Project Accelerator

Project Accelerator provides short term support and technical assistance to get local priority projects off the ground. These projects help support universal access to secure, affordable, safe, and healthy drinking water, wastewater and stormwater management services.

The Accelerator focuses on jumpstarting approaches that are part of a “distributed” model of water infrastructure, that address water management throughout an entire community, supplementing and extending the life of more conventional centralized water systems. These strategies – which include water conservation, reuse, green stormwater infrastructure, and other consumer-focused initiatives – help secure water supplies, protect local environments, and keep water costs affordable. They can also create additional benefits, such as job creation, neighborhood greening, local economic development, and public health enhancements.

Specific projects can vary widely, depending on each communities’ goals. The featured projects section below provides of the projects supported by Project Accelerator to date, which range from the development of water efficient fixture direct installation programs for income-eligible residents in Evans, CO, to the creation of a road map for using streets as green stormwater infrastructure in New Orleans.

Project Accelerator provides 250 hours of WaterNow staff time to support a wide range of projects, depending on a community’s goals and needs. It can span program design and implementation, policy and legal analysis, community stakeholder outreach, communications strategy, and data analysis. Technical support provided can include, but is not necessarily limited to:

• Navigating Federal and State Funding Opportunities
• Water Policy Research & Analysis
• Draft Ordinance Support
• Communication with Elected/Appointed Decision Makers
• Preparation of Key Planning Documents
• Best Practices Research
• Program Design and Development
• Program Success Metrics
• Training and Education
• Outreach & Communication Strategy
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Building Community Trust
• Fostering Leadership and Professional Development for Utility Staff
• Access to a Broad Network of Water Sector Experts

You can also reach out to us directly, to discuss whether your project is a good match for the types of support the Accelerator provides.

No, Project Accelerator does not provide direct funding to applicants. Instead, it offers up to 250 hours of pro bono WaterNow staff time over a 6–12 month period, to implement community priorities.

The application includes seven short questions about the proposed project, along with several additional multiple choice questions to help us get to know the community and understand the logistics around the proposed idea. It is meant to take applicants no more than 1-2 hours to complete.

WaterNow has found that Accelerator projects often provide opportunities for utility staff to develop and demonstrate various management and leadership skills. Projects can provide practical skills development that include, but are not limited to:

• Pitching project plans
• Pitching to management
• Communicating with political leadership
• Communicating with community members
• Building partnerships with community members and groups
• Establishing performance metrics
• Building teams
• Growing collaborations with outside entities
• Strengthening capacity for strategy and visioning
• Additional goals identified by project applicants

Project Accelerator can provide support for community organizations and water utilities seeking to build trusting, authentic and constructive relationships. Projects that advance these goals can be wide-ranging and can include, but are not limited to:

• Prioritizing transparency and accountability
• Restoring community confidence
• Deepening community understanding of utility roles and responsibilities
• Highlighting shared goals to leverage mutual benefits
• Including the community as part of utility decision-making
• Adopting a community-facing orientation
• Cultivating long-term community relationships with intention
• Building from personal to more formalized relationships

WaterNow and River Network’s Building Blocks of Trust initiative includes additional context about and examples of the ways utilities and communities around the country are partnering to build trust-based relationships. Water system providers are encouraged to consider applying in partnership with a local community organization on proposed trust-building projects.

Community-driven projects reflect local priorities, and support the fair distribution of economic, political, social, and natural resources and opportunities to improve the livelihood of individuals and the overall health of society.

Projects that advance these goals are wide-ranging and can include, but are not limited to:

• Affordability initiatives
• Efforts to reduce service shutoffs
• Partnering with community groups to engage and build trust with the local community (see also the FAQ that addresses the question “What do you mean by projects that foster trust and collaboration between water utilities and their communities?”)
• Understanding and increasing the uptake of water use efficiency, green infrastructure, or other incentive programs across all of a community’s demographics
• Engaging community members, including under-represented community members, in planning and decision-making processes
• Identifying and developing outreach strategies to connect the utility with populations that may be more difficult to reach (for instance, due to unreliable Internet access, rural residency, or language barriers)
• Creating jobs programs, training opportunities, or other efforts to connect water services to local workforce development programs
• Supporting the recruitment and retention of utility staff
• Supporting the creation and implementation of programs, such as the direct installation of localized water infrastructure, that are designed to meet the needs of low-income and hard-to-reach residents

There are many ideas and approaches to move more quickly towards universal access to water management services – we are interested in hearing your ideas, goals, and challenges and partnering on approaches that meet the unique priorities in your community.

WaterNow’s evaluation team looks for the following in Accelerator applications:

• A clear focus on a sustainable, strategic, and innovative management solutions
• Projects that help ensure universal access to water services
• Benefits to under-resourced communities
• Potential for replication in other communities with similar goals or challenges
• Demonstration of a commitment to achieve the project outcomes and outputs (e.g., a funding commitment for the project in the form of a budget line item; an identification of the project as a priority in a strategy, plan, or report; or a commitment from the City Council, Board, or management)

The rubric for project evaluation is available here. If you’re not sure whether the project you have in mind is a fit, or if you have specific questions about the application, you can also reach out to us directly to discuss it in more detail.

We typically invite applications twice a year, once in the spring/summer, and once in the fall/winter. 

Some rounds are open to all applicants, and others include a specific focus on particular regions, geographies, or project types. Through these types of application cycles, we hope to not only support individual communities, but to also generate synergies between Accelerator participants. By working with cohorts of partners pursuing similar goals and addressing common challenges, we hope to deepen connections across communities, foster knowledge-sharing and collaboration, and open the door to innovative, collaborative solutions.