Case Study
Surfers Against Sewage
Executive Summary
Building data and AI literacy
FOIL delivered two strategic workshops for Surfers Against Sewage — a national marine conservation and activism charity that empowers communities to take action for the ocean — to confidently understand and adopt data and AI solutions. We facilitated leadership discussions on data strategy and provided practical AI training for the whole team. The result: a clearer path to becoming data-driven, tangible plans for responsible AI use, and internal capability to maximise their impact for ocean conservation.
What we did
As a charity fighting for clean oceans through grassroots activism and evidence-led campaigning, they required practical guidance on building internal data capability and responsibly adopting AI tools, while staying true to their purpose. FOIL designed and facilitated two half-day workshops that demystified data and AI specifically for their organisation and mission.
The first workshop brought together SAS leadership to explore how data could support their vision of thriving people and thriving oceans. We examined their existing data foundations through their CRM implementation and identified opportunities to become more evidence-led across campaigns, fundraising, and community engagement. Together, we explored how better data use could help them monitor sewage pollution more effectively, engage supporters more meaningfully, and measure their environmental impact with greater precision.
The second workshop opened to the whole team—from campaigners to fundraisers to community coordinators—providing hands-on training in AI literacy. We covered the real opportunities and limitations of AI, taught practical prompt engineering techniques, and helped SAS develop their own AI guardrails to ensure ethical, consistent use aligned with their charity values.
Throughout both sessions, we grounded every discussion in SAS's mission to protect the ocean and current organisational state, making the content immediately relevant and actionable for a charity tackling urgent environmental challenges.
The impact we made
Strategic confidence for leadership
The leadership gained strategic confidence in their data journey. They recognised that their CRM implementation was already moving them in the right direction, but now understood how to think more strategically about data to drive greater impact. They identified specific opportunities where data could help them track water quality trends, optimise volunteer engagement, understand supporter journeys, and demonstrate the tangible results of their ocean activism.
The impact we made
Practical use, prompt engineering and Ethical AI
For the wider team, AI transformed from abstract technology to practical tool. Staff across all levels—whether coordinating beach cleans, running campaigns, or managing donor relationships—gained hands-on experience with AI, learned to use it safely and effectively, and understood both its potential and its limitations for their work.
Crucially, SAS started to consider their own AI policy framework and ethical guardrails, ensuring they could adopt AI in ways that aligned with their environmental and community values.