Who is winning Gates Foundation’s WASH grants?

As part of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s strategy for its global growth and opportunity division — which focuses on market-based innovations to promote economic growth — the foundation has been supporting WASH programs for over 15 years. According to a Devex analysis, the foundation allocated $1.1 billion for 514 WASH-related grants from 2006 to 2020. Out of the $676 million in financing that went toward global growth and opportunity through grants and charitable contracts in 2019, WASH received the third-highest allocation — 18% — after financial services and agricultural development. Gates Foundation’s top WASH grantees Devex has identified the top WASH-related suppliers from 2006 to 2020. While development banks and other multilateral institutions were among the top grantees in this category, they have been excluded from this ranking, which focuses on private and not-for-profit organizations. The grantees on Devex’s top 10 list represent 22% of the Gates Foundation’s overall grant-making for WASH in this time period. 1. IRC Headquarters: The Hague, Netherlands. Number of grants: Four. Total value of grants: $39.1 million. IRC's biggest grant — worth $24.1 million — was awarded in 2008 for developing models of sustainable, rural WASH services in Africa. Two other grants aimed to help WASH practitioners across Africa and Asia, with $14.5 million for improving understanding of costs and “embedding improved decision-making processes in lead organisations” and over $443,000 for new tools. The remaining grant of nearly $54,800 was for global impact assessment. 2. University of California, Berkeley Headquarters: Berkeley, California. Number of grants: Three. Total value of grants: $33.5 millon. UC Berkeley received $31.1 million in 2009 to study WASH’s health, social, and economic impacts and to provide data for policy and practices in Africa and Asia. It was also awarded $2.2 million in 2006 for an evidence-based evaluation of rural water in lower-income countries and $130,000 in 2011 for the conversion of ammonia in human waste into latrine disinfectant. 3. PATH Headquarters: Seattle, Washington. Number of grants: One. Total value of grant: $24.6 million. In 2006, PATH was awarded $24.6 million to develop strategies for increasing access to safe drinking water in Asia and Africa. 4. Duke University Headquarters: Durham, North Carolina. Number of grants: 12. Total value of grants: $23.9 million. Duke University was awarded $6.8 million in 2017 for the development of waste treatment systems in India and South Africa. It also received $5.6 million for research into and development of sanitation technology in Africa and Asia, $4.5 million to test sanitation functional system prototypes in India, and $3.5 million to develop a new technique for fecal sludge treatment in lower-income countries. 5. Speak Up Africa Headquarters: Dakar, Senegal. Number of grants: Three. Total value of grants: $23.3 million. Speak Up Africa was awarded three grants: $17.9 million in 2020 to help control and eliminate malaria and other tropical diseases, improve sanitation, and invest in health research and development in Africa; $3.5 million to advocate for safely managed, nonsewered sanitation policies in West Africa; and $2 million to support the secretariat of the World Water Forum. Aside from its headquarters, the organization's U.S. office also received $2.6 million in 2015 for communications around child health and sanitation efforts in Senegal, Nigeria, and Ethiopia. 6. Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Institute Headquarters: Kodaikanal, India. Number of grants: Eight. Total value of grants: $21.5 million. WASH Institute has been a Gates Foundation grantee since 2015. It was awarded eight technical assistance and implementation projects worth a total of $21.5 million, ranging from over $200,000 to $5 million per grant. Three of the grants awarded, which amounted to over 50% of the total allocation, were for technical assistance to the Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) from 2015 to 2018. 7. IHE Delft Institute for Water Education Headquarters: Delft, Netherlands. Number of grants: Three. Total value of grants: $19.7 million. IHE Delft won nearly $20 million in three grants for research, education, and training to strengthen the sanitation sector. The biggest award was an $8.2 million grant in 2011 for local innovation in sanitation for the urban poor, followed by a $6.5 million grant to develop a Master of Science program in sanitation for universities in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa and then a $5 million grant in 2016 targeting sanitation professionals. 8. Administrative Staff College of India Headquarters: Hyderabad, India. Number of grants: Seven. Total value of grants: $17.2 million. Five of the grants awarded to Administrative Staff College of India — together worth $15.4 million — were focused on fecal sludge and septage, from capacity-building programs to the safe management of sanitation. The Indian institute provides sanitation research and solutions, as well as technical assistance, mostly in Andhra Pradesh state. Funding received ranges from about $5,000 to $6.5 million. 9. WaterAid America Headquarters: New York City. Number of grants: Five. Total value of grants: $17.1 million. Almost all of the grants awarded to WaterAid are for Africa and Asia. About $7.9 million — 46% of the total value awarded to the NGO — was for improving sanitation approaches in Nigeria in 2012. This was followed by a $6 million grant to support policy-focused sanitation campaigns in West Africa and South Asia in 2016. Four years later, it received a $500,000 grant to support labor rights and workers in the sanitation sector. 10. BRAC USA Headquarters: New York City. Number of grants: One. Total value of grant: $16.4 million. BRAC was awarded $16 million for the development of sustainable sanitation delivery models for people in rural Bangladesh. Try out Devex Pro Funding today with a free 5-day trial, and explore funding opportunities from over 850+ sources in addition to our analysis and news content. Visit the WASH Works series for more coverage on water, sanitation, and hygiene — and importantly, how WASH efforts intersect with other development challenges. You can join the conversation using the hashtag #WASHWorks.