DigDeep believes that everyone has a human right to clean, running water—but more than 2.2 million Americans live without it. This is what we did in 2020 to fix that.
A Message from CEO & Founder, George McGraw
Joy powers everything we do at DigDeep, but never have we worked harder or shined brighter than during this year of unprecedented challenges. To our team and more than 40,000 donors across the country, thank you.
We’re working to close the Water Gap for every American. Here's how.
*WaSH is an acronym that stands for "water, sanitation and hygiene". Universal, affordable and sustainable access to WASH is a key public health and equity issue and is the focus of UN Sustainable Development Goal 6.
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1
Advance Community Led Solutions by deploying proven WaSH* strategies to ensure that every American has clean, running water forever.
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2
Develop an Evidence Base by collecting, sharing and leveraging domestic WaSH data to inform our progress toward universal access.
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3
Mobilize America by empowering people to solve this problem in their lifetimes
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4
Build an Ecosystem of Change by facilitating high-impact collaboration to lead a diverse, sustainable movement.
The Navajo Water Project
Without running water at home, our Navajo clients were some of the most vulnerable to coronavirus in America. So when the unthinkable happened, DigDeep and our supporters sprang into action, more than tripling our planned impact and serving thousands with clean, reliable water so they could #stayhome.
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250,000
gallons of emergency bottled water delivered across Navajo Nation.
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3X
more clients served with clean water in 2020 than originally planned.
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1450
275-gallon water storage tanks delivered to Navajo homes and filled throughout the pandemic.
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10
new water trucks and delivery vehicles kept the water flowing.
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1891
square miles added to our water delivery routes.
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Remebering Ernest Largo
Our friend and colleague Ernest Largo was laid to rest next to his wife and son on Friday, May 8th 2020 in Thoreau, NM after losing his battle with Covid-19. He was buried with his tools, vest, and hard hat at the request of his family.
Ernest embodied all of the reasons the Navajo Water Project has had such an impact—he was creative, joyful, and hard working. He was intimately connected to his community and his co-workers.
Frustrated by Covid limitations and inspired by Ernest, his team developed a contactless ‘suitcase’ system that brings clean, hot-and-cold running water to Navajo homes. We're installing these suitcases (and our larger Home Water Systems) in 100 homes in 2021, as we transition from relief work back to more permanent systems. In 2022 we plan to serve even more families.
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Closing the Water Gap
Our 2019 report, Closing the Water Gap, showed that more than 2.2 million Americans still don’t have running water. In 2020, we empowered those communities to share their stories with news outlets, lawmakers, and even presidential candidates. And we launched two new research projects to deepen our response to the crisis.
MEET THE AMERICANS WITHOUT RUNNING WATER
Join CBS Sunday Morning correspondent Lee Cowan and DigDeep on a journey around the country to meet the 2.2 million Americans who still don’t have a tap or a toilet at home.
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70
major news outlets and 41 scholarly journals cited our research on America’s Water Gap.
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6
grants for water and sanitation to impacted communities around the country.
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$850,000
donated by 4,000 Americans the week CBS Sunday Morning aired their special on our work.
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NEXT UP IN RESEARCH
What’s the economic impact when you give someone access to running water?
For every dollar you invest in closing the water gap, how many dollars do you get back in improved health, access to education and economic opportunity? We wanted to find out, so we launched a study with Robert Wood Johnson, Altarum, IAPMO and the American Heart Association.
Results Spring 2022.
How do we get toilets to everyone, no matter where they live?
We wanted to create connections between rural communities piloting innovative solutions to wastewater challenges—from Alaska to Hawaii to New York. So we launched the Decentralized Wastewater Innovation Cohort (DWIC) where participants can share their learnings with the water sector, policymakers, and each other.
Results Spring 2022.
The Appalachia Water Project
After more than two years of research and relationship-building, we launched the Appalachia Water Project in rural West Virginia. We’ll do the same thing in Appalachia that we’ve done on the Navajo Nation: bring clean, running water to American families, one house at a time.
