Coastal States Stewardship Foundation

Coastal States Stewardship Foundation is a tax-exempt nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, DC, that specializes in facilitating interstate and intertribal management of coastal and ocean resources through data management, stakeholder engagement, and collaborative research initiatives. The organization has been registered in the System for Award Management (SAM.gov) since February 2006 and primarily serves as a fiscal sponsor for regional ocean partnerships while providing direct services to support ocean data infrastructure and coastal resource management across multiple U.S. regions.

Through federal contracts, Coastal States Stewardship Foundation has provided substantial administrative and management support services to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), serving as the primary federal contracting partner. The organization has received nine contract awards totaling approximately $6.8 million since 2021, including a definitive contract worth $4.7 million (NT-24-X13 POWERON) with an ultimate completion date of September 30, 2028, and a firm fixed-price definitive contract valued at $990,047 for Mid-Atlantic Ocean Data Portal support. Additional purchase orders have supported the Northeast Ocean Data Portal ($193,173.28, $200,000, and $250,000 across multiple award periods), the Mid-Atlantic Ocean Data Portal ($423,388.81), the Regional Wildlife Science Collaborative ($396,473.69, which was terminated for convenience), and Power Analysis for Passive Acoustic Networks ($45,000). These contracts have been awarded on both sole-source and competitive bases without set-aside designations, and the organization has not utilized federal contract vehicles or identified major subcontractors. The work encompasses maintaining centralized online repositories for ocean data, providing operational support for regional data portals, conducting administrative and project management services, and facilitating stakeholder coordination for ocean resource management decision-making.

Coastal States Stewardship Foundation has received substantial grant funding primarily through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), serving as fiscal sponsor for four established Regional Ocean Partnerships funded under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The organization currently administers cooperative agreements totaling approximately $18.3 million for the Northeast Regional Ocean Council (NROC), Mid-Atlantic Regional Council on the Ocean (MARCO), and West Coast Ocean Alliance (WCOA) partnerships, with award periods extending through 2027 and 2028. Previous grant awards from NOAA included similar cooperative agreements valued at approximately $11.8 million to these same regional partnerships, awarded in December 2022 with completion dates in 2025 and 2026. These grants support comprehensive coastal management initiatives including coastal hazards resilience monitoring, ocean and coastal ecosystem health enhancement through seafloor mapping and ocean acidification research, regional ocean planning and interjurisdictional coordination, tribal engagement initiatives, marine debris prevention coordination, and the maintenance and expansion of regional ocean data portals and ocean health dashboards. Additionally, Coastal States Stewardship Foundation has received federal grant sub-awards from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality for projects related to passive acoustic monitoring for whale surveillance and coordination among regional ocean planning working groups for state-level ocean planning integration. The organization's grant portfolio demonstrates expertise in facilitating multi-stakeholder regional collaboration, managing complex data governance systems, and implementing science-based coastal and ocean resource management initiatives across geographically diverse regions.