$25
Grow a coral fragment
A restored reef starts here with one coral fragment. Your adoption will create and grow a coral microfragment until it’s ready to be outplanted onto our reefs.
Support the work
Donate
Every dollar goes back into the water — growing coral, and putting it back on the reef.
Why give
Fund the next outplanting
Coral restoration is slow, patient work. A fragment spends months in the nursery before it is ready for the reef, and years more before it looks like a coral anyone would notice.
The pressure on our reefs has not let up. Stony coral tissue loss disease reached St. Thomas in 2019 and has all but erased pillar coral from these waters. Back-to-back bleaching events between 2023 and 2025 pushed already-stressed corals further. And the reefs just off our shores still protect more than $76 million of economic activity from storm flooding, and still support the fisheries and tourism this territory runs on.
Your gift pays for the unglamorous things that keep corals alive: cement and epoxy, tank time and water quality monitoring, coral food, nutrients and disease treatments, scrubbing algae, boat fuel and scuba tank fills, and the dive hours behind every outplanted coral and every monitoring survey.
It also means our interns are paid. Everyone who puts in the work deserves to be compensated for their efforts.
Reef Response is a program of the University of the Virgin Islands. Donations directly support the nurseries, the dives, and the science that keep coral restoration running in the USVI.
Donations are processed securely through GiveSmart.
Your impact
Where your gift goes
Every gift goes back into the water. Here is what each level supports.
$25
$250
Adopt an adult coral
Reef Response maintains a genetic repository, sometimes called a “Gene Bank,” of critically endangered species. These healthy adult colonies are not part of our brood stock for microfragging, and are instead just kept happy and healthy to preserve their unique genetics.
$2,500
Sponsor a tank
The ultimate way to be a Reef Responder! Help us raise hundreds of coral fragments over the course of a year. A placard displaying your name and contribution will be posted on the tank for all visitors to see.
One-time gift
A single donation of any amount, put straight to work in the nurseries.
Monthly support
Recurring gifts let us plan nursery maintenance and outplanting further ahead.
Thank you
Reef restoration is slow, patient work. Your support is what lets it keep going.