After five years, I’m finally getting my act together 😉.
I’ve poured my heart and soul into this work since 2018, but I haven’t done a great job sharing it. It’s amazing what a pandemic, getting married, adopting a puppy, and welcoming two incredible little boys can do to a man’s ability to juggle life and communicate!I’ve been guilty of keeping my head down and just doing the work—without bringing others along for the journey. That changes now. So, about that work… let me tell you about FoundRising.
How It All Began
In 2010, I traveled to Uganda with my dear friend Jamie to volunteer in a rural community called Bujagali. Uganda captivated me from the moment I arrived—the people, the spirit, the sense of community. I fell completely in love with it.
Since then, I’ve returned nearly every year, sometimes even living there, always drawn to serve in different ways through various nonprofits. When I first arrived, I had the typical mindset of a volunteer abroad: eager to change lives. Over time, I realized I was the one being changed.
True impact, I learned, comes from humility—from creating small, sustainable shifts that empower communities to lead their own transformation.
The Spark That Started FoundRising
Most of my time in Uganda has been spent in rural villages. Places rich in community but burdened by poverty. Clean water is always a challenge. Most of these rural communities rely on boreholes (wells), but they’re often broken or too shallow, making the water inaccessible or unsafe to drink due to pesticides and leaching from nearby pit latrines. Some families collect rainwater with no way to purify it.
One day, while living with the Muyombi family, I joined their children to fetch water from the Nile River—half a mile away, uphill on the return with heavy jerry cans. When we got back, exhausted, I noticed a broken borehole right in front of the house.
“Why don’t we get water from that well?” I asked.
The answer: It’s broken, and no one can afford to fix it.
That moment changed everything. My friend Eric and I found a way to repair the borehole with help from local workers—and the community’s joy was indescribable.
That’s when FoundRising was born.
Foundation Rising
I saw how lack of clean water touches every part of daily life. Children stay home to help their mothers fetch water, wash clothes, and clean dishes. Illness and dehydration are constant. How can anyone rise out of poverty when something as basic as clean water is out of reach?
That question inspired our name: FoundRising. We work to meet foundational needs so people can rise to greater things.
Our focus is simple and strategic:
- Rehabilitate broken boreholes whenever possible.
- Drill new wells where no clean water source exists.
There are many clean water nonprofits, but few—if any—focus on restoring existing wells, and none we know of are Ugandan-led. FoundRising believes the most powerful change comes from within communities themselves.
Our staff is 100% Ugandan and always will be – I don’t take any compensation from this and any support from the good ‘ol US of A is completely volunteer based. Many of our board members are Ugandan as well. Beyond clean water, we’re also creating jobs and investing in local leadership—because opportunity is the most sustainable form of aid.
In 2018, my buddy Jake and I went out on a scouting mission to find clean water project sites and set courses to find communities in dire need of clean water. Since then, FoundRising has funded and completed 25 clean water projects (with 2020 being a pause year).
What’s Next: Series 10
We’re thrilled to introduce Series 10 (our 10th round of water projects), featuring twelve new water projects ready for sponsorship:
- 7 restorations of existing wells
- 5 new drills in communities that have never had clean water
Together, these projects will impact thousands of lives.
We invite you to directly sponsor a Series 10 Project—whether it’s a personal gift, a co-sponsorship with friends or colleagues or your workplace, or any one-time or monthly contribution toward our mission. However you support, know that $0.95 of every $1 goes directly to our Ugandan operations.
This is a moment of reinvigoration for FoundRising. Our goal is to get to 100 clean water projects by 2030, please join us on the journey!
With love,
Ryan Snyder
Founder, FoundRising