Water Table | National Funder Collaborative

What is Water Table?

Water Table is a national funder collaborative housed at the Water Foundation. It brings philanthropic partners together, moving money toward greater impact. Since 2015, the Table has helped align over $800 million in water-related grants. By coordinating strategy, mobilizing resources, and bridging across issues and sectors, the Table helps funders build the infrastructure philanthropy needs to act with power, agility, and care — placing smart money where it matters most for lasting, collective impact.

Water Table’s Priorities

Water is a powerful entry point for lasting change. It connects health, food, climate, equity, and economic development, and it reveals the strength or failure of the systems we rely on. Water Table brings funders together to ensure those systems work better for people and nature.

Water Table priorities reflect where we see opportunity and urgency, focusing on how and where aligned philanthropy can make the biggest difference.

We organize our work across three categories, and this structure clarifies how we collaborate, maintaining a deeply woven interconnectedness throughout. Whether advancing tribal sovereignty, reimagining urban water, or protecting clean water, Water Table members contribute to a broader, shared vision: water systems that are equitable, sustainable, and resilient.

1. Initiatives Led by Water Table Members

These priority areas allow members to actively coordinate and fund efforts to catalyze long-term solutions with clear goals and multi-year strategies.

Clean Water Campaign: A major national push to protect clean, safe, and affordable water for all, this campaign brings together thousands of local groups, strengthens public demand, and advances a clear, forward-looking water policy. With efforts focused in key states and at the national level, the campaign aims to stop harmful rollbacks; support communities; and build a broad, nonpartisan movement powerful enough to secure clean water for generations to come.
Urban Water Initiative: Helping funders support smart, community-led water solutions in U.S. cities, this initiative focuses on making water more affordable by improving infrastructure and building a strong, local water workforce. With flexible funding and a strong emphasis on helping underserved communities and populations, this initiative assists cities respond to urgent water challenges while laying the groundwork for long-term change.
Water Solutions Fund: This collaborative effort ensures once-in-a-generation federal investments translate into real progress on water, climate, and equity. As threats to these investments grow, WSF is also helping defend this critical work and helping protect what’s been won to keep progress on track.
Texas Wellspring Fund: A pooled fund supporting local leaders and statewide change to ensure Texans have safe, affordable water, Texas Wellspring Fund invests in community organizations, strengthens local advocacy, and helps build power in places hit hardest by water insecurity. Texas is home to some of the fastest-growing communities, most climate-exposed regions, and starkest water inequities in the country, making it a critical proving ground for scalable, just water solutions.

2. Learning Groups

These groups allow Water Table members to focus on interest areas where funders are engaging, learning, and assessing strategies together.

Tribal Partnerships: Deepening understanding and relationships with Tribal Nations through water work allows the Table to share challenges, highlight effective approaches, and learn from Tribal leaders and grantees.
Rio Grande: Funders join to better understand and coordinate in a basin that faces acute water stress, political complexity, and frontline needs.
Climate Smart Agriculture: This area provides a place for funders to explore the intersections of water, agriculture, and climate resilience, and apply field insights to improve grantmaking, especially in the West.
Futures/Signals: Here, funders can work together to navigate uncertainties in the water space by exploring and discussing early signs and indicators that could shape the future of water, philanthropy, and future Table work

3. Sustained Support

Some of the deepest alignment at Water Table shows up in long-standing investments that don’t require intensive coordination, but are essential for resilience and readiness.

These include data and decision-making tools like OpenET and Internet of Water; narrative and media platforms like Water Hub and Water Desk; finance and implementation efforts like Water Finance Exchange; and regional and basin-based collaborations in the Colorado, Klamath, and Snake River watersheds.

Water Table Members

Our strength isn’t just in what we fund — it’s in how we work. Through shared strategy, deep trust, and alignment with the field, Water Table helps funders move resources in ways that add up to more than the sum of their parts.

We represent a diverse group of funders, from large national foundations to place-based and family foundations. Table members bring deep commitment, field knowledge, and a willingness to work in coordination. Each member brings distinct strategies and priorities, but shares a belief that we can go further, faster, and more effectively when we act in alignment.

Water Table Steering Committee

Ted Kowalski

Walton Family Foundation

Colorado River Initiative Lead & Sr. Program Officer, Environment Program

Matt Lappé

Conscience Bay Research

Executive Director

Dr. Emily Warren Armitano

Cynthia & George Mitchell Foundation

Director, Land Conservation & Water Programs