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Why Saving the Ocean Still Runs Out of Money · How To Protect The Ocean

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  Ocean conservation is a multi-billion dollar global effort.
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  So why do so many marine scientists and nonprofits constantly feel
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  like they're running out of money?
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  This is the How to Protect the Ocean, your weekday ocean news update.
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  If you care about staying informed about the ocean every weekday, hit
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  that follow button right now so you don't miss tomorrow's story.
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  This week, we're gonna be talking about nonprofits.
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  We're gonna be talking about how to generate revenue.
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  We're gonna be talking about some of the problems that we've
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  identified from nonprofits.
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  And on Friday, I've got an interview with James Meissner, who is a nonprofit
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  consultant that will give people like yourselves who have nonprofits
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  some way of coping and some way of building that revenue so that you
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  can actually run a proper nonprofit.
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  So we're gonna talk about that all today, 'cause people often assume
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  that if an ocean issue is important enough, someone is gonna fund it.
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  That's really what it comes down to.
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  And unfortunately, that's not always the case because that's
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  not really how conservation works.
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  In reality, many ocean conservation organizations are operating on
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  a year-to-year, grant-to-grant, or donation-donation basis.
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  Even some of the most important marine conservation projects in the world
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  struggle to maintain long-term funding.
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  And that creates a major question.
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  If we already know so much about protecting the ocean, why
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  does ocean conservation still feel financially unstable?
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  Marine conservation in general just sounds massive, and to be honest, it is.
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  But according to multiple international reports, ocean
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  protection receives a small fraction of global environmental funding.
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  I've seen that for all of my career.
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  I've worked on projects where there's been a huge funder whether it be in
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  the industrial region, like oil and gas or things like that, and they are
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  watching every nickel and dime that they are spending on their project
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  because they don't want to spend a lot on environmental projects because they
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  realize that if they spend a lot and they do a thorough job, that thorough
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  jobs may say, "Hey, you know what?
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  You shouldn't be doing what you're doing here from an industrial
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  standpoint." And so we start to see just taking away the money and trying
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  to spend a little as much possible in environmental funding because
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  they don't wanna get involved in it.
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  Many marine protected areas exist mostly on paper because there isn't
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  enough money for enforcement, staffing, research or monitoring, which we covered
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  in the week that we talked about marine conservation and marine protected areas.
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  So science may identify critical habitats, governments may announce protected
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  areas, but without long-term investment, protection often becomes symbolic, and
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  funding is incredibly competitive.
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  Thousands of nonprofits, universities, indigenous groups,
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  and conservation organizations are applying for the same grants.
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  So the competition has increased, and the funding hasn't necessarily
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  increased in the way that the amount of competition has increased.
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  That means organizations spend huge amounts of time trying
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  to secure funding instead of directly protecting ecosystems.
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  I can't tell you the number of people that are scientists who have started
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  organizations, have done a really good job at maintaining these organizations
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  for a long time, but they can't do the science that they wanna do or
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  the conservation that they wanna do because they're always on proposals.
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  It is one of the big headaches of nonprofit management.
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  Some researchers spend months writing proposals with no guarantee of success.
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  I know some organizations have shut down because they didn't get the
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  grants that they were supposed to get and that's a tough pill to swallow.
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  Others rely on short-term contracts tied to political priorities that
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  can disappear after elections.
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  I wonder where we saw that before.
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  And this instability affects everything.
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  Research timelines, staff retention, community programs, long-term
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  planning, even public outreach.
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  There's another layer to this.
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  Funding increasingly follows visibility.
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  Organizations that communicate clearly often have a better chance of
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  attracting donors and partnerships.
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  I've watched organizations have a really good and really great presence
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  on social media, a really good backing and showing all the stuff that
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  they're doing, and sometimes I'm like, "I wonder why they're doing that."
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  It just kinda shows off that they have all this grant management or
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  they have all this money they're getting from foundations because
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  they can show off what they're doing.
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  And sometimes you're like, "How are they doing this?" Like, how are
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  they getting all this stuff done?
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  Their presence on social media, their presence in their communication
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  aspect shows what they're able to do, which brings eyes to the
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  organizations, which brings, "Hey, this person is doing really well."
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  As an example.
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  I've been podcasting for 11 years.
