How much does The Ocean Foundation give?

The Ocean Foundation reported 24 itemized grants totaling $866,993, out of $3,869,109 in total grant expense reported on the return in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 16 and 38 organizations a year over FY2017 to FY2024.

What does The Ocean Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Environment (53%), Science & Tech (13%), Education (12%).

Who are The Ocean Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Conservacion ConCiencia ($1.1M), Brick City TV LLC ($592k), Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi ($329k).

Does The Ocean Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2024, 74% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Which funders back the same organizations as The Ocean Foundation?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Resources Legacy Fund, The Pew Charitable Trusts, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors Inc.

Where is The Ocean Foundation based?

The Ocean Foundation is based in DC.

Foundation Dossiers Mostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

Washington, D.C. · Public charity

The Ocean Foundation

As the only community foundation for the ocean, The Ocean Foundation's 501(c)(3) mission is to improve global ocean health, climate resilience, and the blue economy. We create partnerships to connect people in the communities in which we work to the informational, technical, and financial resources they need to achieve their ocean…

$3.9M
Granted FY2025(still arriving): 24
Itemized grants FY2025: 38
Organizations funded FY2024: 74%
First-time grantees FY2024

Read the full brief

Itemized, FY2025: $867k; The rest is grants the schedule does not break out
Median grant, FY2025: $20,500
Largest grant, FY2025: $127,888
Organizations funded a year: 16 to 38; FY2017 to FY2024
States reached, FY2025: 18
Total assets, FY2025: $18M

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2024, 74% of the organizations The Ocean Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 49% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 51% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $767k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

EnvironmentAnimalsEducationInternationalScience & TechArts & CultureOther

How this is measured

First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

The numbers by year

Fiscal year	Organizations funded	To those organizations	First-time grantees
FY2025still arriving	23	$739k	52%
FY2024	38	$1.6M	74%
FY2023	22	$1.0M	41%
FY2022	21	$650k	52%
FY2021	20	$682k	35%
FY2020	20	$686k	60%
FY2018	18	$803k	67%
FY2017	16	$367k	n/a

100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Environment$3.8MScience & Tech$936kEducation$820kArts & Culture$750kRecreation & Sports$307kAnimals$165kInternational$95kPublic Benefit$81kOther$0

Where its grants go

Grant dollars by states, across the years we hold.

Which US states its grants reach

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2017 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

Grantee	Total granted	Years	Share of their budget
Conservacion ConCiencia	$1,073,418	7	n/a
Brick City TV LLC	$591,704	5	n/a
Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi	$328,911	3	n/a
Playa Viva LLC	$226,355	8	n/a
Smelts Sea Mammal Education Learning Technology Society	$225,000	4	36%
Deep Green Wilderness	$203,436	7	n/a
Secore International Inc	$180,069	2	5%
Marine Debris Foundation	$170,692	2	39%
Padi Aware Foundation	$134,800	3	8%
University of Oregon	$124,740	1	n/a

