Oceana Review

A Word About Our Community Reviews

Reflecting our deep admiration for the dedication, hard work and positive social missions displayed by each organization we examine, CoreWeb "Reviews" are written in a methodical, comprehensive manner using CoreWeb community building principles as a framework for evaluation.

Should you find yourself in disagreement with, in support of, or with questions regarding, any aspect of the reviews, please tell us! Post a comment, generate a conversation, contact us -- we welcome your feedback and would love to hear from you! If we don't know about the full breadth of your efforts, educate us, and we'll make sure to modify the review appropriately.

This open process is meant to provide constructive feedback and best practices among all the organizations we review. Growing a community of supporters is challenging, so learning from each other is a laudable goal!

Ratings are added to the end of each posted review as a quick-recap of the strengths, potential assets, and areas of improvement the author identifies at each site. The reviewer creates the ratings with a focus on the question, "How successfully does an organization layout a path towards boosterism?" By analyzing the community-building tools that are implemented by each organization, the reviewer creates the ratings informally, after re-reading the review, and noting the aspects of community building were best in class, had potential, or needed attention at each site. Each rating is supported by a simple graphic that reflects these evaluations:

Highlight particularly high-functioning, community-building aspects of online communitites

Point out good ideas that have potential, but need a bit of work

Outline aspects of a site where there seems to be a disconnect online when working towards a larger goal

What is a Joiner?

We were hoping you would ask! A booster is an individual who takes on a more sizeable role within an organization by engaging in activities that support a group's mission with a "multiplying effect". Boosters typically write blog entries or start forum threads, organize volunteer efforts, facilitate fundraisers, connect local and online communities for events and speak publicly in support of an organization. The activity of a booster allows an organization's energy to grow at an exponential rate.

What is a Booster?

Submitted by ErinMurphy on Thu, 07/01/2010 - 02:00

Oceana.org

“Protecting the World’s Oceans”

Founded in 2001
Offices are located in North America, Central America, South America, and Europe
“Work on strategic, directed campaigns to achieve measurable outcomes that will help return our oceans to former levels of abundance”
Headquarters are located in Washington, DC

I really enjoyed poking around the Oceana site- one of the most interesting sections I came across was the “Living Blue” tab, which highlights ways to “Live Blue” (take that “Living Green”, huh?) From eating sustainable fish, to taking a plastics pledge, to recipes and blue links- there is tons of information at the site for those who want to lead a “blue life”. Blue as in, ocean friendly, not blue as in sad. Read on to learn more....

How You Can Get There

When I searched for Oceana at Google, I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to find! “Protecting oceans” turned out the organization at the top spot. The header Oceana uses is, “An oceans advocacy non-profit organization which focuses on water/beach quality, fisheries and fish habitat, and marine sanctuaries.”

Click on the “About Us” tab at the homepage, and then “People and Partners” to learn more about partnerships that Oceana keeps. These include celebrity, foundation and corporate partners. The celebrities who lend their star-power to support Oceana are featured with photographs and well-written descriptions of the work they’ve done for the organization. Foundational and corporate partners are listed by name only.

At the bottom of the homepage there are banners that link site visitors directly to Oceana’s social media pages at Facebook and Twitter. If you click on the Facebook banner, you are taken directly to a tab at the fan page that highlights a petition to stop oil drilling offshore (a great way of giving supporters a direct pathway towards action!) At the fan page itself, there are over 13,000 people who “like” the page, an active wall with comments and posts, discussions, photos and videos.

Twitter is a bit smaller, with 4,931 followers at the time I checked, but Oceana utilizes their Twitter account effectively by tweeting important news articles, links and other media, as well as retweeting posts and direct tweeting followers.

Visual: Oceana's Social Networks

How You Can Stay for a While

The tab “Support Oceana” offers site visitors the choice of signing up to become a “Wave maker” or e-activist. The organization highlights that they have over 300,000 e-activists signed up already, and it seems that this type of “joiner”

option largely means signing up for email alerts to support Oceana’s lobbying efforts.

