Purpose-Driven Philanthropy to Leave the World Better Than We Found It

“Philanthropy” is broadly defined as an active effort to promote human welfare. Well, at Waters, we act with focus, urgency, and a deep sense of purpose—the world needs us to—and we apply these same principles to our volunteerism and charitable giving. A simple framework helps ensure our donations of time and money create meaningful impact and enhance human health and well-being, just like our technology does.

Three Pillars of Philanthropy at Waters

For more than 60 years, Waters has strived to make a positive, lasting impact in the communities in which we live and work. To focus the realm of our possible philanthropy, we turned to our core values and decided our external expression of goodwill should mirror our internal expression of these three pillars:

1. Improving health and well-being by supporting organizations that ensure food safety and security and increase access to clinical diagnostics and medicines.
2. Investing in future talent by supporting STEM education for elementary, middle, and high school students with a special focus on supporting minorities and women in STEM.
3. Supporting organizations that mirror our diversity and inclusion efforts and the intent of our Employee Circles: Multicultural, Pride, Veterans, and Gender Diversity.

Promoting Access to Healthcare Among Underserved Populations

At the core of our purpose is enhancing human health and well-being. We do this by supporting organizations that ensure food safety and security and those that ensure greater access to clinical diagnostics and medicines.

Our recent partnership with Mass General Hospital’s ImproveCareNow program helps transform care and improve outcomes for children in the U.S., U.K., Belgium, and Kuwait who suffer from inflammatory bowel disease. In our longstanding partnership with The Christie —the largest single-site cancer center in Europe—our philanthropy has helped outfit and equip a new care center in Macclesfield, an underserved area of Greater Manchester, England.

Finally, with Boston Children’s Hospital, we have helped make it possible for immigrant and English language-learning students at Madison Park Technical Vocation High School, the majority of whom are students of color, to access high-quality, culturally-relevant behavioral health and emotional support services.

The Next Generation of Science Emerges from Waters Philanthropy

As you may have read in Kelly Johnson’s blog, our founder, Jim Waters, spurred a multi-billion-dollar industry and helped advance numerous scientific breakthroughs, but what he cared about most was creating a space in which the next legendary inventors and innovators could emerge. It’s with Jim’s spirit in mind that Waters honed in on investing in STEM education for elementary, middle, and high school students with a special focus on minority populations as our second pillar of philanthropy. We believe STEM education has the power to foster ingenuity, encourage curiosity, and stimulate creativity – experiences that no child should have to miss out on.

Thanks to our partnerships with the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Media Lab, the University of Edinburgh, and JA Worldwide, our charitable giving, as well as the active engagement of our employees, supports interactive learning and leadership development opportunities for children—especially minorities and girls—across the U.S., the U.K., China, Singapore, Ireland, and Romania.

Waters’ Philanthropy Addresses the Perspectives, Beliefs, and Background of All

In everything we do, we aim to leave the world a better place. At Waters, we believe that celebrating differences and new ideas is not only our responsibility to our employees and customers, but it will also help us to reach our full potential. We can only do that if we promote diversity and inclusivity, empower and engage a variety of perspectives, and become advocates for the communities in which we serve.

Our third pillar of philanthropy is supporting inclusive organizations aligned with diverse and underrepresented populations, especially those our employees embrace and reflect in our Employee Circles. With Ron Burton Training Village, Kory Morrow HBCU initiative, and Team New England, we enthusiastically engage minority and female youth in communities across the U.S. in immersive experiences on our campus, using our own technology, and within the field of mass spectrometry.

If you haven’t already, read about the one-of-a-kind program we created with Team New England and Jeremiah Burke High School. It combines mentoring, education, business, and science to spark students’ interest and help them see all the possibilities their futures hold.

Philanthropy with Purpose

Our partner organizations described above were selected through a robust application and review process. In addition to matching our employees’ individual charitable donations, Waters continues to donate to organizations that align with our core values and help us make an impact outside of the lab, both locally and globally.

At the end of the day, thanks to our focused, purpose-driven, and values-aligned approach, philanthropy at Waters is a human-to-human engagement. It’s life-changing, just like our technology.

Learn more about Philanthropy at Waters

Additional resources:

• Blog: STEM Internship Program: Education, Exposure, Experience
• Blog: Expanding STEM Opportunities for Students of Color