11th Hour Racing Renews Grants with 34 Organizations #ForTheOcean

11th Hour Racing Renews Grants with 35 Organizations #ForTheOcean

In 2022, 35 previously awarded grantees were renewed, bringing our total funding to nonprofit organizations in 2022 to nearly $4 million.

The list of initiatives that we support reflects our organization’s strategy, which responds to the landscape of ocean-related issues driven by the effects of climate change. Generally, the organization seeks projects that advance ocean literacy and stewardship, clean technologies and best practices, and ecosystem restoration — and the need for projects that improve water quality, bolster coastal resilience, and sequester carbon through coastal habitat restoration is becoming ever more pressing.

The current round of grant renewals includes the following organizations:

  • Azul (R.I., U.S.) leads the #LatinosMarinos program to elevate voices from frontline communities through storytelling, roots, and culture to support activism and leadership in the movement to protect our ocean and its marine life.
  • Baltimore Compost Collective (Md., U.S.) provides a residential food scrap collection service, as well as a youth entrepreneurship program that employs local teenagers and trains them in workforce skills, food sustainability programming, and community-scale composting.
  • Billion Oyster Project (N.Y., U.S.) is restoring oyster reefs to New York Harbor through public education initiatives. By 2035, the goal is to distribute one billion live oysters around 100 acres of reefs.
  • BLAKE (Auckland, N.Z.) connects students with the marine environment through snorkeling, surfing, walking nature trails, beach cleanups, and other outdoor activities to inspire them to take action for the environment.
  • Borderlands Restoration Network (Sonora, Mexico) partners with the Comcáac Indigenous Community to establish a community-based seagrass and mangrove restoration project in the Gulf of California.
  • Center for EcoTechnology (R.I., U.S.) partners with Clean Ocean Access to work with businesses to address contamination challenges in their food scrap collections, offer guidance for on-site processing of food scraps, and identify opportunities to prevent surplus and donate edible food.
  • Chicago Maritime Arts Center (Ill., U.S.) offers a youth boat-building program in Chicago that teaches science, technology, engineering, art, and math (STEAM) and teamwork and explores the ecology and the maritime arts.
  • Clean Ocean Access (R.I., U.S.) leads Healthy Soils Healthy Seas Rhode Island, a residential and commercial composting program to divert food scraps from our waste stream and increase awareness of the connectivity of land and sea.
  • Clean Ocean Access (R.I., U.S.) developed a framework for recycling shrink-wrap from the marine industry, construction, and agricultural sectors in Southern New England, as well as public education and outreach to encourage reusable covers.
  • Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation (R.I., U.S.) is implementing a plan to remove lost fishing gear, ghost gear, from Rhode Island waters in partnership with commercial fishermen, local and international experts in ghost gear removal, and state regulatory agencies.
  • Community Boating Center New Bedford (Mass., U.S.) introduces public school students to ecosystem restoration, sailing, and STEM career paths and leads a sustainable aquaculture training program for local youth.
  • Community Boating Center Providence (R.I., U.S.) provides funding for youth to attend sailing and paddling lessons and teaches STEM education and ocean literacy skills on the water.
  • Courageous Sailing (Mass., U.S.) teaches elementary school students sailing, swimming, and academics to build proficiency and empower them to think critically about issues of marine debris, waste management, water quality, climate change, and endangered species.
  • Gather New Haven (Conn., U.S.) teaches water-based, environmental education activities incorporating composting and marine ecology and leads a youth entrepreneur program that empowers high school students to develop small-scale green ventures through urban farms, composting, and carpentry activities.
  • Global Ghost Gear Initiative (Maine, U.S.) will conduct ghost gear removal, prevention, and recycling initiatives in collaboration with fishers in the Gulf of Maine and Narragansett Bay.
  • Groundwork RI (R.I., U.S.) is installing New England’s first in-vessel composting system which can produce a healthy soil amendment in two to three months. It also leads Harvest Cycle Compost, a subscription-based food scrap collection service and composting program, and hosts public compost application workshops.
