About the Foundation

by RFA Staff

The Rivers Foundation of the Americas is a public operating foundation dedicated to promoting and funding the conservation, protection and restoration of rivers and their watersheds throughout the Americas. RFA uses its expert financial and technical support to promote clean water, biodiversity, and human health through watershed protection.

RFA is a public operating foundation established in 2001 by community, national and international leaders devoted to Clean Water, Biodiversity, and Human Health. Our mission promotes and funds the conservation, protection and restoration of rivers and their watersheds in North, Central and South America.

What We Do

We support activists and their organizations with grants, technical and policy support; and in-kind donations.
We are an operating foundation. That means, in addition to raising an endowment to give grants and other resources to environmental leaders and organizations, we also do projects.
We actively work to change environmental policies in the Americas.
Our science and research team works on direct restoration efforts.
We educate people about the connections between land use, water pollution and ecosystem and human health.

Explore Our Watersheds

Copper River

The Copper River Delta has the largest concentration of nesting shorebirds in North America, is an important nursery for prized salmon and other fisheries, and is a relatively unspoiled wilderness area with keystone predators including wolves and grizzlies.

Columbia River

The Columbia River watershed is a critical link in the mega-linkages of the Pacific flyway and predator migration corridor. It is the nerve center for salmon restoration, and one of the world's most highly manipulated great river systems.

Colorado River

The Colorado River system flows 1,450 miles through nine states and Mexico; the Grand Canyon was created by its waters. The aridity of most of this region has made its water into a valuable commodity, and the fragile desert, canyon, and delta ecosystems it supports have suffered as a result.

RFA Programs

Clean Water, Biodiversity, and Environmental Justice Initiative

This initiative links RFA's policies of supporting indigenous peoples, drumming home the common sense linkages between clean healthy water for human use, strong biodiverse and healthy ecosystems, and environmental justice for indigenous peoples and economically disadvantaged people throughout the Americas. Continue reading below for more about this initiative, or go to Global Water Policy Initiative to learn about RFA's other main initiative.

Global Water Policy Initiative

This initiative works at the heart of water policy issues, especially the global debate on the privatization of fresh water resources and growing water supply controversies throughout the United States and the hemisphere. We believe that all children and all people deserve clean water, and that access to a subsistence level of water is a basic human obligation. Continue reading below for more about this initiative, or go to Clean Water, Biodiversity, and Environmental Justice to learn about RFA's other main initiative.

Donating to RFA

The Rivers Foundation of the Americas is a public foundation dedicated to promoting and funding the protection and restoration of rivers in the Americas. Your passion for environmental preservation and social justice is a passion shared by all RFA board and staff members and by the organizations the Rivers Foundation helps to fund.

Make a Donation Today!