2017 IMPACT REPORT CONTENTS 02 Letter from the Executive Director 34 COMMUNITY 04 Key Milestones 36 Social Media Movement 05 Executive Summary 37 Instagram 06 MISSION 40 PROGRAMS 08 Why Oceans? 43 Protected Areas 09 Problem 43 Sustainable Fishing 09 Opportunity 44 Green Ocean Farming 10 Solution 45 Marine Permaculture 12 ORGANIZATION 46 Reef Revitalization 47 15 Founders Empowering Coastal Women 48 16 Team Past Successes 18 The Collective 54 FUNDRAISING 20 The Swell 57 Online Giving 22 The Compass 58 Brand Partnerships 24 STRATEGY 62 The Tide 64 27 Impact Model The Charter 28 Expeditions 66 FINANCIALS 30 Campaigns 68 Revenues 32 Impact Communication 69 Expenses COVER: A mother polar bear and her cubs are left stranded on land as sea ice disappears from Svalbard, Norway. Paul Nicklen LEFT: Converging streams of Arctic meltwater flow towards a seal hole, returning to the sea. White ice or snow reflects over 90 percent of the sun’s energy back into space. Paul Nicklen 01 DEAR FRIENDS, hen I founded SeaLegacy with my partner, generated on behalf of our oceans through strong producing sustainable food and biofuel, to using devices. We are poised to deliver in real time, W photographer Paul Nicklen, we did it partnerships, thoughtful sponsors, and millions the latest in nanotechnology and bioengineering the day-to-day narrative of our planet’s most out of fear and frustration at how rapidly our of engaged and motivated people who follow us to revitalize our dying coral reefs, to empowering important and beautiful ecosystem, our ocean. oceans were deteriorating. At that time all we on social media. The recent launch of The Tide — coastal women as important stakeholders in their With a team of expert storytellers in the field and wanted was to put our skills as visual storytellers an online community of supporters who travel local fishing communities — an extraordinary a global audience ready to step in and support and communicators in the service of ocean with us on expedition via digital stories and who array of proven and promising solutions to restore sustainable solutions, we have every reason to conservation. We had no idea how successful and donate whatever they can each month, knowing our oceans are already out there. In the coming feel hopeful and energized to make 2018 our best productive this journey would so quickly become. that 100% will be invested in critical conservation months, we will dedicate ourselves to finding the year yet. Thank you for joining our journey. missions and sustainable solutions on the ground solutions that best fit our model so we can foster Twenty four months after we announced our — is the latest in our rapidly growing portfolio of vibrant marine ecosystems around the world. Cristina Mittermeier new initiative with HSH Prince Albert of Monaco innovative strategies to change apathy into action. CO-FOUNDER & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR at Jacques Cousteau’s Oceanographic Museum, SeaLegacy was born at a pivotal time. Today, we often have to pinch ourselves to believe just From reforesting ocean deserts with rich kelp audiences have switched their attention from how much hope and forward motion can be forests that can help reverse climate change while television and printed media to digital and mobile 02 KEY MILESTONES 2017 #TurningTheTide 4.8 million people joined us This year our social movement reached a total of 4.8 million engaged followers on Instagram. Raised $700,000 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In nine months, we raised nearly three quarters of a million CAD to support SeaLegacy's mission. MISSION PROGRAMS SeaLegacy’s mission is to create healthy and Our campaigns amplify and fund the work of abundant oceans, for us and for the planet. partner organizations around the world, who have extensive experience implementing ocean projects ORGANIZATION Completed five expeditions on the ground. SeaLegacy focuses on six proven We embarked on storytelling expeditions to the Antarctic Peninsula, Svalbard, Alaska, Spain, and Cuba. SeaLegacy was co-founded in 2014 by Cristina and promising solutions: marine protected areas, Mittermeier, a pioneer of the modern conservation sustainable fisheries, green ocean farming, marine photography movement, and Paul Nicklen, permaculture, reef revitalization, and women’s the renowned National Geographic polar empowerment in coastal communities. We work New ocean solutions photographer. For over twenty years, Cristina closely to track progress on all projects and and Paul have used their imagery to convert provide impact reports back to our donors, driving We expanded our programs to support green ocean farming, marine permaculture, and reef revitalization. apathy into action and to bring about powerful a powerful positive feedback loop. conservation wins. FINANCES STRATEGY SeaLegacy is a hybrid organization built on social Launched a giving program Building on decades of experience, we have entrepreneurship. We are unique as a nonprofit We designed and launched The Tide, a new branded monthly giving program for public