Over two billion people worldwide still lack access to safe water at home. To draw attention to this humanitarian crisis, Water.org—a non-profit co-founded by actor Matt Damon and engineer Gary White—has launched the Get Blue campaign. According to an announcement on Tuesday, Ripple has now joined the coalition of founding partners supporting this initiative.
Major coalition for water access
San Francisco-based blockchain firm Ripple joins Water.org, Amazon, and Gap as part of a broad coalition devoted to the campaign. The Get Blue initiative seeks to raise funds through both company sales allocations and direct donations, supplying resources for clean water and basic infrastructure worldwide.
Water.org has built a reputation as an NGO pioneering financial models that make water and sanitation services more affordable for low-income households. At the core of the effort lies WaterCredit, a financing approach the organization has long championed.
Glossary note: WaterCredit is a financing model that provides small, low-cost loans for access to essential services like water and sanitation. Unlike traditional donation-driven aid, WaterCredit enables households to fund critical infrastructure with manageable installments.
Ripple plans to help scale Water.org’s operations in developing markets by transferring funds to microfinance partners using RLUSD, a US dollar-backed stablecoin.
RLUSD’s role in cross-border support
A central highlight from the announcement is Ripple’s integration of RLUSD, its US dollar-pegged stablecoin, into the campaign. Ripple stated that RLUSD will be used to transfer financial support to Water.org’s microfinance partners in emerging markets, addressing a pressing need for increased transaction capacity in these regions.
Importantly, the campaign is not designed to directly tackle industrial water use. As both Ripple and Water.org’s founders acknowledge, Get Blue focuses on the human dimensions—communities struggling to access safe water—rather than the industry’s environmental footprint.
Water demand rises in the age of AI
According to US Environmental Protection Agency estimates, American data centers may use up to 73 billion gallons of water by 2028, with AI-driven demand cited as the primary driver. While the Get Blue campaign does not specifically address the industrial side, it aims to ease the humanitarian impact with backing from tech giants involved in widespread water consumption.
This marks another social impact deployment for RLUSD: Ripple previously donated $15 million worth of RLUSD to the Accion Opportunity Fund in September 2025, targeting underserved American entrepreneurs’ access to financial services.
Additionally, Ripple recently pledged cryptocurrency donations totaling $25 million to DonorsChoose and Teach For America. With the latest collaboration, Ripple is stepping up its presence in aid and development initiatives powered by stablecoins.
