The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, a Los Altos, California, U.S.A.-based philanthropic foundation, recently released a new investment strategy, and since then, its plans for ocean investments have been undergoing reviews.
According to the foundation, those reviews will conclude in 2025, and a final strategy will be published in March.
“We’ll present the strategies to the board of trustees in March 2025 and, after that, share the completed strategies and make them accessible online,” an Ocean Initiative representative told SeafoodSource in an email.
The David and Lucile Packard Foundation has been the biggest funder in global ocean philanthropy over the last decade.
According to a report by Our Shared Seas in collaboration with San Francisco, California, U.S.A.-based CEA Consulting, the Packard foundation devoted more than USD 1.2 billion (EUR 1.1 billion) from 2010 to 2022. In 2022, the latest year to which the authors of the report had data access, the organization funded an ocean-based project for more than USD 100 million (EUR 922 million) alone.
In 2022, the Packard foundation announced the Ocean Initiative, the name of the organization’s new ocean funding strategy. The focus of the strategy is based on three categories: ocean habitats and communities, global fisheries, and ocean-based climate solutions. This focus is what is currently under review.
“The Ocean Initiative was approved by the board of trustees in late 2022, kicking off a two-year period to develop the initiative’s strategies, informed by feedback from our partners. This year, we completed a robust external feedback process for the theories of change and outcomes for our three interconnected portfolios of work,” Packard said.
The board of representatives at Packard will be updated on refinements to the funding strategy next March.
“In the coming months, we will refine the three portfolio strategies and geographic focus areas based on feedback, as well as other insights including budget adjustments, strategic fit, staff capacity, and changes in the landscape,” the representative said.
Two other big funders in ocean philanthropy also have upcoming strategy reviews and will similarly alter their strategies. The current strategies of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the Walton Family foundation will conclude in 2026.
