A collage of dark green leaves and paint drops blended with a black-and-white forest canopy, overlaid with gold, pink, and blue curved lines and a long yellow line that four illustrated figures are pulling together.

This Isn’t a Report. It’s a Living System.

Annual Report 2025

Our Story

The Roots That Grew into a System

Since 2020, ECCA Family Foundation has been at the heart of Christian Algot Enevoldsen and his family’s philanthropic work. What started as a few personal projects has grown into a foundation rooted in family values but shaped by the partnerships and collaborations with people and organizations we’ve met along the way. Today, ECCA is more than a foundation. It’s a growing community working towards a common vision.

ECCA partners and staff crowded around a long table, smiling and waving at the camera. Handwritten caption: Showing up, staying close.

Vision
& Mission

Vision

An equitable world where nature and communities thrive together.

Mission

We empower those who have the conviction to enhance their communities and environment with the confidence, capital and capacity to build an equitable world.

Our
Focus Areas

Thriving Nature

Championing healthy ecosystems to support life and safeguard a biodiverse future.

Thriving Communities

Fostering open, vibrant communities with more opportunities and improved well-being.

A Letter from Christian

Six years in, we’re starting to see our work differently.

In the early days, we asked a simple question: Is this organization doing good work? If the answer was yes, we wanted to support it.

That question hasn’t gone away. But alongside it, a different one emerged: what if the connections between the work mattered as much as the work itself? It took time to see it. We were close to the ground - focused on individual partners, individual projects, individual problems.

Over time, something else came into view: efforts that seemed separate until something linked them, patterns we hadn’t designed, connections we recognized only in hindsight.

Two colleagues standing side by side, smiling at the camera at an event.

A person in sunglasses hauling a line aboard a boat at sea, with an inset photograph of a diver in the water signalling OK.

In 2025, we became more deliberate about that. Less like a funder distributing resources - more like a connector, helping different parts of the same system find each other. It wasn’t a strategy we set out to execute. It grew from years of being present, building trust, and staying curious.

This report is an attempt to show what that looks like in practice. Not as a finished picture - systems don’t move in straight lines, and rarely on cue - but as a collection of signals. Small moments where things connect, reinforce, or unlock something that wasn’t possible before.

None of it happens without the people and organizations we are fortunate enough to walk alongside. To every partner, funder, and community member who has shared their work, their trust, and their conviction with us - thank you.

You are the reason any of this is visible at all.

We are still learning.
And we are learning alongside the best.

Christian Algot Enevoldsen Founder and Chairman
ECCA Family Foundation

What We're Starting to See

Some things only become visible when you stop looking at them in isolation.

A local marine management model finding its way into national policy. A recycling startup making low-value waste economically viable. An arts program shifting how a city talks about public health. A chance conversation between funders that crossed two continents.

Separate stories - until they aren’t.

What this report tries to capture is the space between. The ideas that travel across sectors. The relationships that create pathways where none existed. The moments when community work shapes policy, when funding unlocks coordination, when trust between two organizations opens a door for a third.

Some of those connections are deliberate. Many emerged on their own. Some are still forming.

Two people in conversation at an indoor gathering, one holding a printed photograph, surrounded by palm plants.

A mangrove forest, its tangled aerial roots standing in still green water.

We're not calling it
a finished system. But something
is taking shape.

An illustrated figure curled around a close-up photograph of the veins of a green leaf.

The
ECCAsystem

How Change Moves

What you’re looking at isn’t a portfolio map. It’s a snapshot of relationships in motion.

Explore ECCAsystem in an interactive map >

Each partner has a primary area of work. Most reach beyond it - into policy, into other sectors, into conversations that weren’t part of the original plan. The connections between them are sometimes intentional. Often, they’re not.

The four maps ahead aren’t walls. They’re entry points into the same body of work. What happens in one rarely stays there.

As you move through the report, we hope you’ll see not just what each effort does - but what becomes possible when they start to find each other.

Explore ECCAsystem in an interactive map >

ECCAsystem at a Glance

Healthy Oceans

40.9%

USD $5.72M committed

Cultural
Narratives

10.5%

USD $1.47M committed

Regenerative
Landscapes

11.4%

USD $1.6M committed

Inclusive
Communities

37.1%

USD $5.19M committed

USD $13.98M
committed,
‍
USD $10.73M
disbursed.

