty. ARL’s Head of ESG is responsible for identifying climate risks and opportunities in collaboration with the Aurum Group’s investment research and operational due diligence teams. This information is provided to the senior management team and Aurum’s board who are able to opine on these matters. This is from both a corporate and investment perspective.

As well as having this formal process in place, Aurum also believes ESG is the collective responsibility of all group employees. This is reflected in ESG considerations being integrated into all Aurum Group employee objectives. These objectives range from limiting personal and professional environmental impact, ensuring inclusivity in all we do and looking to drive industry and wider societal change by collaborating with other industry participants.

At a business level, the Aurum Group have taken opportunities to reduce our carbon footprint and are particularly cognisant of our suppliers and their impact on society.

The Aurum Group continually reviews its operations, seeking ways to improve efficiency and decrease negative impact.