The Digdeep Right to Water Project
Los Angeles, CA · EIN 46-0686920. Reported 49 grants totalling $2,159,970 to 37 organizations across tax years 2021-2025, on Form 990 Schedule I.
Does this grantmaker accept applications?
Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.
Three things in the filing do bear on it:
- What kind of organization it is. For The Digdeep Right to Water Project, the IRS classifies it under environment rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE C32) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
- How spread out its giving is. 37 distinct organizations, with 12% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
- How much its list changes. 20% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 4 year-to-year transitions. That is below the 56% median for grantmaking charities, and well below the 67% median for private foundations. It describes the organizations it already funds, not whether it would consider a new one.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $13,050. Half of what it reported fell between $10,000 and $35,000; the smallest was $6,000 and the largest $236,950. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.
1 of those grants was non-cash -- goods, property or services worth $19,750 in total. In-kind giving is real support but it is not a cheque.
Every organization it funded
This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.
| Organization | Location | Total received | Grants | Years funded | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yess of Charles County | Indian Head, MD | $255,000 | 2 | 2 | 2025 |
| Navajo Tribal Utility Authority | Fort Defiance, AZ | $236,950 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Navajo Technical College | Crownpoint, NM | $218,706 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Johns Hopkins University | Baltimore, MD | $200,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| St Bonaventure Indian Missions & School | Thoreau, NM | $200,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Waiorg Inc | Honolulu, HI | $150,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Kaboom Inc | Bethesda, MD | $149,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Elevate Energy | Chicago, IL | $130,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Blanding City | Blanding, UT | $100,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| St Michaels Association for Special Education | Winslow, AZ | $44,156 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Accomplis Collective | New York, NY | $43,000 | 2 | 2 | 2025 |
| Sol Communications Inc | Montgomery Creek, CA | $43,000 | 3 | 3 | 2025 |
| International Water Initiative for Sanitation and Hygiene Inc | Ontario, CA | $33,179 | 3 | 2 | 2023 |
| Honor Water | Phoenix, AZ | $30,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Rez Refuge Ministries Inc | Fort Defiance, AZ | $30,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Dine Baadeiti - for the People | Tuba City, AZ | $28,000 | 2 | 2 | 2025 |
| Red Feather Development Group | Flagstaff, AZ | $25,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Birdspring Chapter | Winslow, AZ | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Western Navajo Fair | Tuba City, AZ | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Mueller Co | Atlanta, GA | $19,750 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Fundamental Needs Inc | Cortez, CO | $18,000 | 2 | 2 | 2025 |
| Stonier Scholarship Inc | Towson, MD | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Utah Navajo Trust Fund | Blanding, UT | $13,050 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Hubitual Learning and Outreach | Window Rock, AZ | $13,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Spellbring Construction | Farmington, NM | $11,679 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Chinle Planting Hope | Chinle, AZ | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Colorado Native Outreach Project | Aurora, CO | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Environmentalism Through Inspiration & Non Violent Action | Marina Dl Rey, CA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Healthy Alaska Natives Foundation | Anchorage, AK | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Pueblo Unido Cdc | La Quinta, CA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Rocky Mountain Seed Alliance Inc | Dixon, NM | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Seeds of Harmony Inc | Round Rock, AZ | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Water Drop | Los Angeles, CA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Water Resources Action Project Inc | Alexandria, VA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Water Well Trust Incorporated | Davidson, NC | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Barbara Schneider Foundation | Minneapolis, MN | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Episcopal Church in Navajoland | Farmington, NM | $6,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
9 of 37 (24%) received money in more than one year over the 5 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.
What the money was for
Taken verbatim from the purpose column of its filings, largest first. This is the closest thing to a statement of what it funds, in its own words.
- Navajo Tribal Utility Authority
SUPPORT FOR WESTWATER WATERLINE PROJECT - St Bonaventure Indian Mission
TO FUND WATER WELL PROJECT - Johns Hopkins University
WATER INSPIRATION FUND PAYMENT FOR JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY RESEARCH PROJECT ON NAVAJO NATION. - Wai Org Inc
WATER INSPIRATION FUND GRANT: WAIORG - Yess of Charles County
WATER INSPIRATION FUND - WATER AND SANITATION PROJECT IN SOUTHERN MARYLAND - Elevate Energy
WATER INSPIRATION FUND "CAHOKIA HEIGHTS WATER AND SANITATION ACCESS PROJECT"
What kind of organizations it funds
By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 24 of 37 recipients we could match to a registered organization. The categories are the IRS's, not ours -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants reported | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 7 | $462,046 | $11,679 |
| 2022 | 13 | $522,449 | $15,974 |
| 2023 | 20 | $738,475 | $14,000 |
| 2024 | 4 | $300,000 | $70,000 |
| 2025 | 5 | $137,000 | $8,000 |
Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.
Where its money goes
29% of its giving went to organizations in Maryland. Community foundations and federated funds are usually the most geographically bounded funders there are -- being outside the footprint is normally disqualifying in a way that a weak programme fit is not.
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Funders that support the same organizations
These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are a sign of overlapping priorities and nothing more: they do not show that any of these funders would consider a new organization. Each page says what its filings show.
How to approach this grantmaker
- Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
- Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $13,050 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
- Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Maryland.
- Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from The Digdeep Right to Water Project's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 5 returns (tax years 2021-2025). Grant figures are from its returns. Recipient classifications, the concentration and retention figures and the funders that support the same organizations are our own calculations from them, described in how we build this.
On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 4 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 1 other organizations. That is the filer's own count for one year; the totals above cover every year we hold.
Address of record on the latest return: 110 W 11TH St Suite 400, Los Angeles, CA, 90015.
EIN 46-0686920 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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