It’s a unique and enviable position to be in when you’re able and excited to support a great cause. Every year, American Water is fortunate, and proud, to have this very experience when we distribute tens-of-thousands of dollars to support partnerships advancing source water and watershed protection projects across the country. The excitement is all part of our Environmental Grant Program, which is entering its fourteenth year.
Over those years, thanks to the help of our grants, we’ve seen truly inspiring and significant projects come to life and make a measurable and vital impact on the protection and improvement of public water supplies in the communities we serve.
We’ve watched partners we’ve helped fund take charge of their communities’ health and future vitality by pursuing initiatives ranging from watershed cleanup and hazardous waste collection, to reforestation and groundwater protection education and much more in between. Moreover, long after the initial grant period, these projects continue to better the lives of millions of people—as well as the environment—because of their built-in sustainability components.
Our grant review group considers each application with great care, looking for evidence that each potentially funded project will incorporate core values that have distinguished American Water for more than 130 years. These include:
- Innovation: Fresh solutions have a great track record for supporting existing as well as newly emerging challenges.
- Collaboration: Partnerships make everything more effective!
- Sustainability: When a result is strong, naturally it has to keep itself going.
- Need: A project’s need in a community is inseparable from its potential impact.
- Community engagement: The more an initiative can get others involved and encourage them to implement water-friendly lifestyle changes, the stronger it is.
- Measurability: Ultimately, success comes down to results and the ability to learn from every step forward.
We cannot wait to see what creative and environmentally-driven projects turn up this year. The deadline for applications is March 26, 2018 and you can find additional information here. We encourage as many applications as there are strong ideas backed by passionate people!
Information and application requirements can be obtained directly from participating American Water state subsidiaries, or on the Environmental Grant section of the company website.