How Donations Are Used in Reef Restoration

By Clarisa Strohmeyer, Founder | Updated 17 September 2026 | 7 min read

 TransparencyDonors

Donors deserve to know exactly what happens to their money. Not in a general way. Not in a way that points to a PDF buried in a website. In a specific, mission-by-mission, coral-by-coral way that makes the connection between giving and impact visible and undeniable. That is the standard Reef Without Borders holds itself to, and this article is part of how we meet it.

Quick Answer: How Does Reef Without Borders Use Donations?
Reef Without Borders is pre-operational. We have not yet funded a restoration mission, so this page describes how donations will be used rather than how they have been. We will publish a full expense breakdown with our first Form 990 and after our first funded mission.

Where Donations Go

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Field operations include all costs directly associated with getting trained divers into the water at restoration sites: boat transport, fuel, dive equipment maintenance, oxygen and air fills, coral nursery construction materials, fragment collection and transplanting supplies, and fees to our field partners in Cebu, including our Director of Dive Operations.

Documentation covers the camera and video equipment used to record conditions at the site, and the work of turning that footage into something a donor can actually read. We would rather show you the reef than describe it.

Administration and fundraising covers website maintenance, legal compliance, accounting, and the costs of communicating with donors and grant funders. We keep this category as small as possible.

What a Donation Funds

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• $100 sponsors a coral fragment through our Adopt-A-Coral programme for our first restoration mission at Kontiki, Mactan.
• Any amount goes into the same pool that funds boat transport, dive operations, nursery materials and documentation for that mission.

We have deliberately removed the per-dollar breakdown that used to sit here. Until we have run a mission and know what a planted fragment actually costs, any figure we published would be a guess dressed up as a fact.

How We Report Back to Donors

Reef Without Borders does not intend to make donors wait for an annual report. We will report back after each mission, and what we are able to report will depend on what the mission produces. We would rather say that plainly now than promise a format we have not yet delivered once.

This transparency is not a marketing strategy. It is a commitment that comes from the founder’s belief that donors who trust us with their money have a right to know exactly what it achieved. If a transplanted coral does not survive, we document that too. Accountability means reporting what you find, not just what you hoped for.

Financial Oversight

Reef Without Borders is governed by a three-member Board of Directors that includes Rosalinda Maddoux, CPA, a licensed accountant with 17 years of tax compliance expertise who serves as Treasurer. Annual financial statements are available to donors upon request. After our first complete fiscal year, we will publish our Form 990 on our Impact and Transparency page.

Is my donation tax-deductible?

Yes. Reef Without Borders received its federal 501(c)(3) determination from the IRS on 5 June 2026, effective retroactively to 22 May 2026. Donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. Our EIN is 42-2691547.

Can I designate my donation to a specific program?

Yes. Donations can be designated to field operations or to the Adopt-A-Coral programme when making your gift. Contact info@reefwithoutborders.org to arrange designated giving.

How does Reef Without Borders handle major gifts?

For gifts of $1,000 or more, we contact donors directly to discuss recognition and customized reporting. Major donors are named in all mission materials related to the dive they funded.

Every dollar you give goes directly into the water. Reef Without Borders is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit — your contribution is tax-deductible and fully transparent.
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How to judge us, and any other charity

Rather than ask you to trust our own numbers, here are the benchmarks the sector actually uses. The BBB Wise Giving Alliance recommends that at least 65% of total expenses go to programme activities, with fundraising costs at or below 35% of related contributions. CharityWatch treats 75% or more spent on programmes, and $25 or less spent to raise every $100, as highly efficient. Apply those to us once we have a Form 990 to apply them to.

Until then, the honest position is that we are a new organisation asking to be judged on what we publish after our first mission rather than on what we promise before it.

Sources and further reading

1. Standards for Charity Accountability — BBB Wise Giving Alliance.
2. Our Charity Rating Process — CharityWatch.
3. Nonprofit Explorer — ProPublica. Where you can look up our Form 990 once filed.
4. Fundraising by Registered Charities — Canada Revenue Agency.

Clarisa Strohmeyer is the Founder and Executive Director of Reef Without Borders, a Houston-based nonprofit dedicated to coral reef restoration in the Philippines and across the Indo-Pacific. Learn more at reefwithoutborders.org/