MATTSON MATCH CHALLENGE
Every dollar you give unlocks matching funds from the Steve and Mary Mattson Fund.
Double your impact and help scale sustainable water and sanitation systems across Haiti.
This is bigger than pipes, pumps, and panels.
HANWASH is evolving.
We are building on our years of experience to move beyond individual projects and toward scalable, Haitian-led water systems that last.
Sustainable water and sanitation services depend on more than infrastructure. They require strong local leadership, reliable financing, and systems that can be maintained and improved over time.
Your gift supports that shift.
What your support makes possible
In Pignon, more than $300,000 in combined investment and partnership transformed a limited water supply into a 24-hour, pressurized, chlorinated system, led by the community and supported by HANWASH and partners.
This is what it looks like when systems work.
Why this matters now
Haitian families continue to face disruptions to safe water access, including the ongoing impacts of Hurricane Melissa.
Your gift today will be matched, amplifying support for communities working to build and sustain reliable water and sanitation services.
The Mattson Match Challenge: A Multi-Annual Giving and Partnership Campaign targeting $10 million by 2028
Steve Mattson’s life and legacy is a story of compassion, leadership, and impactful philanthropy.
A Desire to Help
A member of the Minnesota-based Apple Valley Rotary Club, it was at a Club meeting in 1999 that he learned about the plight of children in Haiti suffering from contaminated drinking water. It struck a chord in Steve, sparking a deep desire to make a difference.
He co-founded the Rotary Safe Water Plus program, devoted to providing safe drinking water to those in need, which impacted the lives of 150,000 people around the world.
Deeply proud of this achievement, he wondered how he could do more.
A Vision for Impact at Scale
A committed Rotarian for 30 years, Steve was inspired by Rotary’s achievements in polio eradication. He saw that he could leverage his wealth to attract matching funds from similarly minded partners.
On Steve’s passing in 2015, the executors of his estate established the Steve and Mary Mattson Donor-Advised Funds, through which Steve’s wealth is gifted to HANWASH to transform millions of lives in Haiti through partnerships and philanthropy.
The Match Challenge
Between September 2023 and the end of 2028, HANWASH will receive a total of $2.4 million in semi-annual disbursements from the Steve and Mary Mattson Fund, so long as we raise in parallel an additional $2.4 million in donations, and at least $4.8 million in partner investments, for a total impact value in water and sanitation in Haiti of nearly $10 million, which would be 4 times Steve’s investment.
The power of leverage indeed!
Our performance on this trajectory is measured every six months.
Toward this end, every year from now until 2028, we aim to raise at least $500,000 in financial contributions to unlock the Mattson match. We also aim to raise $1 million in partner investments in Haiti every year.
As of 2024, HANWASH is impacting the lives of 26,000 people with investments already raised of $2.6 million.
With Steve’s generosity and vision, up to 100,000 more people in Haiti will have access to safe, affordable, and sustainable water and sanitation.
A Collective Action Effort toward Universal Coverage
Beyond 2028, our vision is to work with the Haitian government, our closest and continuing partner, to expand the model nation-wide as part of a transformative collective action effort to create self-sufficiency in water and sanitation service delivery for the entire country.
If you have a vision like Steve of using your generosity to do more, please join us in our cause to work with Haitian citizens and leaders to transform the future of their beautiful country.
We must all to work together to make the promise come true.
Every dollar you give gets matched.
Your support is critical to helping us fulfill our vision of water and sanitation for everyone in Haiti.