USD
3.89M

in additional funding partners secured through ECCA’s direct support (e.g., connections made, recommendations, direct facilitation)

6,271
Hectares

of land and ocean protected or restored (equivalent to 9,000 football fields)

1,137
People

reporting increased trust in their communities and a stronger sense of belonging

45
New

products technologies, or solutions engaged to promote nature protection or restoration

166
People

supported into employment through training and skills development

2,519
People

experiencing an improved quality of life

31,464
Metric Tons

of plastic removed, upcycled or avoided from nature (equivalent to 1,800 adult whale sharks)

1,785
People’s

livelihoods directly improved

458
People

actively safeguarding their cultural and ecological rights

1,669
People

experiencing meaningful social change through engagement with the arts

10,874
People

accessing resources and opportunities previously out of reach

Partnership
Survey 2025

92%

indicate greater confidence

through partnership with ECCA, a slight dip from 96% in 2024

Useful partnership:

4.85/5

(ECCA is a competent partner)

95.7%

would recommend ECCA as a partner

(up from 88.5 in 2024)

Trustful collaboration:

4.67/5

(Partners feel psychologically safe and are open to sharing challenges)

ECCA partners and community members gathered together

“Their early belief gave us confidence at a time when everything was still uncertain… having Christian and management team come in person to see our operation make us feel seen and understood. It reassures us that we’re building something worthwhile.”

“The foundation spent about a year visiting the area—until it truly understood the local context and the organizations it would work with. ECCA is willing to put in extra effort to observe the sector, know the strength and weakness of our organization and how we play a part in the ecosystem.”

A partner sharing a moment during a field visit

“I have been able to meet new partners, build friendships, and explore meaningful opportunities for collaboration. This expanded network has strengthened both our capacity and our impact.”

Slide right to read more.

How Change Moves

Entry Point A

Healthy Oceans

The pressures here are visible. Overfishing. Habitat loss. Plastic leaking into the sea faster than it can be recovered.

Explore ECCAsystem in an interactive map >

The solutions are murkier.

Who can document what’s actually happening? Who has the authority to act on it? What kind of support - financial, relational, political - does change actually need?

These are the questions that shape this part of our portfolio. We support partners working the problem from different angles: communities monitoring their own waters, advocates pushing for policy and enforcement, platforms that bring the right people into the same room, and initiatives finding ways to make ocean health economically viable - not just morally urgent.

No single piece solves it. But when they start to find each other, something shifts.

Explore ECCAsystem in an interactive map >

Feature Story

The Tide Came From Below

2025 New Partnership

Coral Spawning and The Science Behind It

Ecosystem map of ECCA's ocean work: 11 partner projects grouped by theme. The same information is listed in text below.

Healthy Oceans — the 11 partner projects shown on this map:

30x30 SEA Ocean Fund — Asia Community Foundation. Singapore. Stage: Pilot. Areas of work: Frontline & Communities; Network & Policy.
Net Free Seas — Environmental Justice Foundation. Thailand. Stage: Build. Areas of work: Frontline & Communities; Markets & Finance; Network & Policy.
Sea Guardians — Thai Sea Watch Association. Thailand. Stage: Validate. Areas of work: Frontline & Communities; Science & Evidence; Network & Policy.
Precious Plastic — Green World Foundation. Thailand. Stage: Build. Areas of work: Frontline & Communities.
30x30 Thailand Coalition — Love Wildlife Foundation. Thailand. Stage: Pilot. Areas of work: Network & Policy.
Mapping Connectivity of Coral Reefs — ATMEC. Thailand. Stage: Validate. Areas of work: Science & Evidence; Network & Policy.
Coral Conservation & Marine Science — CORESea. Thailand. Stage: Validate. Areas of work: Science & Evidence.
Circular Economy Technology — Micro Greentech. Thailand. Stage: Pilot. Areas of work: Markets & Finance.
Ocean Fund I-B — Circulate Capital. Singapore. Stage: Scale. Areas of work: Markets & Finance; Network & Policy.
Ocean plastic recovery & finance — Seven Clean Seas. Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia. Stage: Build. Areas of work: Markets & Finance; Frontline & Communities; Network & Policy.
Seaweed-based biomaterial — Nano Onions. Thailand. Stage: Pilot. Areas of work: Markets & Finance.

