The Executive Director reports to the NNF Board of Trustees, which meets quarterly to (i) approve the annual workplan and budget, and (ii) receive and review financial and technical reports. The AGM receives the Chairman''s report, the presentation of audited financial statements and elects office bearers.
The NNF management approach rests strongly on partnerships, collaboration and strategic alliances. For example, the NNF is currently collaborating with four Directorates of the Ministry of Environment and Tourism on different programmes, with the Ministry of Fisheries, with the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry, Ministry of Lands and Resettlement, the National Botanical Institute, the National Museum, Ministry of Education, and Ministry of Trade & Industry. The NNF is currently working with more than 25 NGOs and over 30 community-based organisations. In a number of cases, the NNF is supporting yet other community organisations through partner NGOs. The core professional staff of the NNF is responsible for the management and coordination of activities carried out by partner organisations and consultants.
The NNF is particularly strong on financial management and administration. The NNF keeps it overheads very low, on the principle that as large a proportion of the funds should get into the "field" as possible
The NNF receives funds from a wide range of donors, including multi-lateral institutions (World Bank, UNEP, FAO, CITES and Ramsar Secretariats and EU), bilateral government donors (DANIDA, Finnish Government, GTZ, NORAD, SIDA, USAID), international NGOs (IUCN, WWF), and local business sector partners in Namibia (e.g. Caltex, Total, Nedbank Namibia, First National Bank, Avis). The NNF''s financial books and all project funds are audited every year by the independent international auditing firm KPMG. Large projects are audited separately; smaller projects are audited as part of the NNF audit. The NNF has never had a qualified audit.
The NNF currently has over 90 projects that it is implementing, managing or administering. These include small local initiatives, national programmes and regional projects. All of these projects or programmes are carried out in collaboration with other organisations such as government and NGOs. The main areas of support are:
National Biodiversity - country study, strategy and grants to biodiversity support initiatives;
Support to protected areas, including technical, financial and logistic;
Protection of threatened and endangered species and habitats - elephants, rhino, cheetah, Hartmann''s mountain zebra, flamingo, etc., and wetlands, inselbergs, coastal zone and riparian woodlands - including regional (transboundary) wetlands projects on the Zambezi and Okavango systems;
Land-use and tourism planning - including the Sperrgebiet land-use plan and involvement in the development of regional tourism development plans and, based on this, compilation of tourism developments options at local community (conservancy) level;
National Community-based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) Programme - strategic development, institutional support to partner implementing organisations, financial management, grant-making, fund raising, financial training to community institutions, monitoring & evaluation, etc. The NNF is responsible for bringing out an annual "State of Conservancy" Report, using a wide range of appropriate indicators;
Natural resource economics - including land-use options, business enterprise assessments, development of a sustainable development index, etc.;
Integrated River Basin Management and development, including work on the Okavango and Orange river systems, and including producing "Best Practice Guides" - both in technical and popular forms for ways of approaching Integrated, participator basin management approaches;
Integrated and sustainable land management, working within the Country Pilot Partnership;
Grants-making programmes, the currently NNF running six different grants mechanisms to provide funds to local levels in support of the notion "think globally, act locally". These grants mechanisms provide people with good projects with the resources to act;
Environmental information - State of environment reporting, regional environmental profiles and environmental publications;
The NNF implements, supports and administers projects and programmes in approximately equal proportion. It has a vast amount of experience in working in supportive ways with partners, as well as leading initiative.
The NNF has established a well developed programme/project filing system, reference numbering system and projects data base is in place, which facilitates reporting, tracking obligations to partners and donors; all pertinent information needed for project administration and management is recorded and instantly accessible. A second data base holds information on capital assets per project as well as insurance details. The organisation is divided into three components (a) technical project/programme management/coordination (b) financial management and (c) administrative/office support.
The finance section (as well as the whole organisation) is fully computerised, and uses AccPac, Excel and Microsoft Office. Systems are backed up daily and weekly on tape streamers. The NNF also has electronic banking facilities, and most payments are made by electronic transfer within 24 hours.