National Audubon Society, Inc.

National Audubon Society, Inc., a tax-exempt non-profit organization headquartered in New York, operates as a prime recipient of federal grants for wetland restoration, habitat conservation, avian monitoring, and community-based environmental stewardship across the United States and internationally. The organization does not hold federal contracts but delivers grant-funded conservation work through cooperative agreements and project grants awarded directly by federal agencies without set-aside designations.

National Audubon's federal footprint centers on the Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service, which is the dominant funding source across all regions. The top five agencies by award count—Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service (56 awards), Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service (33 awards), Department of Commerce National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (30 awards), USFWS Region 3 (27 awards), and USFWS Region 9 Headquarters (27 awards)—account for 51% of all awards. By dollar value, however, the portfolio concentrates sharply: NASA's Shared Services Center anchors the value rankings with $1.9 million across four awards for bird distribution modeling under climate change in Latin America, while USFWS Region 3, Region 5, Region 4, and NOAA account for the next tier of potential value. The combined obligated dollars ($92.6 million) far exceed combined potential value ($3.9 million), indicating that the source reflects a mix of historical invoiced work and newer awards with ceiling values still being drawn down.

Recent grant work illustrates the organization's capability breadth. National Audubon received a $758,593 cooperative agreement from NOAA under the Habitat Conservation program (CFDA 11.463) in October 2026 to restore the 122-acre Willow Point Wetland Complex in Lake Erie's Sandusky Bay, transitioning the area from turbid water to vegetated wetland habitat for fish nurseries and creating shallow-water habitats for walleye recovery. In August 2026, the Army Corps of Engineers' Engineering District Jacksonville awarded a $575,819 cooperative agreement for ecological parameter monitoring in southern Florida's forested wetlands under the Conservation and Rehabilitation of Natural Resources on Military Installations program (CFDA 12.005). A $2.696 million NOAA cooperative agreement in January 2025 will support culvert replacement and living shoreline design at Hammonasset Beach State Park in Connecticut, with community engagement and youth employment from environmental justice communities. The USDA Forest Service awarded a $1.24 million cooperative agreement under the Inflation Reduction Act Landscape Scale Restoration program (CFDA 10.731) in December 2024 to promote natural climate solutions and biodiversity-friendly forest practices for non-industrial private landowners in South Carolina. A $2.546 million USDA NRCS project grant (CFDA 10.912 Environmental Quality Incentives Program) awarded in September 2024 supports grassland conservation practices across 2,000 acres in Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin, with sub-recipient engagement of state wildlife departments and universities.

National Audubon also holds a small direct-award contract footprint. A September 2025 firm-fixed-price contract from USDA NRCS Worth Region in New Mexico for $24,774 covers wetland habitat monitoring and restoration planning for two conservation easements along the Rio Grande, including drone aerial imagery, vegetation surveys, bird monitoring, and establishment of photopoints through December 2027.

Award activity has grown significantly over the past five years: 17 awards in 2022, 21 in 2023, 38 in 2024, 34 in 2025, and 16 awards already in 2026 (source snapshot dated October 15). The organization operates predominantly as a prime recipient (78% of all awards by count), with a 22% sub-award footprint predominantly routed through the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation as prime grantee. A diverse sub-recipient partner base includes universities (University of Massachusetts, University of Illinois, University of New Hampshire, North Carolina State University), state fish and wildlife agencies (Vermont Department of Fish & Wildlife, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Nebraska Game & Parks Commission), and conservation organizations (Ducks Unlimited, American Bird Conservancy). National Audubon also sub-awards funds to regional entities such as the Delaware Nature Society and the Chicago Park District for habitat restoration and community engagement work.

The organization's federal work spans wetland and marsh restoration (invasive species management, native planting, hydrologic reconnection, resilience to sea-level rise), breeding bird monitoring and population recovery (piping plovers, seabirds, saltmarsh sparrows, roseate terns, golden-winged warblers), agricultural and rangeland conservation (bird-friendly grazing practices, forage quality, soil health), climate-change modeling and biodiversity assessment, youth education and volunteer stewardship, and living shoreline and nature-based infrastructure projects. Regional offices—Audubon Great Lakes, Audubon Southwest, Audubon Texas, Audubon California, Audubon Mid-Atlantic, and others—manage delivery at the state and landscape scale. Performance occurs nationwide (including coastal Great Lakes, Chesapeake Bay, Everglades, Mississippi River floodplain, Gulf Coast, and western grasslands) and internationally (Colombia, Panama, Chile, and Latin America). With 17 awards due to complete in the next 24 months carrying combined potential value of $1.2 million, recompete activity will be modest but steady, primarily routed through existing USFWS and NOAA grant programs.