  • Hudson River Community Sailing (N.Y., U.S.) provides year-round youth development, academic enrichment, and leadership education through sailing and boatbuilding.
  • Imagine H2O (Calif., U.S.) leads the Urban Water Challenge, a global competition to encourage the development of innovative ways to advance how we source, distribute, use, and reuse water to build resilient communities.
  • Mariposa DR Foundation (Cabarete, Dominican Republic) aims to end generational poverty by empowering, educating, and employing girls aged 8-18+ with year-round programming that emphasizes environmental stewardship and activism.
  • MLK Center (R.I., U.S.) nourishes, educates, and supports Newport County residents to improve their economic, social, and physical well-being. The students enrolled in the MLK Center’s preschool and after-school programs participate in sorting their food scraps to be composted through the Healthy Soils Healthy Seas RI program.
  • Movement Education Outdoors (R.I., U.S.) provides youth with equitable access to experience the outdoors and develop water safety skills, environmental stewardship, and place-based ecological and historical literacy.
  • newportFILM (R.I., U.S.) hosts public film screenings and educational screenings for students to heighten awareness of the issues facing our planet and implements Zero Waste stations for composting and recycling to make events more sustainable.
  • Ocean Discovery Institute (Calif., U.S.) leads a multi-year science and conservation program designed to empower students from 8th grade onward and individuals that are considering higher education to pursue STEM careers.
  • Ocean Research & Conservation Association (Fla., U.S.) engages community members in local restoration and monitoring programs through its Center for Citizen Science Laboratory and the Living Shoreline Monitoring Citizen Science Project.
  • Polynesian Voyaging Society (Hawaii, U.S.) revives the art and science of traditional wayfinding and the spirit of ocean exploration and will engage indigenous communities along their 65,000 nautical mile Moananuiākea voyage around the Pacific Ocean.
  • Rocking The Boat (N.Y., U.S.) leads an on-water Environmental Science Program that engages students in research projects on water quality, oyster restoration, and bird migration data collection and analysis and offers apprentice positions in the Environmental Job Skills Program.
  • Sail Newport (R.I., U.S.) leads a Science and Sailing Program that blends the local school district’s STEM curriculum with hands-on sailing fundamentals and boating safety for every 4th-grade student in partnership with Pell Elementary School. It is also piloting an after-school Marine Exploration Program for grades 6-8.
  • Save the Bay (R.I., U.S.) leads efforts to help adapt salt marshes to sea-level rise by restoring beach grass and native plants to reduce runoff pollution and developing a statewide Salt Marsh Stewardship Program for training and engaging volunteers to monitor and restore salt marshes.
  • Seacology (Las Galeras, Dominican Republic) engages local communities to advance seagrass and mangrove conservation and restoration efforts and supports a local fishers association that will provide a source of sustainable livelihood.
  • SoundWaters (Conn., U.S.) leads a hands-on summer learning experience through a STEM-based curriculum to build self-confidence through outdoor water and sailing-focused programming for students in partnership with Stamford Public Schools.
  • Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii (Hawaii, U.S.) is increasing Oahu’s capacity to process food waste into compost with an in-vessel system and expanding education on the link between soil and ocean health.
  • The Ocean Foundation (DC, U.S.) is restoring seagrass and building a mangrove nursery to support large-scale restoration in the Jobos Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve in Puerto Rico, a region impacted by two hurricanes.
  • The Outlaw Ocean Project (DC, U.S.) created The Outlaw Ocean Institute to recruit, provide additional training for, and elevate the work of early-career journalists from some of the countries around the world most affected by climate change, illegal or unsustainable fishing practices, and labor abuses at sea.
  • Unplastify (Buenos Aires, Argentina) inspires the Argentinean sailing community to take action against plastic pollution through educational talks, campaigns, and one toolkit on how sailing clubs can eliminate single-use plastic.
  • Vieques Conservation & Historical Trust (Vieques, Puerto Rico) is restoring the mangrove forest near Puerto Mosquito’s bioluminescent bay and using existing vegetative material from the dead mangroves as erosion control barriers.