Empire Health Foundation

What Empire Health Foundation does

Empire Health Foundation is a private, nonprofit health conversion foundation headquartered in Spokane, Washington, founded in 2008 and now operating under the name Waters Meet Foundation following a 2024 rebranding and the adoption of a 10-Year Strategic Direction for 2025-2034. The foundation's core function is grantmaking, sponsorship, and impact investing directed at dismantling persistent health inequities and advancing racial, social, and economic justice in the Inland Northwest region. In 2024-2025, it channeled approximately $20M into the community through grants and contracts with service providers, with 95% of those resources flowing to by-and-for grassroots organizations serving prioritized communities.

Its product surface goes beyond traditional grantmaking. Waters Meet operates six core program lines: a community-focused Grantmaking Program, an Impact Investing practice that has deployed capital into entities such as the Salish School of Spokane, the Building Connections Initiative (BCI) community hub with calendar and event spaces, a Pilot Tiny Home Village for housing solutions, an Equity Healing Framework methodology, and Event Spaces for community gatherings. A separate Action Fund entity (watersmeet.fund) extends the foundation's advocacy and funding capacity.

The business model is endowment-funded philanthropy rather than commercial revenue. The foundation operates with 11-50 staff, is governed by an independent board (the EHF Board), and does not have a parent company, institutional investors, or public listing. Its GTM motion is community-led: it identifies grassroots partners, distributes grants and sponsorships, and supports them through capacity-building, events, and impact investments. The foundation has no disclosed customers in a commercial sense and reports no app, API, or proprietary technology platform.

Name

Empire Health Foundation

Legal name

Waters Meet Foundation

Website

https://empirehealthfoundation.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2008

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Empire Health Foundation, now operating as Waters Meet Foundation, is a Spokane-based private health conversion foundation that channels endowment funding into grants, sponsorships, and impact investments to dismantle health inequities and advance racial justice in the Inland Northwest.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Philanthropic Grantmaking Foundation

NAICS

Grantmaking Foundations (813211), Voluntary Health Organizations (813212), Social Advocacy Organizations (8133)

SIC

Services-Social Services (8300), Services-Health Services (8000)

akta.pro primary industry

Health & Medical Research Grantmaking Foundations (BPAGAKAL)

akta.pro secondary industries

Community Foundations (BPAGAKAB), Health Equity & Social Determinants Program Funding (HLAJALAK)

Keywords

• Community health grantmaking
• Philanthropic foundations
• Health equity funding
• Impact investing
• Grassroots advocacy funding

Headquarters

HQ city

Spokane

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Others

Revenue model

1. Foundation Endowment/Investment Returns: Operates as a private foundation funded by endowment investment returns. Distributes grants and contracts to community organizations addressing health inequities and racial justice in the Inland Northwest region.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels2 records

Core offering

Empire Health Foundation (now operating as Waters Meet Foundation) is a private health conversion foundation that distributes grants, sponsorships, and impact investments to grassroots organizations addressing health inequities and racial injustice in the Inland Northwest region. The foundation also operates pilot community programs such as a tiny home village, an equity healing framework, and a community hub with event spaces.

Product overview

Waters Meet (formerly Empire Health Foundation) operates as a grantmaking foundation focused on community power building and grassroots advocacy to dismantle persistent health inequities. The organization functions as a unified foundation with multiple interconnected programs including grantmaking, impact investing, community resources through the Building Connections Initiative, pilot housing programs, and an equity healing framework. The foundation reported that 95% of 2024-2025 grants went to grassroots organizations serving prioritized communities, with $20M brought into community through grants and contracts in 2024-2025.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Salish School of SpokaneminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024Waters Meet Foundation made an impact investment in the Salish School of Spokane, demonstrating commitment to investing resources in community organizations. The Salish School of Spokane is an Indigenous language immersion school serving the Spokane community.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• Kresge Foundation: National foundation with a strong health-equity and racial-justice programmatic portfolio. Comparable in mission focus on community power building and health equity, though much larger and more diversified.
• Tides Foundation: Major US grantmaking and fiscal-sponsorship platform supporting social-justice, health-equity, and grassroots advocacy causes. Comparable in emphasis on grassroots movements and racial justice, but operates nationally and as a fiscal sponsor rather than a regional conversion foundation.
• Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: National health-focused philanthropy and the largest US foundation devoted exclusively to health. Comparable in health-equity orientation, but operates at vastly greater scale and national scope than Waters Meet.
• California Health Care Foundation: Health conversion foundation focused on improving California's health-care system, especially for underserved populations. Directly comparable as a health conversion foundation, but California-specific and significantly larger.

Regional players

• M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust: Large Pacific Northwest private foundation supporting education, health, and community capacity. Comparable in regional footprint and grantmaking scale, though broader in cause area than Waters Meet.
• Cambia Health Foundation: Pacific Northwest health-focused foundation supporting person-centered, affordable care. Comparable as a regional health conversion foundation serving overlapping geographies, though with a more health-care-system orientation than community power building.

Direct peers

• Inland Northwest Community Foundation: Community foundation serving the same Inland Northwest region as Waters Meet, distributing grants across multiple causes including health and equity. Direct geographic and operational peer with overlapping grantee networks.
• Northwest Health Foundation: Regional health conversion foundation based in Portland, Oregon, focused on advancing health equity in the Pacific Northwest. Closely comparable to Waters Meet in conversion-foundation origin, health-equity mission, and Pacific Northwest geographic footprint.
• St. Luke's Community Health Improvement Fund: Health-system-affiliated foundation in Idaho focused on community health improvement, comparable in conversion-foundation-style origins and regional health-equity grantmaking in the Inland Northwest-adjacent geography.

Others

• Empire Health Foundation: Legacy brand under which Waters Meet operated before the 2024 rebrand. Identical legal entity now operating as Waters Meet Foundation, included as the prior identity rather than a separate peer.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat2 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/empirehealth
• Facebookfacebook.com/EmpireHealthFoundationEasternWA
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/empire-health-foundation

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles16 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Empire Health Foundation