Joining with people, stories, and movements to shape something greater
At Waters Meet Foundation, our name — and our work — reflects a deep belief in the power of coming together. Just as a creek feeds a stream, and a stream swells as it joins a river, we believe meaningful change happens when people, ideas, and experiences meet in shared purpose.
POWER BUILDING
Committed to centering community voices
We are on a collective journey to dismantle persistent health inequities and systemic injustices in the Inland Northwest. Transformation of this scale takes more than funding. It takes trust. It requires deep relationships. It demands sharing power. And it takes showing up — again and again — as committed partners to the communities most impacted by these inequities.
We know that real change begins with listening. We honor the leadership, lived experience, and wisdom of community. We approach our work with humility, curiosity, and a willingness to evolve. At Waters Meet, we aim to walk and work alongside communities fighting for justice.
BACKGROUND & EVOLUTION
Our journey toward centering justice and equity
We formed in 2008 under the name Empire Health Foundation, through the sale of Deaconess and Valley Medical Centers, a nonprofit hospital system in Spokane serving the Inland Northwest Region. We made our first grant as part of our childhood obesity prevention initiative in 2011. Subsequent funding focused on addressing a variety of system-level issues ranging from rural aging and medication management, to strengthening families impacted by substance abuse disorders and supporting our local Tribes in addressing holistic health through traditional Native practices. Over time, the Foundation’s work has evolved to focus more resources to support the people and communities most affected by health inequities and to change the systems most likely to keep these health inequities in place.
Limitations of our initial approach
The Foundation began with an emphasis on advancing the organization’s own bold vision for community health, coupled with an approach of funding a range of discrete programs to see what would stick. For much of its history, Empire Health Foundation sought “bright spots” elsewhere and applied those approaches in the Inland Northwest. Although undertaken with the best of intentions, this prescriptive, upstream system-level approach to grantmaking distanced us from supporting the critical work being done at the community level and created a mystique around our true purpose.
Arrival at a crossroads.
In 2020, internal reorganization coupled with the COVID-19 crisis and our region’s reckoning with longstanding systemic inequities and social vulnerabilities made clear our role as a funder should follow a new path. Over the next two years, we undertook a journey of critical self-reflection. Through hundreds of candid conversations with community partners and leaders we learned the kinds of support they need most from us — our connections, voice, knowledge, and reputation alongside the financial resources we provide: in short, a partnership built on mutual trust and collaboration. What we learned reinforced much of what we already knew to be true — that the times Empire Health Foundation had been most impactful in our first decade of work was when we rolled up our sleeves to walk alongside community leaders, trusting them to know best how our resources and support can reinforce their self-determined vision for a better future.
Together as staff and board, and with input from community partners, in 2022 we developed a new set of guiding principles. Our foundational Equity Healing Framework centers the vision and energy of the people in our region who are most impacted by systemic and historic inequities and injustice.
Charting a new path with community partners
We’re moving forward now with the understanding that true sustainable health comes from within communities. From thriving families and strong social networks. From a deeper kind of healing. This healing must address historical injustices and persistent inequities. And, it must lead to substantial and sustainable change. To do so, it must draw on the cultural strengths of the communities we serve.
As a funding partner, it requires designing our investments to ignite and strengthen the backbone of community-driven efforts and restore resources to communities most impacted by persistent inequities. As a strategic partner it means leveraging our network of intersectional relationships to build bridges across communities with the expressed needs of the communities we serve in mind — shifting our role from aspiring neutral party to convener, to facilitator, or to witness as requested by our community partners.
Evolving our brand to reflect our new approach to philanthropy
We are now transitioning from a place of reflection and analysis to long-range planning and organizational integration of our new identity as Waters Meet Foundation.
In 2025, we are in the first year of a new 10-Year Strategic Direction. This direction is shaping how we put our resources to work following the lead of our community partners, and how we hold ourselves accountable to making real progress towards our vision. The shifts we’re making will be significant and noticeable. For many, Waters Meet’s new approach to philanthropy may feel uncomfortable as we walk alongside historically disadvantaged communities to challenge and change power dynamics. We believe building trust within and across these spaces is critical and requires us to take informed risks as we wield our own power and privilege in a focused pursuit of uplifting community visions for change. These changes require us to build a practice of intersectional convening that supports brave spaces for addressing real challenges and conflict.
The transformative and sustained change we seek takes time and the collective knowledge and efforts of many. Done well, it holds potential for a future where all people living in the Inland Northwest can experience health, safety, and prosperity. We are committed to developing a thriving multicultural region and inspiring lasting transformations that lead to a healthier Inland Northwest.
