How much does Water Foundation give?

Water Foundation reported 88 itemized grants totaling $9,108,621, out of $9,322,367 in total grant expense reported on the return in its FY2024 IRS filing. It funded between 41 and 101 organizations a year over FY2017 to FY2023.

What does Water Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2024, its largest causes are Environment (98%), Housing & Shelter (1%), Health (1%).

Who are Water Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2017 to FY2024: Community Water Center ($2.5M), Trout Unlimited Inc ($2.4M), American Rivers Inc ($2.0M).

Does Water Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2023, 41% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Which funders back the same organizations as Water Foundation?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Resources Legacy Fund, Windward Fund, Patagoniaorg.

Where is Water Foundation based?

Water Foundation is based in CA.

Water Foundation

Water Foundation at a glance Mostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

· Public charity

Water Foundation

The WATER FOUNDATION and our partners advance lasting solutions to secure safe water for people, restore and sustain freshwater ecosystems, and build climate resilience.

$9.3M

Granted FY2024still arriving

Grants FY2024still arriving

States reached

$1.0M

Largest

01What it funds

01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.

Environment$58MHousing & Shelter$705kHealth$354kPublic Benefit$80kFood & Nutrition$40kArts & Culture$10k

02FY2024 · 88 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured

The 88 grants below total $9,108,621, the rows itemized in this filing. The $9,322,367 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $213,746 is giving the schedule does not break out (grants under the $5,000 itemization floor, grants to individuals, grants on other schedules). Every figure below describes the itemized rows only.

By grant size · FY2024

Under $10k7 grants · $50k
$10k–50k28 grants · $686k
$50k–250k42 grants · $4.0M
$250k+11 grants · $4.3M

$50,000

Median grant

States reached

$39M

Total assets

Largest grants
Recipient	Amount
COMMUNITY ALLIANCE WITH FAMILY FARMERS	$1,048,904
NATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION	$500,000
NATIVE AMERICANS IN PHILANTHROPY	$500,000
COLUMBIA RIVER INTER-TRIBAL FISH COMMISSION	$400,000
WATER FINANCE EXCHANGE	$310,000
THEODORE ROOSEVELT CONSERVATION PARTNERSHIP	$290,000
US WATER ALLIANCE	$270,000
AMERICAN RIVERS INC	$265,500
COMMUNITY WATER CENTER	$250,000
LINCOLN INSTITUTE OF LAND POLICY	$250,000
BAYOU CITY WATERKEEPER	$250,000
NEZ PERCE TRIBE	$225,000
SELF-HELP ENTERPRISES	$205,000
RIO GRANDE INTERNATIONAL STUDY CENTER	$200,000
CALIFORNIA TROUT INC	$175,000

02The need

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY17–24, $1.1M) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

How this is measured

Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.

Which US states its grants reach

How this is measured

US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.

03Its grantees

repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

82%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.

$47M · 115 repeat orgs$10M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +63% since the first grant, against +15% for those funded once.

115 repeat relationships: 64 still active in FY2024, 51 since wound down; 21 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

115

Total granted

$47M

$8.0M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+63%

+15%

Still filing today

90%

83%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 75% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $2.2M went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

EnvironmentEducationHuman ServicesCommunity ImprovementAnimalsCivil RightsOther

How this is measured

First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

Backed again, and grew

CW
Community Water Center
8× · 2017–2024 · $2.5M · revenue +248%
TU
TROUT UNLIMITED INC
8× · 2017–2024 · $2.4M · revenue +133%
AMERICAN RIVERS INC
8× · 2017–2024 · $2.0M · revenue +144%

Funded once

AF
AMERICAN FLOOD COALITION INC
one grant, 2023 · $600k · revenue -6%
WW
WATER WISE GULF SOUTH
one grant, 2023 · $575k · revenue -39% · 55% of their budget
CU
COMMUNITIES UNLIMITED INC
one grant, 2023 · $315k · revenue +12%

How this is measured

Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

CalWild

The California Wilderness Coalition protects the natural landscapes that make California unique, providing clean air and water, a home to wildlife, and a place for recreation and spiritual renewal.

—

National Association of Clean Water Agencies

Nacwa is the national voice of public clean water utilities, shaping water policy, convening a vibrant peer network, and empowering water leaders.

—

Coast Fork Willamette Watershed Council

The Coast Fork Willamette Watershed Council is a local nonprofit organization that strives to enhance and restore habitat for fish and wildlife our community and for future generations. Our Board of Directors consists of seven members with…

Environment

The Climate Center

The Climate Center is a climate and energy policy nonprofit working to rapidly reduce climate pollution at scale, starting in California.

Education

Center for Environmental Law & Policy

The Center for Environmental Law & Policy is a statewide organization whose mission is to protect, preserve and restore Washington's waters through education, advocacy, policy reform, and public interest litigation.

Environment

California Environmental Justice Alliance

Our mission is to fight against fossil fuel executives and industries that have turned our communities into dumping grounds for toxic waste, poisoning our air, water, lan, and bodies. We organize to oppose giant oil refineries, dirty…

Environment

Cascade Climate Inc

To accelerate progress in interventions that harness Earths natural systems to stabilize the climate.

Environment

The Commons Inc

To partner with individuals and organizations to access, organize, and share data that inspires action that restores our environment.

—

International Rivers Network

International Rivers protects rivers and defends the rights of communities that depend on them.

Environment

San Francisco Estuary Institute

Provide scientific support and tools for decision making and communication through collaborative efforts.

Environment

Western Rivers Conservancy

Western rivers conservancy's mission is to protect outstanding river ecosystems in the western united states. continued on schedule o.we acquire land to conserve critical habitat, provide public access for compatible use and enjoyment, and…

Environment

Cascadia Wildlands

Cascadia wildlands defends and restores cacasia's wild ecosystems in the forests,in the courts, and in the streets. we envision vast old-growth forests, rivers full of wild salmon, wolves howling in the backcountry, a stable climate, and…

Environment

How this is measured

The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Climate Resolve; the most unlike its peers is Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

04the grantee network

215 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 215 of the 239 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

211/215

Grantees still filing

143/215

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Environment$24,719,925Other$20,051,658Animals$6,232,400Civil Rights$2,674,695Community Improvement$2,554,971Public Safety & Disaster$1,326,675International$1,325,900

Showing the 200 largest grantees by grant value.

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Resources Legacy FundCA99.4× affinity56 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Resources Legacy Fund · Windward Fund · Patagoniaorg · The Schmidt Family Foundation · Natural Resources Defense Council Inc · United States Energy Foundation · The Cynthia & George Mitchell Foundation · The California Endowment · Liberty Hill Foundation · Environmental Defense Fund Incorporated · Amalgamated Charitable Foundation Inc · The Keith Campbell Foundation for the Environment Inc

How this is measured

Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Water Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Water Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

3get no government money at all

44report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)

0rely on government for over half their income

typical government reliance, FY20–25

How this is measured

Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12 to 24 months.

Play a game based on Water’s filings →

More from the funding graph

The unnamed billions

grants reported with no recipient in the public record

The regranting layer

51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer

The DAF merry-go-round

$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds

The endowment market

who holds foundation money, and what just moved

The camps

funders cluster by geography, not ideology

By state

where grant money is based, and what stays home