AWARE COMMUNITY GRANT PROGRAM

The people already in the water are the ones who can protect it

Grants of up to $10,000 for the dive centres, non-profits and community groups already doing the work. Applications are closed at the moment. The next round opens in 2027.

Where the money went Fund the next round

APPLICATIONS

Currently closed

The next funding round opens in 2027. Dates will be posted here once they are confirmed.

Grant size Up to $10,000 USD

Open to PADI Dive Centres and non-profits

Non-profit operating budget Less than $1 million USD

Round length Roughly three months

Read the grant guidelines Tell me when it opens

The people who dive a place every week are the first to see what is happening to it.

Community Grants pay for the equipment, the training and the time that lets a local dive centre, non-profit or community group do that work properly. Habitat restoration, debris recovery, species surveys, protected area monitoring. On coastlines, on reefs, and on a lake in Uganda.

Since 2022 that has meant more than $800,000 across 80+ projects in 28 countries. In Mkwiro, Kenya, it trained community members as Reef Rangers. In Gili Air, Indonesia, it put a young woman through her certifications and her reef monitoring training. Applications are closed at the moment. The next round opens in 2027.

$800,000+

awarded since 2022

80+

projects funded

countries

organisations backed

$10,000

maximum per grant

FUNDED PROJECTS · SIX OF FORTY-THREE

Where the money went

A sample of the work. Every project here is run by the people who live and dive there. Every organisation funded is listed below.

Marine Habitat Restoration

Coral Catch

Indonesia

A scholarship putting Indonesian women through coral restoration training. Forty-four graduates, every one of them still working in conservation.

Marine Habitat Restoration

REEFolution Foundation

Kenya

Ten Mwakamba community members trained as Reef Rangers, eight now employed, working the first Community-Managed Area in the Diani-Chale Reserve.

Vulnerable Marine Species

Tropical Research and Conservation Centre (TRACC)

Malaysia

Photo identification surveys building a green turtle database across seven islands off Borneo.

Marine Debris

Marine Research Foundation

Malaysia

Eleven clean-up expeditions with 175 volunteers. Half a tonne of debris and 98 kilos of ghost net out of Sabah's waters.

Marine Habitat Restoration

Kosamare

Greece

Quadrat surveys along the Greek coast, tracking how warming water changes the shallows.

Marine Protected Areas

Acqua Sub

Brazil

Funded by Blancpain

Survey work that strengthened enforcement inside the Setiba protected area. Two kilometres of illegal netting came out in a single week.

Every organisation funded

Forty-three since 2022, across more than 80 projects. Open a program area to see them.

Marine Protected Areas6▾

Acqua Sub, Brazil

Marine Conservation Philippines, Philippines

Beqa Adventure Divers, Fiji

People and The Sea, Philippines

Bongo Bongo Divers, Philippines

Maputo Dive Center, Mozambique

Marine Habitat Restoration20▾

Coral Catch, Indonesia

REEFolution Foundation, Kenya

Sea Communities, Indonesia

Blue Corner Dive, Indonesia

Big Bubble Dive Resort, Thailand

Coral Point Diving, Dominican Republic

Institute for Marine Research, Philippines

Dive Rarotonga, Cook Islands

Reef Renewal, Curacao

Dodo Divers, Mauritius

Whaleshark and Oceanic Research Center, Honduras

Anambas Foundation, Indonesia

Ocean Ventures, Fiji

Diving Planet, Colombia

Takata Dive and Research Center, Mexico

Corals 4 Conservation, Fiji

Master Divers, Thailand

Kosamare, Greece

Aquarius Dive Shop, United States

Reef Divers, South Africa

Marine Debris7▾

Marine Research Foundation, Malaysia

Rwenzori Scuba Divers and Salvage, Uganda

Zibel, Malta

Florida Keys Dive Center, United States

Seattle Dive Tours, United States

Emerald Coast Scuba, United States

AquaMarine Diving Bali, Indonesia

Vulnerable Marine Species10▾

Tropical Research and Conservation Centre (TRACC), Malaysia

Mike's Dauin Beach Resort, Philippines

7 Perle A.S.D, Italy

Bubbles Dive Resort, Malaysia

The Seahorse Trust, Malta

Iguana Divers, Costa Rica

Red Sea Project, Egypt

Australian Diving Instruction, Australia

Wildlife and Human Resources Organisation (WHRO), Ghana

AquaLife Conservancy, Ghana

FROM THE GRANTEES

What a grant looks like three years on

A Coral Catch Superwoman carrying a hex dome out to the Gili Matra Marine Reserve, Indonesia

FEATURED PROJECT · INDONESIA

Forty-four women. Every one still in conservation.

Coral Catch runs a nine-week scholarship in the Gili Matra Marine Reserve, Indonesia's first all-female coral restoration team. It takes women from no formal training to designing and monitoring coral restoration projects of their own.

Forty-four have graduated. Every one is now working in conservation or sustainable tourism, and fifty have gained professional diving qualifications. Along the way the program has deployed over 300 structures, outplanted more than 5,000 corals, and taught 117 local women to swim.

Founder Rose Huizenga measures it differently. Success, she says, is not the coral count but "the lives we transform".

More than 350 local women have now applied. The target is a network of 100.

Read the full story