Search Nonprofits

Heal the Bay is an environmental nonprofit dedicated to making the coastal waters and watersheds of Greater Los Angeles safe, healthy and clean. To fulfill our mission, we use science, education, community action, and advocacy. Our passionate team conducts hundreds of beach and community cleanups each year, informing people about the root causes of pollution along the shorelines and in their neighborhoods. We advocate for strict water quality regulations that protect the health of both humans and the aquatic life who call local creeks, rivers, and the Santa Monica Bay home. In the past year, Heal the Bay sponsored-Assembly Bill 1066 to protect people who participate in water recreation activities in California. Our Nothin' But Sand public group cleanups were accomplished with 5, 800 cleanup volunteers that helped remove 111,000 pieces of trash from Los Angeles Country beaches, rivers, and neighborhoods.

The Los Angeles River is the birthplace of our region and was once the thriving, unifying water source for the people and wildlife of Los Angeles. But that connection and our collective history was severed when the River was encased in concrete and fenced in 1938. In an act of civil disobedience, poet activist Lewis MacAdams took the first steps to repair that severed connection in 1986 when he cut a hole in the chain link fence that obstructed Angelenos from their rightful River. He declared the River open to the people and swore to serve as its voice. And so, Friends of the Los Angeles River (FoLAR) and the River Movement were born. FoLAR has endeavored for over 30 years to restore community connection and natural ecology as the single largest unifying force on the River – educating, empowering, and mobilizing over 70,000 Angelenos to repair habitat and fight for the policies that will reclaim our collective right to a healthy, thriving, and equitably accessible Los Angeles River. Our mission is to build capacity for communities, students, and future leaders to advocate for nature, climate, and equity on the Los Angeles River.

DEI’s mission is to improve the quality of life for the people of downeast and coastal Maine through marine research, marine science education, and innovations in wild and cultured fisheries.