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  You've probably heard me say that a lot of times on this podcast if you've
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  been listening any time recently.
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  But since I've been doing that, I haven't necessarily posted on
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  social media on a consistent basis until, like, the last year or so.
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  And when I started to do that, I started to post on LinkedIn, like clips from
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  my episodes, and on TikTok and on Instagram, then people are like, "Wow,
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  you're really working hard. You're really doing a lot in podcasting." And I'm
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  like, " I've been doing this for 11 years.
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  I've been doing this for many times, as many years that
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  I've been doing this, really.
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  I've been doing it for so long." And they're just like, "I just noticed
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  you do it now 'cause it starts coming up on my feed, and I really like
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  what you're saying." But they won't necessarily listen to the podcast.
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  It doesn't increase downloads to my podcast or doesn't necessarily grow
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  the show, but it shows that I'm actually doing work, and I'm getting
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  more eyes on the stuff that I'm doing.
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  Doesn't necessarily mean it's gonna grow the show, but it does help in
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  making that appearance of like, "Hey, you're actually working really hard on
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  this. People come up to me and they're like, " Well, you've been doing so much
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  work. Like, how much time do you spend?"
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  And I start talking about my workflow and how much I do, and they're
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  like, "Wow, I can't believe you're actually able to do this." But it
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  means that storytelling is becoming part of conservation infrastructure.
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  And this is why you see how ocean organizations investing heavily
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  in social media, documentaries, podcasts, YouTube videos, newsletters,
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  and influencer partnerships, not because communication is trendy,
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  but because the attention drives support, and support drives survival.
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  A scientific paper may contain critical findings, but if the
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  public never hears about it, it becomes much harder to generate
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  political pressure or donor interest.
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  I'm not saying that scientific publications are not important.
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  They are important to maintaining a scientific integrity.
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  But you still have to go out into the masses and speak to the donor
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  and the people that you are talking to that are helping fund your
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  organization and have that communication.
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  Large organizations have a huge funding department, or probably more
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  staff in their funding department or their development department
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  than they do in their actual science department or their conservation
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  department or their advocacy department.
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  Because they need to have these relationships and continue to
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  build these relationships to allow that money to continue to come.
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  ' Cause if you don't perform and so to speak, for these donors,
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  why are they gonna do it?
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  If you don't relate the work that you're doing to these donors and
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  what their mission is and what their message is and why they donated in
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  the first place, you can't help.
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  And so if you don't have that communication aspect, whether it's
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  to one donor or many, or even just an audience that if you're getting
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  funding from many people, you're not looking at driving anything.
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  That's a tough pill to swallow for a lot of people when
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  you're doing this type of work.
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  So all this stuff, it creates a difficult balancing act.
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  Scientists need accuracy, but online platforms reward emotion and simplicity.
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  So it's a very different way of communicating.
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  Organizations are constantly trying to simplify complex ocean
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  issues with losing nuance.
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  And honestly, some issues are easier to communicate than others.
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  Like sea turtles and whales attract public attention quickly.
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  If you show a video of a whale breaching, that's pretty cool.
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  In front of like, say, a whale-watching boat, that's pretty cool.
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  That's a really fun thing to watch.
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  Or have a picture of that, that's a really fun thing to see.
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  That's gonna catch the eye of somebody on Instagram say, "I wonder what this
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  is all about." But fisheries management policy is usually pretty boring.
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  They're not really gonna say anything.
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  Unless you have an image of something really compelling and talking about it to
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  your potential donors or to your audience.
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  That's what really, really matters in this situation.
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  But fisheries policy may affect food security, jobs, and ecosystem
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  collapse far more directly.
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  It may be more important.
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  It's like every time I talk about biodiversity, it doesn't get a lot
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  of downloads compared to my other episodes, say, on whales or sharks
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  or sea turtles or anything like that.
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  But it's probably one of the most important things 'cause it'll save whales
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  and sharks and sea turtles, right?
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  Now, this is kind of something that's been really interesting for me
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  because I have developed this science communication role in myself by doing
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  this podcast and by looking at how I communicate using newsletters, YouTube
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  videos, and also social media, different platforms and so forth, and continuing
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  to create content to not only just grow my show, but to expand my message.
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  So I've learned a lot about science communication.
