Wow, The Ocean Writer Ltd. turned one! And, just like I did when I was a sole trader, I'm continuing the habit of reviewing the ways I've tried to make an impact by giving back over the last year (April '23-March '24). So here goes...

Giving back... by supporting clients that match my ethos

In 2023-24, I've continued to work with clients who share my ethos of protecting the ocean and the people on it through impactful storytelling. I worked with 13 great clients this year: Guide Dogs, National Geographic, EMBRC, The Guardian, Live Science, Our Media (BBC Wildlife), New Scientist, Scientific American, Think Publishing, Sunday Times, Resurgence & Ecologist, The Wildlife Trusts and Reader's Digest.

This year I incorporated my business (The Ocean Writer Ltd.) and now only offer writing services (I no longer do PR & comms for clients) so it's really exciting to have worked with such brilliant publications. Hopefully more of this next year!

Giving back... through my time

I also donated 7 days of my time in total supporting some great causes through pro bono consultancy, volunteering and citizen science:

• Offering pro bono consultancy and writing support
• Helping WWF identify walrus from space (as a citizen science)
• Taking part in The Shark Trust’s Great Eggcase Hunt by recording mermaids purses found on my beach walks
• Responding to my second call out with the British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) - this time I spent a full Saturday watching over a seal that had hauled out
• I also donated blood once this year.

This year I spent less time on pro bono & citizen science support than in 22-23 (12.5 days!) and 21-22 (7.5 days), partly because it's been so busy and partly because I've had fewer requests for pro bono support now I don't offer PR services. In the coming year, it's probably not realistic to do 12 days of volunteering/pro bono again but I'd like to at least match time spent this year. So my goal for 24-24 is 7+ days.

& a reminder that if you're a small marine conservation charity in need of pro bono support, click here to find out more about my pro bono process.

Giving back... through donations

In 2023-24, I continued to support Project Seagrass as my chosen charity by donating 1% of all cleared invoices to the charity each month via Work for Good. My donations during this period were enough to fund around 2,251 seagrass seeds (that's a 14.7% increase on the 1,962 seeds I donated the previous year). Can I fund 2,500 seeds in 24-25?

I also made ad hoc donations to support a few causes that are important to me, meaning I supported 7 amazing charities over the year (including £27.50 in donations via WeWard):

• Brain & Spine Foundation
• British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR)
• Citizen Zoo (via WeWard)
• Marine Megafauna Foundation
• Morocco Emergency Fund (via WeWard)
• Project Seagrass
• THE OCEANCY

This meant that I donated 1.57% of my income to good causes, continuing to creep up from last year (1.2%) and the year before (1.1%). I'd like to hit 1.5+% again in 24-25.

Giving back... by planting trees

I also try to do my bit by planting trees. In total (I think - ick, maths) I planted 1,407 trees this year via Treeapp (369), Ecologi (197), Ecosia (150) and refoorest (691). That's slightly higher than 23-24 (1,163 trees) but I expect this will drop this year for a couple of key reasons: Ecosia no longer lets you track impact & the Ecologi climate committee is currently on pause so I'm focusing on my Project Seagrass donations instead.

Giving back... through my website

I continue to use a green hosting provider (Green Hosting) which uses renewable energy from North Sea wind farms and has an energy efficient London data centre, try to keep my website size down and regularly delete emails to reduce my digital carbon footprint. The team is also lovely and super helpful - can't recommend them enough!

Giving back... by pledging support and signing petitions

It's important to me that I show my support by adding my voice to causes that I care about. From 2023-24, I signed 23 petitions (that's down on 23-24 when I signed 35 but still up from 22-23's 15 petitions) and contacted my MP three times (down from both six and four contacts in the previous two years respectively). Perhaps this is something I can focus on more in the coming year as signing petitions is an easy and effective way to let decision-makers know what's important to you.

Goals

To try to keep myself accountable, here are some goals for the coming year:

🎁 7+ days of pro bono support, volunteering and citizen science

🌿 Funding enough for 2,500 seagrass seeds

💰 Donating 1.5%+ of my income to good causes

🖊️ Sign 30+ petitions

Thanks for reading - I hope reviewing this each year helps me continue to improve. It's useful to have some areas to work on for the coming year!