Since its inception in 2009, the project has grown substantially from a team of three people working in one village to a team of over 70 people across 16 villages. As expected, the budget has also grown significantly over time – while the 2009 budget was around US$40,000, the project now costs approximately US$450,000 per year to run.

During 2019 the project expenditure was just under US$450,000, with the breakdown shown below.

The project has been increasingly successful in receiving multi-year funding commitments and has increased its donor base at all levels. Over time we have also used unrestricted gifts to develop a reserve in order to protect against an unexpected shortfall in funding, or to provide for sudden emergencies.

The Ruaha Carnivore Project is fully audited through the University of Oxford which has charitable status in the UK and 501(c)(3) status in the US through Americans for Oxford. 100% of all donations go directly to the Ruaha Carnivore Project and over 95% of all expenditure is on field conservation activities.

It is now evident that 2020 will be a challenging year all round. Nevertheless we are confident that after ten years of strong partnerships, many with dedicated donors who have been with us since the beginning, the project will grow and succeed.