Connections shown on this map:

Mapping Connectivity of Coral Reefs and Coral Conservation & Marine Science: Collaborating on Coral Connectivity Project.
Circular Economy Technology and Seaweed-based biomaterial: Incubated from ECCA-funded project – The Incubation Network.
30x30 Thailand Coalition and Precious Plastic: Partner with.
30x30 Thailand Coalition and Sea Guardians: Partner with.
30x30 Thailand Coalition and Net Free Seas: Partner with.
30x30 Thailand Coalition and Grow CF (in Regenerative Landscapes): Partner with.
30x30 Thailand Coalition and Mangroves, Forests, Climate and Livelihoods Program (in Regenerative Landscapes): Partner with.
30x30 Thailand Coalition and FLF349 - Forest Restoration through Agroecology (in Regenerative Landscapes): Partner with.
30x30 Thailand Coalition and Nature Alliance (Thailand): Invested for.

Entry Point B

Regenerative Landscapes

Land is not just a backdrop to climate and biodiversity goals. It is the operating system underlying them.

Explore ECCAsystem in an interactive map >

These aren’t separate issues. They are the same question, asked from different angles.

In this part of the portfolio, we support partners working on the enabling conditions:

land tenure and governance, community forestry, regenerative practice, and the policy and finance levers that make sustainable land use viable.

What we have learned is that rights and knowledge rarely travel alone. When communities gain secure tenure and the capacity to steward their land, the benefits move outward - from household livelihoods to watershed health to ecosystem resilience, and sometimes faster than anyone expected.

Explore ECCAsystem in an interactive map >

Feature Story

You Can’t Steward What You Don’t Own

2025 New Partnership

Solar by the Community, for the Community

Ecosystem map of ECCA's landscapes work: 5 partner projects grouped by theme. The same information is listed in text below.

Entry Point C

Inclusive Communities

Economic inclusion is often treated as a separate social issue - important, but secondary to the bigger systemic challenges.

Explore ECCAsystem in an interactive map >

We don’t see it that way.

Whether communities can sustain decent livelihoods shapes almost every other outcome we care about. It determines whether people can afford to refuse harmful work. Whether families have enough stability to participate in collective solutions. Whether protection from exploitation is a real option or just a principle on paper.

Across this part of the portfolio, our partners work on livelihoods, skills, access to services, and protection - often alongside people navigating structural exclusion, constrained mobility, or precarious legal status. People for whom the margin between viable and not is very thin.

This isn’t downstream work. It is preventative. Reduce the pressures that make exploitation possible, and you change what communities are able to build.

Explore ECCAsystem in an interactive map >

Feature Story

More Than One Door

2025 New Partnership

A Place To Come Back To

Ecosystem map of ECCA's communities work: 8 partner projects grouped by theme. The same information is listed in text below.

Entry Point D

Cultural Narratives

Culture shapes what we take for granted.

Explore ECCAsystem in an interactive map >

Practices repeated long enough become beliefs - and beliefs become the baseline for what feels normal, what feels possible, and what feels allowed.

That is what makes cultural and narrative work something more than communications. It is the unseen infrastructure beneath civic space, public attention, and collective action.

Here we support partners creating and protecting platforms for expression, connection, and learning - particularly for communities whose voices are marginalized or actively suppressed.

The shift we look for isn’t measured in events and media produced. It shows up in what gets unlocked: new alliances forming, conversations reaching people and institutions they couldn’t before, and the quiet expansion of what it feels like possible to say out loud.

Explore ECCAsystem in an interactive map >

Feature Story

The Room Started to Fill

2025 New Partnership

Bangkok Opened a Door

Ecosystem map of ECCA's cultural work: 10 partner projects grouped by theme. The same information is listed in text below.

No System Moves Alone

The boundaries between all four areas are fluid.