donors. developed a powerful model for impact, centered because we produce a constant stream of world- around extraordinary visual storytelling. Leading class media and owns large social distribution a team of world class photographers and channels valued in the millions. We leverage these filmmakers on pioneering media expeditions to assets with mutually beneficial global brand Powerful model for impact the farthest reaches of our oceans, SeaLegacy partnerships and online campaigns for public captures stunning images and footage that proves donors. To incentivise public fundraising, we We evolved our unique formula for impact, focusing on feedback loops driven by visual storytelling. the need for urgent action. We distribute this allocate 100 percent of public donations to critical content in real-time via social media and through expeditions, campaigns, and solutions, while immersive digital experiences to fuel powerful corporate sponsors and private donors cover the global campaigns. These campaigns are targeted entirety of SeaLegacy’s operational costs. New logo and branding to trigger public and policy support for sustainable We introduced a new logo and powerful visual aesthetic to match our bold goals for change. ocean solutions in “tipping point” locations. 04 05 What lies beneath the thin blue line?“ This is the story that SeaLegacy tells. Hope is empowerment, hope is a solution, hope is a game-changer. Cristina Mittermeier CO-FOUNDER AT SEALEGACY MISSION 06 MISSION To create healthy and abundant THE OPPORTUNITY oceans, for us and for the planet. We see human-induced global WHY OCEANS? warming and the loss of marine A split image of a red Every other breath we take is born from the sea. More than half our planet’s mangrove in the Gardens ecosystems as a result of human of the Queen, Cuba, reveals oxygen is produced by tiny ocean-dwelling organisms called phytoplankton. the importance of this species to the health of The oceans are a primary food source for three and a half billion people, activities, not as an inevitability, coastal ecosystems and providing millions of jobs and hundreds of billions of dollars to the global coral reefs. Its roots filter but as an opportunity to innovate. sediment, serve as a nursery economy. Ocean currents transport warm water and rainfall from the equator for countless species and toward the poles, and cold water from the poles back to the tropics. They play a An adult male polar bear meets his end when he is unable to hunt It is no longer enough to save the world’s oceans mitigate the effects of storm for food. The Arctic is a harsh place to survive. While focusing on from overfishing and pollution, nor to preserve or surges and hurricanes. leading role in regulating our planet's climate and temperature. Without healthy a hopeful message, we also believe in telling the whole story. restore their wildness. We must pioneer new ways Cristina Mittermeier oceans, we cannot survive. Cristina Mittermeier of sustaining humanity, while simultaneously revitalizing ecosystems and reversing the earth’s warming until we reach ‘drawdown’, that point in THE PROBLEM time when greenhouse gases peak and begin to The oceans are at the limits decline. How can the world’s oceans be developed of their resilience. Eighty percent of to protect the entire web of life on our planet? That is our question. fisheries are overfished or The good news? Extraordinary opportunities are collapsing. Pollution chokes sea out there. Dedicating portions of the ocean to birds, seals, and whales. Vast areas sustainable farming —including the fostering of of reef are dying rapidly, and species rich kelp forests—can remove billions of tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, while from plankton to polar bears face simultaneously cleaning up the environment and precipitous decline. providing food and biofuel to the world. Marine parks, protected areas, and sustainable fisheries According to the International Programme on the are all proven solutions that can allow critical State of the Ocean—a consortium of 27 top ocean ecosystems to recover. experts—the effects of climate change, ocean acidification, and oxygen depletion have already By scaling bold, realistic, and economically viable triggered a “phase of extinction of marine species solutions that are already being pioneered by unprecedented in human history.” As waters heat communities around the world, we will slow up, the oceans’ wind-and current-driven pumps the oceans’ decline, and create healthier, more are being turned off one by one. 99 percent of the abundant ocean environments. Healthy oceans subtropical and tropical oceans are largely devoid mean healthy economies and climate. Biodiversity of marine life, forming vast ocean deserts. Many will be restored and our world’s largest source coastal communities have nothing left to fish and of life preserved. Together we will develop little beauty left to attract valuable tourism. sustainable solutions for generations to come. 09 THE SOLUTION SeaLegacy’s work embraces the opportunity to create healthy and abundant oceans.