Why Water.org?
Because the water crisis is solvable – and it takes smart, innovative solutions like ours to do it. Our solutions remove barriers and allow us to scale impact faster and more efficiently. We've changed more than 95 million lives with safe water or sanitation, and we need your support to change millions more.
The problem: access
2.1 billion people lack access to safe water. For many of them, the barrier is money. Families living in poverty can’t afford to cover the upfront cost of constructing a water connection. And far too little funding is flowing where it’s needed most: connecting people to the safe water or sanitation solutions they need.
The money to solve this already exists. It's sitting in banks. In capital markets. In financial institutions. Yet water and sanitation have largely been overlooked as opportunities for financing.
So, the problem isn’t simply that families can’t afford a tap or toilet. It’s that trillions of dollars in capital have never been mobilized to help them access one. Until now.
The solution: removing the barriers between people and safe water
We’ve built a portfolio of smart solutions that remove barriers between people living in poverty and access to safe water and sanitation.
Our suite of solutions – enabling small loans for household access, impact investing to bring in more capital, and infrastructure project development to expand reach – work together to break down the barriers between people and access to safe water and sanitation.
Why giving to Water.org is a smart choice
We provide lasting solutions, not temporary fixes
The solutions families finance through small loans often last 20 years or more.
People are part of their own solution
Families living in poverty aren't recipients of our solution. They are the solution. They choose it, they invest in it, and they repay it. Ownership isn't just the outcome. It's what makes the model work.
Our solutions are efficient
Donor dollars go further with Water.org. Every $1 donated to Water.org helps unlock $21 in water and sanitation solutions.
Our solutions are proven and scaling
Over the past 30 years, we've helped more than 95 million people gain access to safe water or sanitation. More than half of that progress has happened in the last five years alone.
We're leading the world in solving the global water crisis
And we’re not doing it alone. We partner with local financial institutions, impact investors, funders, governments, and utilities to make more possible.
We’re driving innovation to reach more families
We actively develop new solutions to remove the biggest barriers between people and access to safe water.
Your gift drives impact in two ways
Many nonprofits ask you to pick a lane. You can fund something immediate and personal, like a well, a filter, or a storage tank. Or you can fund something structural, like policy, systems, and long-term change.
A gift to Water.org does both.
At the household level
A mom installs a tap and toilet at home. She stops walking hours a day to collect water. Her daughter gains the time and health to go to school. Day by day, they can focus less on water and more on learning, earning, and realizing their potential.
At the systems level
That mom repays her loan, which proves to their bank that water lending is good for business. The bank then lends to more families for water or sanitation. Investors follow the banks. Ultimately, water and sanitation become a category the financial world funds on its own.
A gift to Water.org drives lasting, scalable impact.
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