Undercurrent exists to provide the support, practical tools & community to ensure all ocean advocates reach their full potential, whilst helping them stay stoked and deeply connected to nature.

Here’s what we know to be true - A burned-out ocean advocate can’t achieve the impact they are striving for. And an ocean advocate without strategy won’t create the impact they are dreaming of. The two core themes of our work are strategy and stoke. That translates into building capability and building capacity. One without the other is useless.

We know there’s no shortage of smart, passionate & committed individuals who are dedicated to protecting our ocean. But so often these ocean advocates aren't achieving the impact they want to have because they're lacking access to the specific skillsets that will enable them to reach their potential. They’re often working with limited resources and limited capacity whilst trying to build sustainable and impactful projects.

The program has two flows running simultaneously -

Strategy - Build your impact strategy as we go / Increase your capability with tried and tested tools, methodologies and frameworks.

Stoke- Create a practice to ensure you and your team stay stoked / Increase capacity through connection to nature, to self, and to others.

Your nine-week program kicks off with an onboarding session to connect with your cohort and prep for the work ahead. Then you’ll dive into six modules, with two weeks of implementation to wrap up the work together and ensure you walk away with a complete impact strategy & stoke practice.

  • In our Strategy Session we start by getting absolute clarity on the problem you are trying to solve with a Design Thinking framework that you can use again and again. And in our Stoke Session we’ll be exploring Design Principles, ground rules for co-creation that enable you and your team to show up with integrity and alignment.

  • Working on any environmental or social project requires a deep understanding of the spaces we are trying to impact. In our Strategy Session we’ll map out your entire system - defining all the strengths, resources and assets your project has. In our Stoke Session we’ll build a framework that outlines the conditions that will enable you (and your team) to do your very best work.

  • In our Strategy Session we’ll share a powerful tool to outline the expected outcomes of a project and the reasoning behind them - the starting point for impact strategy. During our Stoke Session we’ll dive into nature connection, sharing practices to deepen your relationship with local spaces.

  • Building a Theory of Change is a vital step in any project - but it can feel like a complex task. In our Strategy Session we’ll break it down in simple terms and ensure you have a template that you can use again and again. And in our Stoke Session we’ll explore your origin story and how it can be an anti-burnout tool.

  • Our Strategy Session will build on your Theory of Change to map out your impact pillars and metrics. Our Stoke Session focuses on burn out and provides you with a tool to evaluate your workflow through an impact perpective.

  • We’ll bring together all our work to build your impact measurement framework plus a plan to implement it. The Strategy Session will enable you to share your impact strategy with potential funders, collab partners, advisory board and of course, your team. Our Stoke Session will invite you to re-imagine the future you’re working towards - a vision to spark optimism and action.

You need to be working on a specific ocean/climate-focused project - You’ll be applying everything you learn directly to the project you’re working on.

You must be committed to doing the work - You’ll need to allocate about four hours a week to Undercurrent. Don’t panic, that isn’t four hours of live sessions or screen time - it’s about 25% learning time (listening or watching), 25% connecting (office hours with the community) and 50% deep work (solo assignments).

You’re excited to connect with your cohort and build community - Each week you’ll be asked to review a member of your cohort’s work. It’s an awesome opportunity to learn about each other’s projects, share ideas and support each other.

next cohort - 23 June to 22 Aug 2025

 
 

For more information regarding our sliding fee scale, payment plans and scholarships click here.

testimonials undercurrent
Joanne Dilnot

“This experience changed my life and entire direction, I would recommend Undercurrent in a heartbeat. Going from feeling so burnt out, directionless, and a little bit hopeless to feeling so clear on a direction as well as inspired again didn't quite feel possible until now. I am so grateful for this experience and knowledge”

Joanne Dilnot, Co-Founder, Deep Blue Conservation, Sodwana Bay, South Africa

Jasmine Hortop

“I was looking to develop a strategy for my non-profit creative program. At the beginning of the course, my strategy was a foggy question mark. Undercurrent has been incredible for helping me understand my aims and challenges and grapple with an idea that felt big and unknown, and turn it into something that is tangible and feels possible. “

Jasmine Hortop, Illustrator, Cornwall, UK

Martina Burtscher

“I highly recommend Undercurrent to any ocean activist – it’s such a thoughtful and meaningful program! You’ll have the opportunity to connect with ocean activists from diverse backgrounds and learn from their experiences and challenges. The program provides practical tools to enhance both Strategy AND Stoke within your organisation, equipping you with a highly actionable toolbox. You’ll be empowered to use these tools in the way that works best for you. I highly suggest booking some extra coaching sessions, as I found them incredibly valuable for discussing pressing issues, receiving personalised feedback, and gaining new insights.”

