What We Fund - Oceans5

Project Selection Criteria

Oceans 5 supports results-oriented ocean conservation projects worldwide, with a focus on time-bound efforts that bring together multiple organizations to advance shared policy objectives.

Our work prioritizes fisheries management reform, the establishment of effective marine protected areas, and the advancement of ocean-climate solutions to deliver lasting benefits for coastal communities. Our funding decisions are guided by the core criteria listed below, which reflect where we believe philanthropic investment can have the greatest impact.

Although not every funded project will meet every criterion, our selection framework helps guide funding decisions toward initiatives with the potential to achieve durable, large-scale outcomes for ocean health and the people who depend on it, ensuring philanthropic resources are directed where they can have the greatest impact. We do not fund unsolicited proposals.

Our Database

Significance for Impact

We prioritize projects that protect biodiversity, maintain critical ecological functions, mitigate climate change, and support coastal livelihoods. We assess impact in terms of scale and strategic importance. Projects that operate in places of outsized ecological, economic, or governance significance, or that influence systems beyond a single geography, are especially compelling.

Building Political Leadership

Lasting ocean conservation depends on strong laws, regulations, and governance systems. We focus on projects that advance concrete policy outcomes and help build durable political and government leadership. Preference is given to efforts with the potential to set precedent, endure beyond political cycles, or be replicated elsewhere—particularly those that move from commitments toward enforceable legal or regulatory change.

Time-bound

We look for projects with clearly defined objectives that can realistically be achieved within a focused time frame, generally around three years. This time-bound approach encourages disciplined campaign design and alignment with government decision-making processes. From this perspective, projects are strongest when they are tied to government commitments to establish or revise policies.

Collaborative

Meaningful change rarely happens in isolation. We prioritize projects that are collaborative by design—whether through coalitions of civil society organizations, partnerships with government, or co-funding with other philanthropic or public sources.

Project Feasibility

All supported initiatives must be thoughtfully positioned for success. We assess whether projects demonstrate a clear and targeted strategy, appropriate staffing and leadership, realistic budgets, defined milestones, and meaningful metrics for progress. We also consider how our funding can catalyze additional investment.

Strategic Geographies & Issues

We are particularly interested in work that addresses overlooked issues or geographies where targeted investment can unlock disproportionate benefits for marine ecosystems and the people who depend on them.

Portfolio Overview

Expanding Marine Protected Areas

Oceans 5 supports the establishment and long-term management of strongly protected marine protected areas (MPAs) as a proven tool for restoring ocean health and strengthening climate resilience. Guided by the best available science, we prioritize MPAs that restrict harmful activities and are effectively managed. Our work contributes to the global goal of protecting 30 percent of the ocean by 2030.

Improving Fisheries Management

Effective fisheries management is essential to sustaining marine ecosystems, global food security, and coastal livelihoods, yet most of the world’s fisheries are already fully fished or overexploited. Oceans 5 supports efforts to strengthen fisheries management and eliminate illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing by improving data, licensing regimes, compliance, transparency and traceability, monitoring technologies, and management of distant water fishing vessels. Oceans 5 also seeks to end destructive fishing practices, such as deep seabed mining and bottom trawling.

Advancing Ocean-Climate Solutions

The ocean is a promising, and underutilized, source of solutions to both mitigate and adapt to climate change. Oceans 5 supports this work directly — including efforts to phase out offshore oil and gas development — and helps coordinate broader ocean-climate diplomacy through the Ocean Climate Diplomacy Initiative (OCDI), a special fund spanning offshore wind, blue carbon, shipping decarbonization, and Arctic protection.

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Grants Database

The grants database represents information on Oceans 5’s global projects from our founding in 2011 to the present. The database highlights some of our grantees’ work, offering details on both active and closed projects by portfolio, geography, grantee, and grant amount. We update this information frequently to offer the ocean conservation community insight into how and where we invest philanthropic resources.

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