The High Seas -- areas of the ocean beyond national jurisdiction -- cover almost 50 percent of the Earth's surface. They are the least protected part of the world.

Areas of Focus

The Waitt Foundation has made over 2,000 grants totaling over $100 million to non-profit and charitable organizations both at home and abroad. Funding partnerships and projects in conjunction with its grantees and two operating foundations—the Waitt Institute and the Waitt Institute for Violence Prevention, the foundation supports a variety of scientific and environmental programs with a core focus on ocean conservation.

Our oceans are vast, but they are not immune to human influence. We have already altered or destroyed many marine ecosystems and driven million-year-old species to the brink of extinction. According to a study published in Science, less than 4 percent of the oceans remain unaffected by human activity. Over a billion people rely on fish and seafood as their main source of protein and hundreds of millions of people depend primarily on fishing for their livelihood.  The oceans provide us with more than $20 trillion annually in ecological goods and services, but the ocean’s health is declining at an alarming rate due to destructive fishing practices, pollution, climate change, and a multitude of other factors.  If we do nothing to help restore the delicate balance needed for a healthy ecosystem, the world’s fisheries will continue to collapse, coastal economies will grind to a halt, and millions of people will go hungry.

Ocean Conservation

As our primary focus, the foundation supports a variety of ocean conservation efforts with an emphasis on marine protected areas and sustainable fishing practices.  By raising global awareness about declining marine resources through scientific research, innovative sustainability solutions, and policy reform, it’s our hope that people will be inspired to make informed decisions in support of a healthy marine environment. From understanding how healthy ocean ecosystems work, to strengthening and expanding the world’s marine protected areas to reducing the seafood footprint, we invest in ocean conservation projects with the potential for significant, measurable impacts on people’s lives and livelihoods.

Exploration & Discovery

Serving as an exploration catalyst, the Waitt Foundation enables pioneering researchers to transform the ways in which discoveries are made. Collaborating with world-renowned scientists and cutting-edge research institutions, we pull together the global expertise needed to accelerate groundbreaking discoveries, exploring everything from the origins of man and the birth of ancient civilizations to historical mysteries that have captured our collective imaginations for generations. Our areas of interest are without boundaries taking us on archaeological journeys to the deserts of Egypt, artifact excavations in the jungles of Panama, and deep sea expeditions in the South Pacific Ocean.

Scientific Innovation

Believing that goal-oriented science can inspire incredible innovation and discoveries, we look for projects with focused objectives, achievable milestones and strong strategic plans. We then bring the best minds and global resources together to resolve differences, achieve critical breakthroughs and accelerate progress through a variety of new technologies and educational advances. The foundation supports pioneering state-of-the-art research that drives the development of next-generation imaging, data analysis technologies and visualization tools for the advancement of biological research.

Community Building

The foundation’s work in community-building is a balanced portfolio, strategically designed to address different urgent human needs. Bringing people and resources together to collaboratively address social, educational, economic, environmental and cultural challenges, the foundation believes in giving back to the community—from the Siouxland region where Ted Waitt was born, to the San Diego area where the foundation is based, to even the national and global level when we believe we can have a sustainable impact.

At this time, we are accepting proposals in the following key areas of interest:

Ocean Conservation
Exploration & Discovery
Scientific Innovation

For more information on how to apply for a grant, please visit the “Grantee Requirements” and “Application Process” sections.

The Waitt Foundation has been named among the Top 50 U.S. Foundations Awarding Grants for Science and Technology, Top 50 U.S. Foundations Awarding Grants for the Social Sciences and Top 50 U.S. Foundations Awarding Grants in the San Diego, CA, Metropolitan Area.