Imagine if the ocean had its own PR agency. A team of innovators born and constituted online. That’s Upwell. Amplifying stories, flying the ocean flag, and inspiring change.

Project Support: Upwell

Upwell is a social media communications project, somewhat similar to a nonprofit agency. The sole client is the ocean where the goal is to bring attention to marine conservation issues by utilizing abundant online ocean content channels in order to create awareness. Join them as they grow audiences and deepen existing audience relationships by increasing the volume, substance and relevance of ocean-related content.

The Upwell team is trained to sift through the vast amounts of real-time online conversations and content online. Their mission is to condition the climate for change. The project is incubated by Ocean Conservancy, and made possible by grants from the Waitt Foundation and other donors.

What does Upwell do?

Upwell curates and contextualizes the best ocean content online, create tools, and forge connections to help these conversations amd push past sticking points.

Upwell brings value to the professional ocean conservation sector by delivering a stream of contextualized curated content across whatever platforms the sector uses: an email newsletter, a blog, Twitter, LinkedIn, or conference presentations and webinars. They’re at home online, but also respect the power of traditional media. They strive to do the hard work of making scientific research accessible to popular audiences online and also the creative work of making sure the hook is in the story. Video is their BFF, and a compelling image is the wingman.

They run data-driven campaigns on specific issues in order to learn what works in marine conservation communications and share campaign data with the sector. When one of our experiments doesn’t deliver the expected results, they’re still thrilled to learn from that failure and will share the hard-earned lesson with the sector. They fail so that the sector can succeed.

Staff Expertise

Rachel Weidinger, Director. From the start of her marketing career at natural foods superstore Wild Oats, she has successfully engaged audiences in environmental, arts and social justice challenges. Most recently, Rachel was head of international marketing at TechSoup Global where she led outreach in collaboration with 36 NGO partners. In the past, Rachel worked with social enterprises including NTEN, the Black Rock Arts Foundation, SF Environment, Copia, and the Xtracycle Foundation. She is a frequent trainer and speaker on social media and mobile apps at conferences including SXSW Interactive, NetSquared and the Nonprofit Technology Conference. Rachel founded her own consultancy, and later was Senior Consultant and Marketing Director at Common Knowledge. Thanks to a full Harrison Scholarship, Rachel graduated from Miami University’s School of Interdisciplinary Studies with a Bachelors of Philosophy. She completed the coursework at the Ohio State University master’s program in Arts Policy and Administration.

Rachel Dearborn, Senior Account Executive. With over six years of experience agitating for social change, Rachel is intuitive and adroit at scraping the social, cultural and political landscapes for opportunity, carefully crafting outcome-oriented messaging and campaign collaterals, and using technology to strengthen networks. Rachel joined Upwell in March 2012 after nearly four years at Spitfire Strategies designing communications strategies and providing counsel, tools and training to a variety of nonprofits and foundations. Some of Rachel’s clients at Spitfire included the Irvine Foundation, California Environmental Associates, the Population Council, and the U.S. EPA. Rachel most recently worked with the Packard Foundation and the Surdna Foundation to support network-building, collaboration and coordinated communications among their environmentally-focused grantees, including WWF, Monterey Bay Aquarium, FishWise, Sustainable Fisheries Partnership, Green For All, NRDC, Ceres, Energy Action Coalition and many more. Rachel also helped to spearhead Spitfire’s own social media practice, and has trained small and large nonprofits on using the web to create change. Rachel earned an English literature degree at Brown University in Providence, RI.

Resources/Media

Upwell Website
Upwell Twitter
Ocean Conservancy Website
Ocean Conservancy Facebook
Ocean Conservancy Twitter