Water For People distributes $250,000 in unrestricted grants to locally-led nonprofits across Latin America, Africa and India

As part of an anonymous donor's grantmaking program, Water For People has received an unrestricted donation of $250,000 towards their "small grants" initiatives. Based on Water For People's experience with unrestricted donations from Mackenzie Scott, this donor, and many others, they are determined to continue this approach of trusted allocation to their locally led grant partners.

"Unrestricted donations in a vacuum is not the solution,” explains Katherine Williford, Chief Growth Officer at Water For People. “But the more that donors do trust-based philanthropy — building a relationship and doing due diligence — the more time can be spent on project delivery."

Beyond this sector strengthening, the only requirements for these grants are that they are used to fund local NGOs, a consortia of local NGOs, or local public academic centers. Water For People’s non-profit grantees across Africa, India and Latin America, include:

• India: Sarva Seva Samity Sanstha (4S India)

4S India works with the most impoverished communities in eastern India, including smallholder farmers, women, tribal groups and other vulnerable communities. The organization has piloted market-based sanitation models in several districts and developed a guarantee fund approach for peri-urban slum areas. As a result of this grant, 4S India can guarantee a microfinance institution’s otherwise risky loan for toilet construction.

• Fundación para el Desarrollo Agrario – Universidad (Peru)

Earlier this year, Cyclone Yaku’s damages to rural water and sanitation systems occurred because of poor materials, deficient construction procedures, weak supervision and lack of protection structures in certain parts of the system. The Foundation of Agrarian Development, a part of the La Molina National Agrarian University, is preparing a diagnosis of reoccurring errors in these water supply systems to develop criteria for selecting adequate materials and procedures to create more sustainable and resilient infrastructure to face future risks. This grant goes to support that work.

• Guatemala: Alianza de Derecho Ambiental y Agua (Guatemala)

Alianza de Derecho Ambiental y Agua is a Civil Society Organization that strengthens the municipal offices in Guatemala in the management of water and sanitation. They socialize and communicate strategic water and sanitation issues across the nation and strengthen the planning and execution of water and sanitation organizations at the sub-national levels.

• Honduras: Asociación para el Manejo Integrado de Cuencas de La Paz y Comayagua (ASOMAINCUPACO)

ASOMAINCUPACO is made up of service providers that work to strengthen their capacities through training, technical assistance and the exchange of experiences on technical, environmental, social, and especially, financial services. They are leaders in integrated watershed management, which allows them to have a holistic vision of development.

• Tanzania Water and Environment Sanitation Network (TAWASANET) 

TAWASANET is a national network of Civil Society Organizations working in the water and sanitation sector. TAWASANET ensures much needed coordination, cross learning and leveraging each others’ resources from the community to the national level.

• Uganda Water and Sanitation Network (UWASNET) 

UWASNET strengthens water and sanitation Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in Uganda by facilitating effective ways to influence policy and practice, by promoting learning and sharing, documentation of CSOs’ work and promoting partnerships and collaborations to speak with one voice in conversation with other sector stakeholders like the Uganda government, development partners and the private sector.

• Malawi:  Water, Environment and Sanitation Network (WESNET)

WESNET is a membership-based organization that coordinates the work of NGOs in the water and environmental sanitation subsectors in Malawi. In particular, the network is working towards strengthening the water, sanitation and hygiene financing system and institutional arrangements for equitable service delivery at the district level.

For more information: Hope Voelkel, hvoelkel@waterforpeople.org.