Alabama Coastal Foundation

The mission of the Alabama Coastal Foundation is to improve and protect Alabama's coastal environment through cooperation, education, and participation.

Founded in 1993, the Alabama Coastal Foundation is celebrating thirty years of being a nonprofit organization with a mission to improve and protect Alabama's coastal environment through cooperation, education, and participation. Through those three decades, ACF has worked to promote a culture where environmental decisions are based on an accurate understanding of the underlying science, the dissemination of factual information, and the engagement of government, industry and citizens to find solutions to Alabama's coastal environmental challenges. ACF is a nonpartisan organization that engages individuals, other nonprofit groups, as well as the public (local, state, and federal) and private (small business through big industry) sectors for the betterment of our coastal environment using an inclusive environmental stewardship approach.

Testimonials

ACF has been recognized widely through multiple awards including the Gulf of Mexico Program's Gulf Guardian Award, Coastal America Spirit Award, Alabama Wildlife Federation Governor's Conservation Award, Mobile Bay National Estuaries Program's Stewardship Award, the Best Environmental Education Program Award through the Environmental Education Association of Alabama, and the Dauphin Island Sea Lab Foundation's Marine Environmental Leadership Award. From 2014-2016, the Alabama Coastal Foundation was engagement specialist for the "Connecting Science to Citizens Regarding Sea Level Rise Tools" grant from the Gulf of Mexico Alliance. During that project, ACF organized the Project Partners to conduct focus group discussions and workshops in Grand Bay, Mississippi; Weeks Bay, Alabama; and Apalachicola Bay, Florida to 1) teach about the effects of Sea Level Rise and 2) to engage citizens in helping to protect infrastructure and resources. Most recently, ACF completed a multi-year contract with the State of Alabama to transform the formerly all-volunteer Share the Beach program into one that still has a major volunteer foundation, but is now also staffed, science-based, and focused on protocols that protect our sea turtles.