| 1. | What is the mission of the Marine Conservation Initiative? |
| The mission of the Marine Conservation Initiative is to promote approaches to marine conservation that have the potential to transform management and protection of the world’s oceans. |
| 2. | Does the Initiative target specific areas? |
| The Marine Conservation Initiative is focused on British Columbia, the U.S. West Coast and New England for their significant ecosystem goods and services, including important fisheries, momentum to pursue innovative solutions, and potential to serve as models for sustainable ocean management. The Foundation does not expect to concentrate significant resources on marine conservation outside of these focus areas. |
| 3. | How does the Marine Conservation Initiative fit within the Foundation’s overall mission? |
| The Foundation is dedicated to advancing environmental conservation and effecting change that will have positive impact on the world for future generations. The Initiative strives to advance a suite of globally applicable marine conservation management tools that contribute to sustainable ocean resource management. The goal of the Marine Conservation Initiative is resilient and productive ocean ecosystems for the long-term, which can only be achieved by managing human behavior. |
| 4. | How does the Marine Conservation Initiative decide which grants to fund? |
| The Foundation approaches grantmaking with well-defined objectives. The Marine Conservation Initiative team conducts research to identify projects that fit within the Initiative’s goals and strategies. Once potential grantees are identified, the Marine Conservation team works with grantees to develop formal grant proposals. The Foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals. |
| 5. | How does the Initiative define its scope of work in the U.S. West Coast ecosystem? |
| The U.S. West Coast ecosystem is one of the world’s large marine ecosystems and extends along the West Coast of the United States to the tip of the Baja Peninsula in Mexico. The Initiative’s grantmaking is focused on United States waters in a range from zero to 200 miles offshore. The Initiative is targeting California state waters for implementing marine spatial planning and state and federal fisheries in California, Oregon and Washington for fisheries management reform. |
| 6. | How does the Initiative define its scope of work in New England? |
| The waters off the coast of New England include a portion of the Gulf of Maine, one of the world’s most productive ecosystems and historically important fisheries. The Initiative’s grantmaking is focused on United States waters ranging from zero to 200 miles offshore. The Initiative is targeting state waters for implementing marine spatial planning, initially in Massachusetts. State and federal fisheries under the authority of the New England Fishery Management Council are the focus of our work in fisheries management reform. |
| 7. | How does the Marine Conservation Initiative adaptively manage its strategies? |
| The Initiative uses a set of performance indicators to track annual progress toward a defined set of objectives. Each strategy has a set of outcomes associated with it and the effectiveness of each strategy is evaluated on an ongoing basis. Emphasis among strategies and geographies is assessed and changes are made as appropriate, in response to the results of our ongoing evaluation. |
| 8. | What size and duration are typical for Marine Conservation Initiative grants? |
| It is unusual for us to make a grant of less than $50,000 or more than $1 million annually. The time frames for individual grants are generally from one to three years. Typically projects longer than three years are not funded due primarily to the difficulty of predicting outcomes beyond this time frame; however, the Foundation considers grantees on a case-by-case basis to determine a realistic assessment of the time and resources it will take to achieve the desired results. |
| 9. | How will you measure the success of the Marine Conservation Initiative? |
| The success of the Marine Conservation Initiative is determined by management uptake performance measures (e.g., implementation and enforcement of management plans and level of bycatch and discards) and ecological performance measures (e.g., relative abundance and diversity of important species, habitat diversity and complexity) in each of the three targeted geographies. |
| 10. | What portfolio effect is the Foundation trying to achieve? |
| Within each of our three large program areas are several initiatives that drive the majority of our grantmaking. When we create a series of grants that are linked to increase the effectiveness of an overall initiative, we call that a "portfolio effect." We believe the sum of several grants can positively affect an overall outcome and help to reach our goals while reducing the risk of failure of any one grant. |