Around the world, many people must walk long distances, wait in long lines, or pay significant amounts to secure safe drinking water. While we wish we could recognize them all, the following seven organizations stand out for their contributions and efforts to water preservation.
Water is essential to life, yet four billion people worldwide experience severe water scarcity for at least one month each year. Access to clean drinking water can turn problems into potential: unlocking education, economic prosperity, and improved health.
In this article, we spotlight seven nonprofits fighting the global water crisis and bringing clean, life-saving water to more people.
33 Buckets is a nonprofit organization empowering communities through lifetime access to clean water.
Founded by three Arizona State University students in 2008, 33 Buckets implements engineering solutions for clean drinking water for people with a focus on human-centered designs. They build their solutions for specific communities to address their unique needs.
This tailored approach empowers communities to receive long-term access to clean water. They maintain partnerships such as those with local NGOs in Peru to maintain contact with their beneficiaries and adjust their approach as needed.
33 Buckets has a team of 18 people, including their board of directors.
They’ve brought clean water to over 8,500 people.
They’ve worked with 23 communities in three countries, including the Dominican Republic, Peru, and Bangladesh.
33 Buckets uses Donorbox for their fundraising, including for their keynote campaign, The Ripple Effect:
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To invest in communities by providing access to safe water, sanitation, hygiene, and menstrual health solutions to help break the cycle of poverty.
Surge works through its partnerships with grassroots organizations in Haiti, Uganda, and Indonesia to strengthen capacity, provide technical support, and drive impact. They provide access to safe water, along with sanitation, hygiene, and menstrual health solutions. Surge’s model ensures shared local leadership and decision-making, placing women at the center of water management while staying focused on community-driven needs.
Surge has a global, women-led team of 47 members, including its board members.
Since its establishment in 2008, Surge has led 9,216 water-access projects, hosted 8,869 sessions on hygiene training, and helped more than 779,607 people across 12 countries.
Surge has a primary focus on assisting beneficiaries in some of the world’s most rural and under-resourced global communities. Their reach spans Haiti, Indonesia, and Uganda.
By providing access to safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene education, Planet Water Foundation seeks to transform the health and well-being of those living in the world’s most impoverished communities.
They provide access to innovative technology solutions that give impoverished communities access to safe drinking water. Their solutions include water filtration technology, handwashing facilities and liquid soap dispensers, water health and hygiene education programs, and disaster response initiatives.
The leadership team at Planet Water comprises nearly 15 staff, including their board members.
Since 2019, Planet Water Foundation has launched projects in 32 countries and assisted an astonishing 4.5 million beneficiaries. They’ve helped more than 2,000 communities to date.
Planet Water focuses on communities impacted by natural disasters, as well as schools, children, and rural communities spanning the Asia-Pacific region and Latin America. Their impact has reached a whopping 32 countries so far!
Check out this short video for a sneak peek of this nonprofit’s transformative efforts in fighting the global water crisis:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdyaSWzvS4c
Through the delivery of Water Wheels, Wells on Wheels provides an immediate solution that empowers young girls to step into the classroom without delay. With support from their donors, they break barriers one wheel at a time and ensure a brighter future for these girls. They focus on making it easier to gather water for people who need it the most.
It started with an invention – a large, round water drum fitted with handles so it can be rolled along the ground. Wells on Wheels creates and donates these wheels to families who have to walk far distances to access clean water. This ultimately protects women and young girls who are usually responsible for fetching water, which allows those young girls to spend their time in school instead.
Wells on Wheels has a powerful team of 14 people, including its founders.
To date, Wells on Wheels has impacted the lives of 7,145 people, which includes 4,287 children.
Wells on Wheels primarily works with communities in India, where they have a dedicated on-the-ground team.
This organization is able to share this exciting invention with those in need through the generosity of their donors. You can learn more and watch their informative video to see their wheels in action on their Donorbox donation page.
For Mission Clean Water, clean water is just the beginning. They make sure that the right local leadership councils are in place ahead of the project, and they maintain communication and coordination with those communities for years to come.
Mission Clean Water works differently to develop long-term solutions by starting at a grassroots level. Their solutions are implemented together to ensure the longevity of the project after their technical teams move on.
Their focus is on isolated communities that have been historically underserved but are in arid climates with some of the most pressing needs for clean water access. This clean water serves as drinking water and helps with their established sanitation solutions.
They have a staff of 15 people, including their board of directors.
Their eight projects have ensured over 25,000 people have access to clean water – for life.
Their projects have been focused on Uganda.
We love their Water Warriors membership program which allows their donors to become long-term partners in building these sustainable solutions.
Paani’s mission is to not only provide temporary relief where they can but to work toward building permanent solutions against the most complex problems that countries like Pakistan are facing. They strive to combine evidence-based initiatives with cultural competency to ensure that community members feel comfortable and empowered in our presence.
Founded by four Pakistani-American University of Michigan students, Paani strives to facilitate real, tangible change in Pakistan through improving access to fresh, clean water for people. This includes building water systems like deepwater wells, solar wells, and reverse osmosis plants. They work with partners on the ground in Pakistan to determine the appropriate solution to implement in each community with the goal of ending the water crisis.
They work with a staff of 5 people, including their founders.
Paani has built and maintained over 20,000 well solutions that have impacted more than 1.7 million people in rural Pakistani communities. They provide their donors with thorough documentation of the well-building process, including a video of the finished system and a water quality report.
Paani’s work focuses on Pakistan.
They use Donorbox for their fundraising needs. We love how they provide detail for each donation amount to demonstrate the impact of each donation.
Project WET empowers educators to educate and engage youth to understand water and solve local and international challenges.
They achieve their mission by partnering with over 90 vetted organizations to provide cost-effective, hands-on, science-based water education resources and training to educators worldwide. They also work with corporations, government organizations, and local watershed managers to provide sustainability-focused Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) metrics that engage communities and employees.
By teaching the world about water, they aim to encourage responsible environmental care and help address environmental challenges, climate change, social justice, and sustainability.
Project WET’s team comprises between 2-10 staff.
For 35 years, Project WET has provided crucial water education to more than 39 million people worldwide. Their official partner organizations have coordinators and facilitators who train approximately 15,000 educators in the U.S. and in over 20 countries annually. They have taught 42 million people about local and global water resources, including millions of children.
Project WET is one of the nonprofits fighting the global water crisis through its work in the U.S., as well as in 20 countries worldwide.
The UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 6 calls to ensure universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene for all by 2030. This means effectively ending the global water crisis in a handful of years.
Access to clean drinking water changes everything; it’s a stepping stone to development. Ultimately, the goal is to ensure that communities value and demand clean water, hygienic environments, and decent sanitation as their basic human right. And these 10 nonprofits fighting the global water crisis are at the forefront of the battle!
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Happy fundraising!
Ilma is a content writer with over eight years of experience, specializing in nonprofits and social impact, marketing, language, and psychology. She draws on years of volunteering in the nonprofit sector to craft thoughtful, research-informed pieces. Ilma is also a therapist passionate about mental health and often weaves this perspective into her writing.
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Ilma Ibrisevic