There is a ripple effect. Coastal work connects to livelihoods. Livelihoods shape vulnerability. Vulnerability determines who has access to services and whose story gets told. And the stories that stick - the narratives that travel - influence behavior, policy, and where resources ultimately flow.

What we’re describing is not four separate areas of work. It’s one system in motion - where a shift in one place can strengthen or constrain what becomes possible somewhere else entirely.

We’re still learning how these connections form. But we do know they have the power to change the nature of the work itself.

It becomes more coherent. More durable. Its strength rooted not in any single organization, but in the interdependence between them.

A large group of people in traditional dress standing and crouching together outdoors, several holding drums.

Our Role
is Shifting

The more time we spend close to a system, the more we start to see what it needs.

Over time, something else came into view: efforts that seemed separate until something linked them, patterns we hadn’t designed, connections we recognized only in hindsight.

Panel speakers seated on stage, one holding a microphone mid-sentence while the others applaud. Handwritten caption: Sharing and learning.

In 2025, we became
more deliberate about that.

Here’s how we have been showing up:

Co-fund and coordinate capital

We work alongside funders with strong alignment - not just sharing costs but building something more coherent than any single funder could alone. Example: We participated in the 30x30 SEA Ocean Fund with 13 other funders, expanding support for ocean conservation beyond Thailand into the wider region.

Build toward public sector pathways

Public sector relationships take time - often with no immediate visible result. We invest in them anyway, knowing that when the right moment arrives, the groundwork needs to already be done. In 2025, this included funding and organizing a learning visit to the Philippines, bringing together officers from Thailand’s Department of Marine and Coastal Resources, Thai Sea Watch Association, and scientists - creating a shared experience across government, civil society, and research that no single partner could have convened alone.

Connect partners and funders

When an external funder wants to engage meaningfully in a landscape, they’re new to, local organizations shouldn’t have to spend their time translating it. We make introductions, share context, and help both sides find each other faster. See feature story: Brokering for Thailand.

Fit-for-purpose capital deployment

Grant funding opens doors. Some constraints, however, require different tools. We layer support over time - grants, capacity building, and where appropriate, connections to impact-first capital - especially where commercial capital hasn’t yet arrived. See feature story: Fit-for-Purpose Capitol.

Invest in relationships between partners

The connections that matter most aren’t made through formal introductions. They’re built over time, through shared experiences and genuine familiarity. In 2025, we brought 69 partners together for ECCA’s first Partners Retreat - creating the conditions for relationships that no grant agreement could engineer. See Feature Story: Building the In-between.

Feature Story

Brokering for Thailand: How Local Knowledge Unlocks Outside Capital

Feature Story

Fit-for-Purpose Capital: The Plastics Value Chain

Feature Story

Building the In-between: ECCA’s First Partners Retreat

Cross-ecosystem connection emerging in 2025

Community practice is shaping national policy.

The LMMA framework built by Thai Sea Watch and coastal fishing communities has been adopted by the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources - a direct line from what fishers built on the water to what government now recognizes in law.

Livelihoods are central to everything.

From fishing communities in the Gulf of Thailand to farming cooperatives in Chachoengsao to youth navigating Singapore’s job market - conservation without economic stability doesn’t hold, and protection without dignified income doesn’t last.

Coordination is attracting capital.

As community groups, researchers, and government begin working from shared frameworks rather than in parallel, the landscape is becoming legible to outside funders in ways it wasn’t before.

Cultural and narrative work runs through all of it.

From writing rooms in Danish psychiatric centres to climate action week in Bangkok, the organizations we support understand that changing what feels normal is as important as changing what is legal.

Signals in Motion

This system isn’t finished. It will keep evolving

- through the work of partners we already know well, and through connections that have yet to be anticipated.

What has changed is how we understand our place within it.

We started this work thinking we were here to support organizations. That is still true. We are also learning to pay attention to what becomes possible when the right pieces come together - and to play a more active role in helping them find each other.

The signals are small. A framework adopted by a government agency. A young person referred from one door to the next. A conversation in a corridor that crossed two continents.

All of it required showing up, consistently, over time. That is what we intend to keep doing.