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2/3
of the public water systems in West Virginia have the worst water quality in the country and many have fallen completely offline.
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1504
founding donors to the Appalachia Water Project.
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150
homes in McDowell County, WV will get clean, running water in 2021 as the Appalachia Water Project enters Phase II.
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NEXT UP
We’re continuing to build projects in partnership with the communities we met during our field research for our report Closing the Water Access Gap in the United States.
The Colonias Water Project
The Colonias Water Project will bring clean, running water to Americans living in colonias, or neighborhoods along the Texas/Mexico border without access to basic services. Work will start in El Paso, TX in 2021.
Lowndes County
A new project in Lowndes County, Alabama will bring working septic systems to families who have been flushing their waste right into their yards, causing a recent resurgence in tropical disease.
Community
DigDeep is the only WaSH (water, sanitation and hygiene) organization in the U.S. — but we can’t solve this problem on our own. So in 2020 we set out to build an entire domestic WaSH sector, rallying the foundations, corporations, nonprofits, and community advocates to join our work.
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4
Guiding Principles for Water Access During Covid-19 based on DigDeep's research were adopted by 249 water agencies.
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1258
people signed a pledge recognizing that every American has a human right to clean, running water and a working toilet.
Sign the pledge -
61,265,929
total social following of the celebrities, brands and activists who supported our work this year.
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FUN-RAISING
More than 40,000 people trusted us with their hard-earned dollars in 2020, and many of them found creative ways to inspire family and friends too!
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Team DigDeep
None of this would be possible without the incredible men and women of Team DigDeep. While our neighbors sheltered in place, they jumped into water trucks and zoom calls—keeping the water flowing for thousands of families. In 2020, we made historic investments in new jobs and benefits, making DigDeep a truly wonderful place to work.
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19
new people joined Team DigDeep in 2020, more than triple our growth in any previous year.
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$20
our new company-wide minimum wage (even interns!)
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75%
our Koya Board Diversity Index score. If any two board members were selected at random, the probability of them differing along either gender or racial lines is 75%, making us a high-diversity organization.
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FROM THE TEAM
Our Biggest Challenges And Proudest Wins Of 2020
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Financials
When things felt more uncertain than ever, our community rallied around us. More than 40,000 people made gifts to bring water to their neighbors, without knowing what impact the pandemic would have on the economy. Because of their generosity, DigDeep grew nearly 4x, expanding to serve more Americans in more parts of the country than ever before.
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$1200
the value of each of the hundreds of stimulus checks donated to families in need of water.
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18
months of operating runway places in reserve by our Board to weather tough times, like future pandemics.
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41,164
donors supported DigDeep in 2020; 32,956 people gave gifts of $100 or less.
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55
foundations and corporations supported our work, including W.K. Kellogg, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Boeing.
See the full list here
Program Services
$3,235,372
Fundraising
$334,045
General and Admin
$226,224
Program / Overhead Expense Ratio
This year, DigDeep limited our Overhead expenses to 11% of our overall spending.
In general, DigDeep maintains an 85% Programs to 15% Overhead expenditure ratio or better.
89% Program
11% Overhead
BREAKDOWN OF PROGRAM EXPENSES
Water Projects
$3,063,925
Education
$148,223
Research
$23,224
BREAKDOWN OF OPERATIONAL EXPENSES
We sent 100% of every public donation to a water project. All other expenses—including operations and fundraising—were funded using dedicated gifts from individuals, foundations, and our Water Council.
Salaries, Taxes and Benefits
$1,344,266
Project Costs
$941,270
Professional Services
$462,157
In-Kind Donations
$329,314
Depreciation
$170,521
Travel
$124,285
Rent
$109,383
Bank Fees
$104,723
Insurance
$81,021
Office
$72,113
Advertising
$29,373
Supplies
$22,749
Postage
$4,466
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Give clean, running water.
This report was built with input from every member of Team DigDeep.
The DigDeep Right to Water Project is a 501(c)(3) organization.
Our EIN is 46-0686920