Giving Compass' Take:

• Mareesa Nicosia, writing for Barron's, highlights a few philanthropists that are focused on funding ocean conservation efforts. 

• What more can be done to advance ocean conservation by both donors and nonprofit organizations? 

• Read more about the hot button issues in ocean funding. 

While the ocean covers more than 70% of the earth's surface, the precious global resource receives just a fraction of all philanthropic funding—less than 1% since 2009, according to FundingtheOcean.org, an effort by the nonprofit Foundation Center to track ocean conservation philanthropy.

Titans of the technology and finance sectors, however, are increasingly committing resources to help solve the biggest problems facing our oceans, include warming temperatures, overfishing, and ocean acidification from increased carbon emissions.

Penta highlights a few notable recent efforts.

  • Marc and Lynne Benioff: Marc Benioff is CEO of cloud computing company Salesforce, and Lynne’s philanthropic efforts have focused on health care and anti-homelessness causes—recently gifted $1.5 million to the Sustainable Ocean Alliance (SOA). The global nonprofit works to advance the impact of young leaders who are developing solutions to protect and rehabilitate the ocean.
  • Bloomberg Philanthropies: His organization launched the Vibrant Oceans Initiative in 2014 with an investment of $54 million through 2018. A second investment of $86 million was announced in September 2018 for work through 2021, a spokeswoman told Penta.
  • The David and Lucile Packard Foundation: David Packard, the late co-founder of Hewlett-Packard computers, now known as HP, and his wife Lucile, committed more than $550 million through 2021 to advance ocean science, protection and effective management through their eponymous foundation.

Read the full article about philanthropy for the ocean by Mareesa Nicosia at Barron's.