Ocean Wise Conservation Association is a global conservation organisation headquartered in Vancouver, BC, dedicated to protecting and restoring the ocean. Through research, education, and community engagement, Ocean Wise empowers people to take action for ocean health. Its work spans scientific research, youth education, and large-scale conservation initiatives, including the internationally recognised Ocean Wise Seafood program and the Shoreline Cleanup, one of the largest community action initiatives in Canada.

Challenge:

Despite a well-established public profile and a strong tradition of community engagement through its Shoreline Cleanup initiative, Ocean Wise had an opportunity to formalise and expand its volunteer engagement beyond existing cleanup participation. Public and corporate participation in cleanup events, which had been the primary area of volunteer engagement, had opportunities to strengthen its centralised systems, structure its policies, and develop consistent organisational oversight. There were opportunities to further develop processes for recruiting, onboarding, training, or recognising volunteers, and increase dedicated capacity to manage volunteer engagement at scale. The organisation had the mission, the public trust, and the community interest, but lacked the infrastructure to harness that interest consistently and sustainably.

Solution:

Karen Knight Consulting was engaged to support Ocean Wise in formalising and strengthening its volunteer engagement program, creating a complete, ready-to-implement framework aligned with Ocean Wise’s mission, values, and operational capacity. Working closely with the Director of Shoreline and Youth Programs and other Ocean Wise staff throughout the project, Karen led a structured, five-phase approach to program development.

Key actions included:

• Conducting a comprehensive needs assessment through stakeholder interviews, SWOT and Gap analyses, and the development of a full program strategy.
• Creating volunteer-specific policies and documented processes for every stage of the volunteer lifecycle: recruitment, onboarding, scheduling, appreciation, and conflict
  resolution.
• Sourcing, selecting, and implementing Vome, a volunteer management system, and fully configuring it with Ocean Wise branding and volunteer-facing content.
• Developing role descriptions, application forms, ideal volunteer profiles, and screening protocols.
• Designing a program evaluation framework with key performance metrics, an annual review process, and a volunteer satisfaction survey process.
• Running a pilot project for community outreach volunteer positions from August to November 2025 to test systems and processes in a real-world setting before broader
  rollout.

The pilot placed volunteers at public tabling events, where they engaged community members with information about ocean conservation. Volunteer feedback highlighted the value of human connection and the sense of purpose they derived from contributing to ocean conservation education; staff shared positive feedback on volunteers’ reliability and enthusiasm. The pilot helped validate the program design and generated baseline data against which to measure growth going forward.

Result:

At project completion, Ocean Wise moved from having limited centralized volunteer infrastructure beyond existing cleanup engagement to having a more clearly designed, policy-supported, system-enabled program that can support future recruitment and operations. Role descriptions, policies, and processes are in place. Vome is live and configured. A small cohort of pilot volunteers is available as a potential re-engagement group. Youth program alumni have been identified as a strong and motivated recruitment stream.

Patrick Lamontagne, Director of Shoreline and Youth Programs at Ocean Wise, when reflecting on the engagement said: “Karen went above and beyond, not only developing the strategy, policies, processes, and systems we needed, but also helping our team understand what makes a volunteer program successful and how to manage it sustainably moving forward.”

The program is designed to scale – beginning with community outreach roles and expanding over time into additional volunteer roles aligned with Ocean Wise’s needs and organisational capacity as that capacity develops. Ocean Wise now has a stronger foundation to meaningfully engage the public in its conservation mission and to grow its impact through the power of structured volunteer involvement.