The San Diego Foundation has awarded more than $650,000 in grants to 18 nonprofits in the U.S. and Mexico as part of the foundation’s Binational Resilience Initiative. Much of this year’s funding focuses on community-led projects in the Tijuana River watershed and Cali-Baja Coast to address sewage pollution and cross-border water management that have threatened public health and environmental resilience. This year’s grants range from $15,000 to $103,000 and will go to nonprofits to monitor water quality, restore the watershed and improve coastal resilience.
This year’s grant recipients include six binational partnerships and three general support grants for nonprofits to work on water quality monitoring, watershed restoration and kelp forest recovery. Here are some of the projects receiving grants.
San Diego Coastkeeper, San Diego State University and Proyecto Fronterizo de Educación Ambiental received $102,250 to develop a joint water quality monitoring system and expand public data platform for the Tijuana River watershed One Coastal Community.
Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, San Diego Green Infrastructure Consortium and 4 Walls International were granted $103,000 to create a binational hydrological model of the Tijuana River watershed to improve water quality and stormwater management.
Institute of the Americas and Centro Mexicano de Derecho Ambiental received $99,977 to foster water re-use literacy and policy collaboration across the border.
Tijuana Estuary Foundation and Fundación La Puerta were awarded $101,065 to promote green infrastructure and small-scale water treatment solutions in the upper Tijuana River basin in Tecate.
Reef Check Foundation and Ecologia, Cielo, Mar y Tierra received $100,000 to assess the health of kelp forests in San Diego and Tijuana as vital natural defenses against climate change and ocean conditions around the water treatment outflows.
Fish Reef Project US, Fish Reef Project MX and Acuacultura AC received $100,000 to restore kelp forests in northern Baja California with potential expansion into San Diego, while generating blue carbon credits.
General support grant recipients include Investigación Aplicada a Ecosistemas A.C. ($15,000), Instituto de Planeación Ambiental y Calidad de Vida A.C. ($15,000), and Uniting Natives Culturally and Intertribally ($15,000).
“Through the Binational Resilience Initiative, San Diego Foundation is helping organizations on both sides of the border advance practical, community-based solutions, from watershed restoration to coastal resilience, that strengthen the environment and improve quality of life for San Diegans and our neighbors in Baja California alike,” said Mark Stuart, president & CEO of San Diego Foundation, in a statement.”
The Binational Resilience Initiative has awarded more than $3 million to 30 binational projects involving over 55 nonprofit partners across the U.S. and Mexico since 2022.