Another way that joiners are recognized is at a section titled “Super Activists”- Oceana supporters are honored as “wave makers” if they have completed three or more actions over the course of a year. These “super activists” are listed by name at the highlighted page, and some of them are featured with photographs as well. This is a nice touch to celebrate joiners who support Oceana’s work.

What You Can Do With Your Membership

There is a “Blog” tab at the homepage that links to the Oceana blog which features ocean news, policy, and science. I had a great time reading through the blog; it’s set up in a very reader-friendly way! There are tabs to the Oceana RSS feed, Facebook and Twitter pages, as well as tabs to check out the most viewed posts, most recent comments or to browse posts by date. There are tons of great conversations that occur at the blog between supporters, but the blog itself seems to be written entirely by staff.

I couldn’t find any specific volunteer section of the Oceana site, but when I searched “volunteers” at their search engine, I was taken to a link that offered information about volunteering to “stop the oil spill”.

There is an orange “Donate” tab that links supporters directly to online donations for Oceana (either once, or monthly). Or you can click on “Support Oceana” and learn about other ways to give, such as stock, workplace, or matching gifts, or through adopting a creature or shopping online. Additionally, with one $20 donation a year, an individual can become a “member” of Oceana and receive their Oceana newsletter in the mail.

Also from the “Support Oceana” tab, you can find your way to information about Oceana Events, which range from SeaChange Summer Parties, to Partners Awards Galas, to World Oceans Day celebrations. Each event has its own website (there is so much information!) and depending on the events, you can register or donate online, or learn about “doing more”. I couldn’t, however, find any information that would have allowed individuals to search events in their communities or sign up for smaller scale events online (maybe there just aren’t any?)

At the “Act” tab, you can read through tons of petitions that Oceana has for its supporters to sign and send to different legislators. This is a great section that really allows an individual to choose a cause (or causes) that are meaningful to them, and then lays out a clear pathway towards doing more.

There is a small link at the bottom of the page that allows site visitors to email pages to friends, but I didn’t see any share buttons around the Oceana site that would have allowed me to share pages to my social media accounts.

How to Move Beyond Membership

As I searched the site for booster

opportunities, I came up largely empty handed. There is a section called “Ocean Heros” that is an award given to one individual a year, to recognize exceptional personal commitment to ocean conversation. John Halas was the last person to receive this award, and there are links to learn more about the process as they look to award an “Ocean Hero” for 2010.

For those who want to jump into a deeper role with the organization by becoming a staff member, there are opportunities listed under the “About Us” tab at the “Employment Opportunities” page. Here, there are career opportunities, internships and fellowships listed.

What Doing More Looks Like

I found very little at the Oceana site that offered pathways for supporters who wished to become boosters for the group. There are no toolkits for those who wish to host events or fundraisers for the organization, nor could I find any options for volunteers to write or contribute to blogs, facilitate advocacy campaigns or galvanize support for Oceana’s work within their local communities and personal networks in any other way.

Visual: Oceana's Content Strategy

Who's Protecting the Oceans?

If you click on “About Us” and then “Leadership” you can learn about the Board of Directors (there are nice bios written about each member), Ocean Council, Ocean Council Junior Council and Science Advisory Board (each of these groups are listed by name only).

Oceana staff members are listed with a thumbnail picture and creative write up- part biography, part story- I had fun reading through each. The staff really seems dedicated and energized by the Oceana mission.

Knowledge Sharing: Has Potential
The blog that Oceana publishes is a wonderful resource for it's supporters- there is tons of information (news, updates, opinions) and there are great features like Facebook and Twitter tabs, most viewed sections and latest comments. Conversations occur at a respectable rate at the blog, but perhaps allowing certain boosters to contribute and add their energy to the blog would make this section more dynamic and vibrant.

Boosterism: Needs More Attention
While there are clear pathways laid out for joiners, when I searched for booster-level actions, tools and pathways at the Oceana site, I was largely unsuccessful. Perhaps adding information for individuals who wish to fundraise (such as event toolkits or fundraising pages), more transparent volunteer information (can supporters galvanize their own community and start volunteer groups?) or tools that would allow individuals to circulate or write their own petitions, would encourage more directed booster-actions from supporters.