Show all 106 grantees

All grantees of The Ocean Foundation by total granted
Grantee	Total granted	Years	Share of their budget
Conservacion ConCiencia	$1,073,418	7	n/a
Brick City TV LLC	$591,704	5	n/a
Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi	$328,911	3	n/a
Playa Viva LLC	$226,355	8	n/a
Smelts Sea Mammal Education Learning Technology Society	$225,000	4	36%
Deep Green Wilderness	$203,436	7	n/a
Secore International Inc	$180,069	2	5%
Marine Debris Foundation	$170,692	2	39%
Padi Aware Foundation	$134,800	3	8%
University of Oregon	$124,740	1	n/a
Coastal Coordination Program LLC	$120,645	4	n/a
Uc Santa Barbara Foundation	$119,528	1	0%
Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance Inc	$110,000	4	1%
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution	$100,000	2	0%
Havenworth Coastal Conserv	$93,633	5	n/a
Race to Zero Films LLC	$91,000	1	n/a
Marine Conservation Biology Institute	$88,350	3	5%
The Vieques Conservation and Historical Trust Inc	$83,136	2	11%
Oregon State University	$82,189	2	n/a
The Pew Charitable Trusts	$81,141	2	0%
University of Hawaii System	$77,500	4	n/a
DBA Island Reach	$68,350	2	n/a
Natural Resources Defense Council Inc	$67,000	4	0%
Anchor Coalition Inc	$64,760	2	n/a
World Wide Wallace LLC	$59,850	2	n/a
Restore America's Estuaries	$59,000	2	1%
Smithsonian Institution	$50,633	2	0%
Sustainable Travel Interntl	$50,589	4	n/a
The Trustees of Reservations	$50,000	1	0%
Virgin Unite USA Inc	$50,000	1	n/a
Parliamentarians for Global Action	$50,000	1	2%
Earthecho International Inc	$50,000	1	3%
Netcentric Campaigns	$50,000	1	3%
Lsu Foundation	$50,000	1	0%
Ecolibrium Inc	$49,950	3	n/a
Havenworth Coastal Conserv	$47,267	1	n/a
Ocean River Institute Inc	$46,450	2	36%
Don Hanson Foundation Inc	$45,728	1	n/a
National Marine Sanctuary Foundation	$41,935	1	n/a
Institute for Tropical Ecology and Conservation Inc	$40,000	3	33%
University of Guam Endowment Foundation Inc	$35,000	1	2%
Helix Science LLC	$35,000	1	n/a
Greater Farallones Association	$35,000	1	3%
International Indigenous Fund For Development and Solidarity Batani	$35,000	1	3%
Wildcoast	$30,000	1	1%
National Academy of Sciences	$30,000	1	0%
The Story of Stuff Project	$30,000	1	1%
Aleli Environmental	$30,000	1	61%
Regents of the University of California at San Diego	$30,000	1	n/a
The Surfrider Foundation	$29,000	1	0%
Hawaii Marine Mammal Alliance Inc	$26,215	1	4%
Clean Water Fund	$25,000	1	0%
Heal the Bay	$25,000	1	1%
Maralliance	$25,000	1	3%
Only One Inc	$25,000	1	0%
Student-Led Sustainable Initiatives Inc Plan - Post-Landfill Action Network	$25,000	1	3%
Hawaii Local2030 Hub	$25,000	1	1%
Protect Maine's Fishing Heritage Foundation	$24,000	2	7%
Noyo Center For Marine Science	$23,160	3	3%
Occidental Arts and Ecology Center	$22,500	1	1%
National Caucus of Environmental Legislators	$22,000	1	3%
International Fund for Animal Welfare Inc	$20,900	1	0%
Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies	$20,000	1	n/a
TrezCo Systems	$20,000	1	n/a
The Conservation Fund a Nonprofit Corporation	$20,000	1	0%
Algalita Marine Research and Education	$20,000	1	4%
Maine Public Broadcasting Corporation	$20,000	1	0%
The 5 Gyres Institute	$20,000	1	2%
Mariana Islands Nature Alliance	$18,000	1	n/a
North Pacific Wildlife Consulting	$18,000	1	n/a
Remote Ecologist Inc	$18,000	1	n/a
Marin Link Inc	$17,518	1	1%
The Marine Mammal Center	$16,589	2	0%
Council on Sustainable Fashion and Design of Grenada	$15,000	1	n/a
Coolant Climate Inc	$15,000	1	n/a
Ecodeo LLC	$15,000	1	n/a
One Eleuthera Foundation	$15,000	1	1%
Woodland Park Zoological Society	$15,000	1	0%
Ocean Discovery Institute	$14,930	1	0%
Uc Santa Cruz Foundation	$14,000	1	0%
Whale Lagoon LLC	$13,697	1	n/a
Florida State University Research Foundation Inc	$13,175	1	0%
National Aquarium Inc	$12,500	1	0%
World Wildlife Fund Inc	$12,500	1	0%
East Carolina University	$12,395	1	n/a
Attagene Inc	$12,240	1	n/a
Agricultural Research Foundation	$12,042	1	0%
University of North Carolina at Wilmington - College of Health & Human Serv	$11,000	1	n/a
University of Miami	$10,000	1	0%
Lower Nehalem Community Trust	$10,000	1	1%
Auburn University Foundation	$10,000	1	0%
The International Center for Dialogue & Peacebuilding	$10,000	1	n/a
North American Association for Environmental Educa	$10,000	1	0%
Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum	$10,000	1	0%
THE CHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS Of the University of Cambridge	$10,000	1	0%
University of Alaska	$9,797	1	n/a
John Dutton Prod	$9,500	1	n/a
Environment Florida Research and Policy Center Inc	$9,200	1	n/a
University of South Alabama	$9,000	1	n/a
Ocean Ecology Network Inc	$8,500	1	4%
See Turtles	$7,907	1	n/a
The Saint Louis Zoo Association	$7,500	1	n/a
Ocean County Vocational Technical School	$7,500	1	n/a
Save the Bay Inc	$6,850	1	0%
Sawfish Conservation Society Inc	$6,600	1	n/a
University of Puerto Rico - Mayaguez Campus	$5,670	1	n/a

Plus 1 recipient with no EIN on record ($15k), not named here.

The Ocean Foundation supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 5 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 62 largest grantees; load-bearing ones sit top left.

Tap a dot to name the grantee.

How this is measured

Share of budget is the funder’s grant in a year over the grantee’s total revenue that year, at its highest across the years we hold; revenue is from all sources. Only grantees confirmed against their own filings, whose grants do not exceed their revenue, are plotted: the largest 62.

Nonprofits that may fit its grantmaking

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Resources Legacy FundCA27.8× affinity12 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Resources Legacy Fund · The Pew Charitable Trusts · Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors Inc · National Fish and Wildlife Foundation · The Marisla Foundation · The Schmidt Family Foundation · Patagoniaorg · The Curtis & Edith Munson Foundation · National Marine Sanctuary Foundation · The Overbrook Foundation · Builders Vision Foundation · The Keith Campbell Foundation for the Environment Inc

How this is measured

Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

Compare The Ocean Foundation with peer funders

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to The Ocean Foundation?

Find your warmest path to The Ocean Foundation through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.

Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.

About The Ocean Foundation

How much does The Ocean Foundation give?: The Ocean Foundation reported 24 itemized grants totaling $866,993, out of $3,869,109 in total grant expense reported on the return in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 16 and 38 organizations a year over FY2017 to FY2024.
What does The Ocean Foundation fund?: By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Environment (53%), Science & Tech (13%), Education (12%).
Who are The Ocean Foundation's largest grantees?: By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Conservacion ConCiencia ($1.1M), Brick City TV LLC ($592k), Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi ($329k).
Does The Ocean Foundation fund new organizations?: In FY2024, 74% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Which funders back the same organizations as The Ocean Foundation?: Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Resources Legacy Fund, The Pew Charitable Trusts, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors Inc.
Where is The Ocean Foundation based?: The Ocean Foundation is based in DC.