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Grants for marinas: The free money available for projects to enhance your waterfront

Dec 22, 2024 | Marina Growth, Marina Management

“You’re telling me you want me to sit down and write an essay to get free money for my marina?”
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, 1986

We won’t sugarcoat it: writing a grant doesn’t carry the same atmospheric flair as baking gingerbread on Christmas morning. However, baking treats doesn’t (usually) result in free money to make your marina safer, cleaner, prettier, more navigable, and more marketable.

In the deep off-season, when empty docks look like a shimmering desert mirage, an ambitious marina manager has a unique avenue to improve their marina:

Start reading the fine print.

Across federal, state, and local levels, grant programs are designated to support recreational boating infrastructure. Marina marketing isn’t always about posting an ad and watching traffic increase. A well-grounded brand foundation is just as much about securing the niche funding opportunities available that help present your marina as a sophisticated, current, community-attuned destination.

It starts with the research.

The basic arc of a marina grant

Grants open up in proposal cycles, and we’ll use a real-world marine grant as an example. Scientists, biologists, and marine industry stakeholders – advocates from multiple disciplines recognized that the U.S. is home to thousands of abandoned and derelict vessels. You see them from your shoreline like rusted claws that rise from the depths.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) partnered with BoatUS and secured $7.5 million in funding to remove abandoned and derelict vessels from United States waterways. Here comes the first public-facing step: they put out press releases and a call for applications. Their call for proposals stipulated what demographics could apply, how the grants could be used, and how the grants would benefit the environment and communities.

The burden on the marina manager was this:

Write and submit a “letter of intent” for grant approval by a deadline (August 2024 in this case), which outlines the applicant’s project, funding needed, and how the funding would support the grants’ guidelines.
Upon a successful letter of intent, the applicant is invited to submit a full application.
The applicant completes their project details, from funding to timelines, within an application format designated by the grantmaking agency.
The project is reviewed, launched, and the grant awardee reports to the grantmaking foundation on its progress (With NOAA’s abandoned and derelict vessel program, a reporting guideline was to contribute to an “ADV database” to create a national database of abandoned and derelict vessels).

The best marina grant opportunities occur within local and state organizations

One major issue prevents marina managers from securing funding for projects that could greatly improve their marina: knowing where to look.

Most marine grants aren’t widely known like NOAA’s abandoned and derelict vessel grant that hit the national news cycle. They’re often disbursed at the state level by state fish and wildlife organizations, like Texas’s “Pump-out Operation and Maintenance Grant” through the Clean Vessel Act, or through private organizations, like the New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium, which provides grants that support New Jersey marinas.

One of the first places a marina manager can look is their state-level grants page. Below is an example using Pennsylvania’s grants dashboard, accessed via pa.gov/grants.

The Pennsylvania grant dashboard for open marine-related grants (2024 example)

Every state has some form of a “Grants” resource. Explore yours, and see if your business lines up with any of the open calls.

Marine industry resources provide grants and awareness

A small step for any manager driven to grow their knowledge of the industry is to be aware of the platforms that publish grants or grant information. They include:

BoatUS
Sea Tow Foundation (They operate the Life Jacket Loaner grant program)
NOAA Marine Debris Program (They cycle hurricane recovery grants and others that support clean waterways)
Association of Marina Industries “Grant Programs” page
National Marine Manufacturers Association
Marina Dock Age

Being aware can be as simple as establishing a point of connection: subscribe to an organization’s digital newsletter, or follow them on social media.

Who to contact for marina grant information

We’d love to say we’re the utmost authority on marina grants, but the most actionable opportunities likely reside right in your marina’s regional community. We recommend:

Your state’s marina association

Your state might have a “Grants” page right on its site, like the Marina Association of Texas, or it might offer an extensive depth of initiatives, jobs, and events, like the Massachusetts Marine Trades Association. Not every state has a distinct marina association, and the next tier of resources to explore is…

Your state’s Fish and Boating Commission

Even if they don’t have open marine-related grants, your fish and boating commission will likely know a direction to point you for grant opportunities. A state like Louisiana, which does not have a centralized marina association, does have a specific page for grants through its boating commission, the Louisiana Wildlife & Fisheries.

Your local Chamber of Commerce

Instead of digging in the mines of the internet for small business grants, you can contact the people who make it their business to help your business.

These are starting points. You’ll still need to do the research, read funding and reporting guidelines, and engage in writing a persuasive project outline. But the funding exists for projects that could potentially save your marina thousands of dollars or make it a more attractive destination.

Take a baby step: Start reading the fine print.

Do you want help with your marina or marine business’s digital marketing? The Hammer and Nail Marketing team specializes in a diverse array of strategies custom-tailored for your business. Download our free marketing guide for some basic actionable tips, or get in touch – let’s talk about your marketing goals.

Article by Hammer and Nail Marketing

WHAT IS HAMMER & NAIL?

Hammer and Nail Marketing is a boutique marketing firm that helps small to mid-sized marina groups and marinas get noticed by boaters. If you’d like to focus on operating your marina without the additional responsibility of marketing, get in touch with us.

We’re boaters ourselves from a background of operating a family-run marina. From a group of experts who know the water, let Hammer and Nail Marketing help you be the waterfront your local boaters see every time they cast off.