In 2009, Matt Damon co-founded Water.org with Gary White to tackle the global water crisis through practical, market-driven solutions. By October 2026, the organisation’s partnership with Ripple had helped reach more than 1 million people with access to safe water or sanitation financing across Latin America, while cutting transaction fees by up to 66 percent, according to a Ripple press release.The collaboration, which began more than a year ago, now uses Ripple’s payments, stablecoin and digital asset custody infrastructure to move funding faster and more cheaply across emerging markets. Ripple has committed $6 million over three years to support Water.org’s WaterCredit model, which helps families access affordable loans for taps, toilets and piped water connections.
What Water.org does
Water.org is a global nonprofit that has positively transformed more than 95 million lives through access to safe water and sanitation. It was founded by Gary White and Matt Damon, who have spent more than 30 years developing market-driven solutions to the water crisis.The organisation’s core product is WaterCredit, a microloan model that partners with local financial institutions to provide affordable loans for families to bring water and sanitation infrastructure into their homes. Rather than relying solely on donations, WaterCredit treats water access as something families can finance over time.That approach has proven scalable. Water.org’s work has reached more than 95 million people worldwide, and its partnership with Ripple is now extending that model into new markets with faster, cheaper capital flows.
What Ripple brings to the table
Ripple is a provider of blockchain solutions across traditional and digital finance, offering payments, custody, prime brokerage and treasury management services. Its stablecoin, RLUSD, is a US dollar-backed digital asset that can be used as a settlement layer for cross-border transactions.The partnership uses three pieces of Ripple’s infrastructure. Ripple Payments enables faster, lower-cost cross-border flows to Water.org’s network of local financial institution partners. RLUSD provides a digital settlement layer for more efficient WaterCredit disbursements. Ripple’s Wallet-as-a-Service technology helps Water.org securely manage digital assets as programs scale into new markets.The result is a system where money moves faster, fees drop and more of every dollar reaches the people who need it. Ripple’s CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, said the partnership shows what crypto and blockchain can do when applied to real-world problems.
The numbers behind the partnership
Since the collaboration began, Ripple’s funding and payments infrastructure have helped Water.org reach more than 1 million people with access to safe water or sanitation financing across Latin America. The partnership has moved more than $3.2 million across four markets.Settlement times have dropped from two to three days to same-day in Mexico and Brazil. Payment processing is now available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, rather than being subject to a single daily banking cutoff.Transaction fees have also fallen by up to 66 percent. That means more of every dollar reaches borrowers rather than being absorbed by intermediaries, a shift that matters enormously when the goal is to extend small loans to families living on tight budgets.
Ripple’s $6 million commitment
To sustain and accelerate the work, Ripple has committed $6 million to Water.org over three years. The funding will support solutions like WaterCredit, which provides affordable loans for families to bring taps, toilets and piped water connections home.Water.org has also received a grant of $1.25 million in RLUSD through the Stablecoin Impact Fund. That grant will expand stablecoin-enabled WaterCredit disbursements into Indonesia, the Philippines and Uganda.The commitment reflects Ripple’s broader interest in using its technology for social impact. By pairing its payments infrastructure with Water.org’s lending model, the company is betting that faster money movement can translate into more people gaining access to basic services.
Get Blue and the wider movement
Beyond its direct support for Water.org, Ripple is also putting capital to work through the WaterEquity Everspring Fund, a perpetual impact vehicle that uses philanthropic capital to unlock commercial investment in water and sanitation lending across emerging markets. As loans are repaid, capital is recycled into new lending, allowing each dollar to support families and communities again and again.Ripple has also joined Get Blue, a movement launched by Water.org that unites brands, creators, artists and consumers behind a single mission of bringing safe water home for millions of families worldwide. Founding partners include Gap, Amazon, Starbucks and Ecolab.As the exclusive digital asset and FinTech partner for Get Blue, Ripple brings the payments and stablecoin infrastructure that powers Water.org’s ability to move money faster and more affordably to local financial institutions disbursing WaterCredit loans. Ripple’s first year of Get Blue funding has helped Water.org reach 400,000 people, with its three-year commitment expected to support 1.2 million people.
What comes next
Water.org’s goal is to reach 200 million people with access to safe water or sanitation by 2030. The partnership with Ripple is part of that larger push, using financial infrastructure to scale a model that has already proven itself at scale.Gary White, Water.org’s co-founder and CEO, said the issue is not a lack of money but how that money flows. He argued that when affordable financing reaches families living in poverty, their daily spending on water becomes a tap or a toilet that lasts.The collaboration between Ripple and Water.org shows how blockchain and stablecoin technology can be applied to humanitarian problems, not just financial speculation. With more than 1 million people reached in Latin America and a $6 million commitment to scale the work further, the partnership is now testing whether faster, cheaper payments can help close the global water gap.