background

 

Funding Model


Working Together To Create Sustainable Programs

How Programs Are Funded

Three key groups come together to create a successful program. From the foundations who give generously to the rural villages we serve, everyone plays an important role in ensuring lasting change.

Rural Communities

The rural villages we serve are significant contributors to the success of a project. They know the pride of ownership; each village contributes 10-20% of the cost of their new water source through labor, materials, or capital. Then, a water committee made up of local leaders ensures the community’s investment lasts for generations to come by monitoring use, collecting fees, and managing repairs.

Read Shote and Gisho’s story here >
Shote and Gisho, Ethiopia

Neighboring villages Shote and Gisho had no access roads. When they learned a road was required for Lifewater to construct a new water source, they built one with their own bare hands. Using pickaxes and shovels, they chipped away at the rocks and into the hillsides. And when the supplies arrived, they towed cement, sand, and stone to the construction site.

“God came to us and changed our suffering through sending Lifewater to our community. It tremendously changed our lives from darkness and hopelessness to a hopeful and bright one.”

– Buja Bedha, Shote village, Ethiopia

Individuals, Churches, Corporations

Individual donors and donor groups partner directly with villages and schools to bring safe water, improved health, and gospel hope to rural families. Through direct sponsorship, they learn stories of those impacted by the global water crisis, and they come together to make a difference.

Read what others are saying about Lifewater >
KRISTINE’S STORY

When Kristine Delano’s well broke on her property in Maine, she began researching for someone to fix her well, and she stumbled onto Lifewater. While reading about communities in great need of safe water, God placed it on her family’s heart to give. Later, they decided to give double what they had originally planned. Today, their gift blesses families in rural Uganda.

“When we decided to give, it sort of put joy into having something that was broken. While we could fix ours, we could help someone get access as well.”

– Kristine Delano, Donor

Grantors

Grantors (typically foundations) provide funding to begin large-scale initiatives. Their investment provides equipment, regional office space, local staff, and initial program design. Grantors help the organization build capacity to reach more people, more effectively.

4K FOUNDATION

Research showed Brian Rogers that people want to feel a connection with the organization they are giving to, and that millennials are more open to giving than past generations. That’s why Rogers’ organization, 4K Foundation, partnered with Lifewater to build an online giving platform to connect donors to their gifts in a meaningful way.

“Every time I decided to give more of myself, all aspects of my life got better. It became very clear to me, when you give, it is exponential.”

– Brian Rogers, 4K Foundation

How Your Money Works

In 2017, we found Bukoba Central village and their neighbors in Mayuge, Uganda in great need of safe, accessible water. To do the work in their district, we needed phones to record data, vehicles to access remote villages, and a donor to fund each village project. A foundation, a generous family, and the village themselves banded together to create sustainable change.

 

read article here

Give to a water project today.