Oceankind is a grantmaking LLC founded in 2018 by Lucy Southworth, a geneticist and wife of Google co-founder Larry Page. The organization has distributed over $120 million in grants to organizations focused on oceanic conservation and the development of technologies that further that goal, including studying large-scale geoengineering proposals. ^{1 2}

Finances

Oceankind is not registered as a nonprofit organization, instead being established as a limited liability company corporation (LLC). The organization has distributed over $100 million in grants to environmental focused groups. A TechCrunch profile of the organization notes that Lucy Southworth and her husband Larry Page have used their family foundation, the Carl Victor Page Memorial Foundation, to give donor-advised funds (DAFs) hundreds of millions of dollars without disclosing who the ultimate recipients were. ³

The organization has a downloadable spreadsheet listing the grants that it has disbursed, but as of August of 2023 it had not been updated beyond 2021, at which time total grants exceeded $121 million. The website lists numerous other grants amounting to millions of dollars from 2022 but did not list any grants from 2023 as of mid-August. ⁴

Organizational Philosophy

Oceankinds operating philosophy is based on the premise that the Earth’s oceans are essential for life and that human activity, notably overfishing, habitat destruction from coastal development, and pollution are negatively affecting it, in addition to the alleged effects of climate change, such as rising sea levels, melting ice caps, and coral bleaching. The organization attributes human emissions from industries such as shipping and ocean-based energy production as contributors to climate change. ^{5 6}

In 2020, Oceankind adopted a “trust-based philanthropy” project with the goal of becoming a better “partner” in the wake of the COVID pandemic, America’s “racial reckoning” and the George Floyd situation. The grantmaking philosophy emphasizes reduced burdens on grant applicants, verbal reporting from grant recipients rather than narrative reports, beginning with shorter and smaller cost grants to new grant recipients, and assisting recipients in non-monetary ways such as facilitating introductions. ⁷

Projects

Oceankind states that it is focused on grantmaking that advances oceanic conservation efforts as well as the reduction of human emissions and the improvement of the sequestration of carbon. It does this by funding policy change initiatives and technological development that are capable of being scaled and implemented. It also states that it is committed to “equity.” ⁸

In 2019, the organization hosted a conference focused on the possibilities of geo-engineering solutions to reduce oceanic acidity through the theoretical plan of ocean alkalinity enhancement. This project would involve dumping 5 billion tons of ground-up alkaline rock into the ocean where it would then react with carbon to create bicarbonates used by various sea animals to form skeletons and shells, which upon their death would sink to the bottom of the ocean and sequester said carbon. The after-conference report on the subject noted that 5 billion tons of rock is twice the annual amount used in global concrete production.

One of the after-conference report’s stated goals was to establish by 2030 how effective, costly, and risky using ocean alkalinity enhancement would be. The report also notes that the idea of geoengineering has a rather negative public perception and that gaining social approval may be the largest barrier to advancing with the plan. ⁹

Leadership

Matt Elliott has been the executive director of Oceankind since 2019. Prior to that he worked at a variety of environment focused groups, notably as the principal at CEA Consulting for nearly 15 years. ¹⁰

Lucy Southworth is a research geneticist and the wife of Google co-founder Larry Page. She is listed as the founder of Oceankind. Her level of involvement in the running of the organization is not known. ¹¹

1. Harris, Mark. “Inside the Secretive Silicon Valley Startup Trying to Save the Oceans with Tech.” TechCrunch, May 2, 2022. Accessed August 19, 2023. https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/02/inside-the-secretive-silicon-valley-startup-trying-to-save-the-oceans-with-tech/.
2. “Our Approach.” Oceankind. Accessed August 19, 2023. https://oceankind.org/approach/.
3.  Harris, Mark. “Inside the Secretive Silicon Valley Startup Trying to Save the Oceans with Tech.” TechCrunch, May 2, 2022. Accessed August 19, 2023. https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/02/inside-the-secretive-silicon-valley-startup-trying-to-save-the-oceans-with-tech/.
4. “Awarded Grants.” Oceankind. Accessed August 19, 2023. https://oceankind.org/awarded-grants/.
5.  “Philosophy.” Oceankind. Accessed August 19, 2023. https://oceankind.org/philosophy/.
6. “Our Approach.” Oceankind. Accessed August 19, 2023. https://oceankind.org/approach/.
7. Lagpacan, Nina. “Connecting the Dots: Leveraging Trust-Based Practices in Environmental Grantmaking.” Oceankind, May 9, 2023. https://oceankind.org/connecting-the-dots/.
8. “Our Approach.” Oceankind. Accessed August 19, 2023. https://oceankind.org/approach/.
9. Gagern, Antonius, Greg Rau, and Debora Iglesias Rodriguez. “Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement: Current State of Knowledge and Potential Role of Philanthropy,” n.d.
10.  “Matthew Elliot.” LinkedIn.com. Accessed August 19, 2023. https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewelliott2/.
11. Harris, Mark. “Inside the Secretive Silicon Valley Startup Trying to Save the Oceans with Tech.” TechCrunch, May 2, 2022. Accessed August 19, 2023. https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/02/inside-the-secretive-silicon-valley-startup-trying-to-save-the-oceans-with-tech/.