Where Reef Without Borders Stands, September 2026
By Clarisa Strohmeyer, Founder | 17 September 2026 | 5 min read
This replaces our May 2026 launch report. The organisation was eleven days old when that was written, and most of what it described was still ahead of us. Four months on, some of it has happened and some of it has not. Both are worth saying out loud.
Key takeaways
- Reef Without Borders is four months old and holds full 501(c)(3) status.
- Our founder spent six weeks in Cebu across July and August 2026 and photographed and filmed the reef at Kontiki, Mactan.
- We have not yet run a funded restoration mission, planted coral, or collected survival data.
- Our first mission is planned for Q4 2026 at Kontiki.
Where we are
Reef Without Borders was incorporated as a Texas nonprofit corporation on 18 May 2026. The IRS granted our federal 501(c)(3) determination on 5 June 2026, effective retroactively to 22 May 2026, and classified us as a public charity. Our EIN is 42-2691547. Contributions are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.
That means the legal and financial groundwork is finished. It is the least interesting part of building an organisation, and it has to be right before anything else can happen.
Six weeks in Cebu
In July and August 2026 our founder spent six weeks in Cebu and personally photographed and filmed the reef at Kontiki, Mactan, the site chosen for our first restoration mission.
This was a solo trip. It was not a scientific survey, and no coral was planted. What it produced is a visual record of the site as it is now, before any work begins, taken by the person who will be accountable for what happens there. That record matters later, when there is something to compare it against.
The team
Our founding board of three directors is seated: Vanessa L. Iway, J.D., President and Legal Counsel, a graduate of the Ateneo de Manila School of Law; Rosalinda Maddoux, CPA, Treasurer, with 17 years of tax compliance experience; and Renato B. Solis, Secretary, a management consultant with 30 years of organisational experience in Cebu.
Dindo C. Paquibot is our Director of Dive Operations in the Philippines. He has been a PADI Instructor since 2007, with twenty years of professional diving in Philippine waters, including a year of coral nursery and transplantation work in 2019 with a conservation nonprofit that has since dissolved.
Kyle Ali, Marine Biologist, reviews our technical and scientific content.
What has not happened
We have not run a funded restoration mission. We have not planted coral. We have no survival data, no monitoring results and no field outcomes to report. An organisation four months old that tells you otherwise is worth a second look.
We are also not publishing a percentage breakdown of where donations go. We could produce one, but it would be a projection rather than a record, and a projection formatted like a financial statement is a misleading thing to put in front of a donor. We will publish a full expense breakdown with our first Form 990 and after our first funded mission.
What is next
Our first funded restoration mission is planned for Q4 2026 at Kontiki, Mactan, Cebu. We intend to film it and to publish what we find afterwards, including the parts that do not go to plan.
The honest summary of Reef Without Borders in September 2026 is that the organisation exists, the site is chosen, the team is in place, and the work has not started yet. The next report will say whether it did.
Sources and further reading
- Nonprofit Explorer — ProPublica. Where our Form 990 will appear once filed.
- Standards for Charity Accountability — BBB Wise Giving Alliance.
- Coral restoration: a systematic review — Boström-Einarsson et al., PLOS ONE, 2020.
Comments are closed.