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  So much so that I've been recently hired, I've been there for a month, at Pisces
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  Ocean as the Oceans Communication Manager.
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  And what's really great is that Pisces is actually sponsoring
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  this episode and this podcast.
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  And what's really great is Pisces actually works as a consultant.
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  We're a consultancy firm, and we work with clients, whether from the nonprofit
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  sector, the for-profit sector, or academic projects like large academic
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  projects or even small academic projects.
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  We work with organizations to amplify their message to help them
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  get funded So you're not always looking for funding, but this is like
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  once you get this started, once you get a strategy, and once you start
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  getting this produced, you start increasing that money that's coming in.
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  You start increasing that attention first, and then the money will eventually follow.
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  But it has to come with a good plan with communication.
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  So if you wanna check out what Pisces is all about, go to piscesoceans.ca.
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  That's piscesoceans.ca for more information.
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  If you have any questions, you can just hit me up on any of
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  my socials that I've put below.
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  DM me, message me on LinkedIn.
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  I'd be more than happy to chat with you.
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  If you're having trouble raising funds, having communication,
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  even finding the time to do communication, we can provide that.
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  We have a thing called Pisces Points.
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  It's really great.
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  You do a strategy.
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  We do Pisces Points.
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  It's awesome, and we can really get you started quickly.
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  So check that out, piscesoceans.ca, and I'll put that link in the show notes.
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  So check that out.
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  It's a new thing that I'm doing, and I'm loving my job, and I
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  love working with organizations.
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  It's a lot of fun.
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  We do a lot of cool things, not just communication strategies, but everything,
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  and I'm having a blast doing it.
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  So come work with me as a client, and I would love to help
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  you out with our great team.
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  All right.
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  So let's get back into the episode 'cause we wanna know what happens next.
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  Like, what's the future gonna look like?
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  And to be honest, I think ocean conservation is entering a period where
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  financial sustainability becomes just as important as scientific discovery.
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  We need organizations like nonprofit organizations and for-profit
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  organizations to really step up for the ocean because we're seeing a lot of
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  governments step back from the ocean.
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  They just don't have the funding, or political parties have different types of
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  strategies or different types of values that don't always include the ocean.
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  And so we need to have the organizations step up even more.
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  So we need them financially sustainable so that we can actually continue on with
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  some of the great work that they do.
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  So organizations are looking for some stable funding models.
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  Some are building partnerships with corporations.
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  Others are developing memberships, media platforms, educational products,
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  or even community-driven funding.
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  There's a growing discussion around whether government should fund
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  conservation infrastructure more like public services instead of relying
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  so heavily on donations and grants.
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  But here's the reality.
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  The ocean supports global food systems.
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  It regulates climate.
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  It supports tourism, shipping, jobs, and coastal economies.
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  Yet many of the people trying to protect it are working in
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  financially unstable systems.
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  And that creates risk because conservation only works when institutions are
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  strong enough to survive long-term, not grant to grant, donation to donation.
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  That's not really what is what we're talking about here.
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  If ocean conservation constantly operates in survival mode, long-term protection
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  becomes much harder to achieve So I want you to follow this podcast right
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  now if you haven't followed it before, so that you can get all the updates.
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  We post from Monday to Friday.
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  And for this week, we are gonna be posting all about nonprofit and
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  how you can survive as a nonprofit.
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  So if you have recently started a nonprofit, or you have one, or you're
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  working with one, and you guys are always struggling for funding, and
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  that's nothing to be ashamed of, this happens to a lot of people and
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  a lot of organizations, I'm here to try and help with this week.
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  And at the end of the week, we have James Meisner, who is on the podcast,
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  where I did an interview talking about what he does as a nonprofit consultant.
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  He's got some great tips as an ocean nonprofit, make
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  sure you are raising funds.
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  So check that out.
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  That's it for this episode.
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  I'd love to hear your feedback.
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  Hit me up on my socials down in the show notes below, or you can go to
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  speakupforblue.com/feedback, and you can just hit me up, write a text or type out a
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  message, or even record a voice message.
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  I would love to hear from you.
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  I wanna thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the
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  How to Protect the Ocean podcast.
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  I'm your host, Andrew Lewin.
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  Have a great day.
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  We'll talk to you next time, and happy conservation.