Program vision
The Water Program pursues opportunities for improved water management in order to ensure California’s economic and environmental health.
Program Overview
Water is critically important to a vibrant, productive, and sustainable California. While the state’s water system is under extreme stress and faces continued challenges associated with climate change and population growth, there are considerable opportunities to improve the management of water resources. Groundwater aquifers can store water in wet years for later use in dry years; floodplains can improve flood management, meet ecosystem needs, and augment water supply; urban efficiency can provide a reliable source of water in dry years and reduce energy use; agricultural stewardship can enhance stream flows, improve water quality, and reduce energy use; and environmental water use can be compatible with, and beneficial to, human use. As a portfolio, these tools can bring resilience and sustainability to California’s water supply.
In addition to direct grantmaking, the Water Program works in close collaboration with the California Water Foundation, an initiative of the Resources Legacy Fund. The California Water Foundation is a ten-year, collaborative philanthropic initiative designed to create a path toward a resilient water supply to ensure the state’s economic and ecological health. The California Water Foundation conducts grantmaking for certain elements of the Foundation’s work.
Grantmaking objectives
Build Knowledge. Strengthen and sustain the intersection of research and policy to identify opportunities for improved water management, particularly in the areas of water use (urban, agricultural, and environmental), groundwater management, and flood management.
Demonstrate Success. Use collaborative, pragmatic, and credible approaches to pursue opportunities for improved water management, particularly in the areas of water use (urban, agricultural, and environmental), groundwater management, and flood management.
Promote Collaboration. Ensure that a diverse network of interests is committed to moving California beyond its history of water conflict.
Highlighted grants
Build Knowledge. Western water users rely heavily on groundwater, especially in times of drought. However, understanding, managing, and protecting groundwater is technically and institutionally complicated — especially in California, where there is no statewide system of groundwater management or coordination. Therefore, in 2010, the Foundation provided a grant to Stanford University’s Water in the West, a joint program of the Woods Institute for the Environment and the Bill Lane Center for the American West, to develop technologies, assess best management practices, and evaluate policy options to enable better management of California’s groundwater resources. The team is also assessing performance management systems to help measure success. By regularly consulting and working with key public and private decision makers in California, Stanford’s interdisciplinary team ensures that their work impacts water management in California and informs the greater western region.
Demonstrate Success. California’s Central Valley is a critical wintering area for the migratory birds of the Pacific Flyway. However, development of the state’s water supply and flood control system has dramatically altered the waterways that historically supplied the Central Valley’s productive wetlands. As a result, California has lost more than 90% of its wetland and riparian habitats. The Migratory Bird Conservation Partnership (MBCP) seeks to sustain migratory bird populations by protecting, connecting, and restoring a network of natural habitats and compatible agricultural lands in California. The Foundation has supported MBCP – a collaboration that focuses the collective efforts of Audubon California, the Nature Conservancy, and PRBO Conservation Science – since its inception in 2008. The MBCP is guided by a California-wide assessment of migratory bird habitat, which revealed the significance of agricultural lands for sustaining bird populations. By working directly with growers to test and implement bird-friendly crop and water management practices, the MBCP is demonstrating that ecosystem water needs are compatible with human water use.
Staff
- Joya Banerjee, Program Officer
- Allison Harvey Turner, Program Officer
- Kay Barthold, Senior Grants Manager