Martina Burtscher, Co-Founder Sea Sisters, Sri Lanka

Torika Warren-Peu

“I was a bit worried I was way out of my depth, but the cohort and Protect Blue team were really supportive, encouraging and helpful. Undercurrent helped me understand the importance of strategy & stoke and how important it is to take time on both to create more impact in your work. The strategy side of it was amazing. It’s something I can see myself doing more of in my comms role.”

Torika Warren-Peu, Pitcairn Islands MPA Communications Manager

Sheena Brockie

“Undercurrent offered a wide array of tools to work on the strategy. It’s a toolbox to dip in and out of on a regular basis, growing with you as the project grows. It’s had the most impact for me in providing clarity of where we need to focus, and clearer understanding of our path, and the ability to explain better, which has led to increased funding for our project.”

Sheena Brockie, Founder GROW, Jersey, Channel Islands

  • We all have something to learn. Our role is to facilitate the conversations and provide the tools - but the real magic comes from the cohort sharing ideas, lessons learned and new perspectives. We’re in this together - zero hierarchy.

  • That means ensuring designing a pricing structure that feels accessible to all and offering multiple scholarship spots for every program we run. It blows our minds how much ticket prices are for the majority of these kinds of programs (and then we wonder why the room is full of privileged white folk). Plus we talk openly about imposter syndrome - we do our best to make sure everyone knows how welcome they are no matter where they are in their journey.

  • We’re impact-focused and so we make sure we share anything that we think can help. The best way to learn is to teach, so we hand over all the good stuff we use in our work, and invite you to do the same.

  • It never made sense to us to gather a bunch of ocean folk and make them sit in a hotel conference room, drink coffee and listen to endless speakers. Or spend hours staring at a screen whilst doing an online course. We design our programs to ensure you can spend as much time as possible outside.

  • And in the words of Edward Abbey - “One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am - a reluctant enthusiast....a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. “ - Our aim is that through our programs you create a commitment to stoke. That means micro-adventures, more time outdoors, learning how to regulate your nervous system and connection to an incredible community through our common love for the ocean.

  • Learn your way - Two sessions delivered weekly (you can watch or listen in your own time)

  • Go analogue - Audio learning & printable workbook so you can opt outside

  • Cohort as community - Get to know your cohort with peer-to-peer learning

  • Weekly office hours - Option to join us for live sessions to ask questions, get feedback on your work and learn from your cohort

  • Special guests - Learn from six incredible ocean leaders as they share their stories and wisdom with the cohort, as well as provide case studies of best practice and access to relevant networks and resources

  • Online learning hub - Everything in one place. Share ideas, connect, learn together

  • Stoke sessions - Breathwork, nature connection practices and nervous system regulation

  • 1:1 coaching - If you’d like additional support, we offer an option to book three 1:1 45-minute calls with us at anytime during your program (limited spaces apply)

Over the last few years, we’ve been fortunate enough to work on some really important causes with incredible people. On every project we’ve found ourselves pulling from our toolkit, seeking out new ways of thinking & working and co-designing strategy & storytelling solutions that help amplify the hard work being done on the ground.

Protect Blue is an ocean-focused agency built on four pillars: Strategy, Storytelling, Education & Expeditions. As an agency, we work predominantly with non-profits & ocean orgs. But we also work directly with ocean advocates & activists through our own programs, residencies & workshops.

The very first iteration of our organisation, Protect Blue, was an event for ocean advocates in 2017. A gathering in Italy that brought together a phenomenal collective of changemakers. We switched up the ‘normal’ format for a conference and invited all our participants on a series of micro-adventures. Every workshop was delivered outside and connected to nature. It just made sense to us. We’re more creative, more energised and more present when we’re outdoors.

The event was a big success - but we realised there was another tweak to make. We’d brought together a group of experts to facilitate workshops on climate, plastic pollution, blue carbon and other key sustainability issues that our community was already immersed in. They cared deeply but didn’t need to go to yet another conference to discuss them.

So we did what any good design thinker does - and we asked our community what they needed - what the biggest challenges were that they were facing, what skills they felt like they needed and what success looked like in regards to their impact. Turns out the answers across the whole community were loud and clear.

Everyone needed practical tools to help create more meaningful impact in their work and in their communities. They wanted to know how best to build strategy, to tell more engaging stories and to measure their impact.

And really - that’s how Wavemakers & Undercurrent came about. We’ve blended our commercial skillsets with our lean approach to environmental & social impact. We’ve gathered all the tools that have helped us, and so many of our clients, friends & collab partners and built a blueprint for meaningful impact.