Originally conceived by the Pew Charitable Trusts to be focused on actions that would directly restore estuarine habitats, Restore America’s Estuaries (RAE) was created in 1995 by nine (9) nonprofit, community-based conservation partners working to save our coastal heritage. In 1997, the group added two more organizations for a total of eleven member organizations.

From 1995, until shortly after it was incorporated in the Commonwealth of Virginia on December 14, 1999, RAE operated as a project of the American Littoral Society. In June 2000, the IRS granted RAE status as a nonprofit 501(c) (3) organization.

The eleven (11) organizations remain the sole members of the alliance today and are: Conservation Law Foundation, Save the Bay-Narragansett, Save the Sound, American Littoral Society, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, North Carolina Coastal Federation, Tampa Bay Watch, Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, Galveston Bay Foundation, Save The Bay-San Francisco, and People For Puget Sound.