Waters Foundation Inc.

Waters Foundation Inc. is a closely-held family foundation, not a discovery-driven grant program. Chairman Don L Waters (Chairman/President/CEO of Brasseler USA, a Savannah-based dental and medical instrument manufacturer, and former Chairman of the University System of Georgia Board of Regents) and President Cynthia D Waters run the foundation with zero officer compensation reported in any filing year, signaling a personal philanthropic vehicle rather than a staffed grantmaking institution. The foundation's own Form 990-PF marks it as accepting only 'preselected' organizations and explicitly not soliciting unsolicited applications, with the stated application format simply being a 'letter stating contribution request' — there is no portal, published RFP, deadline, or typical-grant-size disclosure in its own records. For first-time applicants, the realistic path in is not a cold proposal but a warm introduction through the Waters family's existing civic network: the Georgia Historical Society (where Don Waters has served as a board Curator since 2015 and the family endowed the Don and Cindy Waters Fund in 2016), the University System of Georgia / Board of Regents, Armstrong State University (now merged into Georgia Southern University), Savannah Classical Academy (which the Waters helped found in 2013), or the Savannah Community Foundation, which has received three grants totaling $1.86M — by far the foundation's largest documented relationship. Organizations working in Chatham County education, history/civic institutions, or community-foundation-style intermediary giving are the closest fit to the pattern in the data. Grant seekers without a Savannah-area civic or higher-education connection to the Waters family should treat this foundation as a low-probability, long-horizon relationship target: the strategy is to build visibility in Savannah philanthropic and higher-education circles (board service, Georgia Historical Society events, University System of Georgia programming) rather than to submit a proposal and wait for a response.

Total giving has grown from $19,512 in 2011 to $717,587 in 2023, tracking the foundation's asset base, which grew from $2.1M (2011) to $10.89M (2023). Actual grants paid (distinct from total giving, which includes excise tax and administrative costs) were $672,640 in FY2023, $685,204 in FY2022, $500,000 in FY2021, $400,000 in FY2020, and $800,000 in FY2019 — the FY2019 peak, followed by a pandemic-era pullback to $400,000 in 2020, is the only significant deviation from the decade's steady upward trend. Only two recipient organizations appear in available grantee data, both 100% Georgia-based: the Savannah Community Foundation received 3 grants totaling $1,857,844 (average roughly $619,000 per grant, listed purpose 'support charitable purpose'), and Armstrong State University Foundation received a single $400,000 grant. Combined, these four known grants total $2,257,844 at an average of $564,461 each — a small number of large, concentrated commitments rather than broad-based small-dollar grantmaking. The foundation reports contributions received of $0 in most recent years (2020 and 2023 both show $0-$200,000 in new contributions), meaning nearly all revenue comes from investment performance: net investment income was $990,263 in 2023 against total revenue of $1,036,016, meaning the endowment's own returns — not new donor gifts — fund essentially all new giving capacity. NTEE classification is T20 (Philanthropy & Grantmaking / private foundation) with a listed focus area of 'Community Development,' though the observed grants skew toward education and community-foundation intermediary giving rather than direct community-development programming.

All five peer foundations sit within roughly $5,000 of Waters' $10,889,254 in total assets, which is a strong signal these were grouped as an asset-tier cohort rather than as thematically similar funders — none has a public giving program, an application portal, or a published funding priority beyond the generic Philanthropy & Grantmaking NTEE code. Waters stands out within this peer set as unusually well-documented: its Chairman is a high-profile Savannah business and civic leader (Brasseler USA CEO, former Board of Regents Chairman), giving grant seekers an identifiable relationship path that most of these anonymous, closely-held peer trusts do not offer.

No grant announcements, press releases, or news coverage specific to 2025 or 2026 were found for Waters Foundation Inc. in web search — this is consistent with a two-person family foundation with no communications staff or public grants program. The most recent filed financial data is the FY2023 Form 990-PF (filed October 15, 2024), reporting $672,640 in grants paid against $10.89M in total assets. The foundation's most recent notable public activities predate 2025: Chairman Don L Waters was appointed to the University System of Georgia Board of Regents by Governor Nathan Deal in March 2013 and became its Chairman in 2018; Don and Cindy Waters helped establish Savannah Classical Academy, a public charter school, in 2013; and in 2016 the couple endowed the Don and Cindy Waters Fund at the Georgia Historical Society, where Don Waters has served as a board Curator since 2015. Don Waters continues to serve as Chairman, President, and CEO of Brasseler USA, Inc., a Savannah-headquartered international manufacturer of dental and medical surgical instrumentation — the likely source of the family's philanthropic capital. Grant seekers should not expect a public announcement cadence from this funder; the foundation's activity is best tracked through its annual Form 990-PF filing (typically filed in the fall for the prior fiscal year) rather than press coverage.

Do not submit an unsolicited proposal expecting a review process — Waters Foundation Inc.'s own tax filing states it funds only preselected organizations and does not accept unsolicited applications, and it has no application portal, published deadline, or typical-grant-size guidance (all three fields are blank in its own IRS record). The one concrete instruction on file is that a request should take the form of a 'letter stating contribution request' — keep it short, direct, and addressed to Don L Waters (Chairman) or Cynthia D Waters (President) at 35 Island Drive, Savannah, GA 31406 (or by phone at 912-921-7535), rather than a formal multi-page LOI. The strongest lever available to an applicant is relationship proximity to Savannah civic and higher-education institutions: the foundation's only documented giving has gone to the Savannah Community Foundation (three grants, $1.86M combined) and Armstrong State University Foundation ($400,000), and Don Waters' personal affiliations run through the Georgia Historical Society, the University System of Georgia Board of Regents, and Savannah Classical Academy — a request that can be introduced through one of these networks, or that clearly extends work already happening at one of them, is far more likely to be read than a cold letter from an out-of-state or unaffiliated organization. Frame any request in terms of Chatham County/Savannah community impact and education, since every dollar traced in the data has stayed within Georgia and skewed toward education and community-foundation-style giving; avoid national-scope appeals or generic 'expand our reach' language, since the funder's entire visible pattern is hyper-local. Because officer compensation is $0 in every filing year and the foundation has no staff, expect any response — positive or negative — to come personally from Don or Cynthia Waters rather than a program officer, so professionalism and brevity in the initial letter matter more than a polished formal proposal packet.