The Waitt Family Foundation & Ted Waitt

Waitt Family Foundation

The Waitt Family Foundation was established in 1993. Based in La Jolla, CA, the foundation provides grants to organizations striving to help us understand our past, improve the present, and prepare for the future. The foundation initially focused on community building in at risk communities. After investing millions of dollars into various programs, we concluded that our work in domestic violence had the most measurable impact on those at risk today and as a result launched the Waitt Institute for Violence Prevention in 2005. Soon after, our interests and activities quickly expanded globally in scope thereby creating the Waitt Institute for Discovery which has a primary focus on Nautical Archaeology. Currently, in addition to supporting the two institutes, the foundation funds a variety of scientific and environmental programs with an emerging primary focus on ocean conservation.

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

On occasion, we will accept proposals outside our primary areas of focus in our local communities of San Diego, CA and North Sioux City, SD.

Grantee Spotlight:

The End of the Line - Imagine a world without fish

Imagine an ocean without fish. Imagine your meals without seafood. Imagine the global consequences. This is the future if we do not stop, think and act. The End of the Line, the first major feature documentary film revealing the impact of overfishing on our oceans. In the film we see firsthand the effects of our global love affair with fish as food. It examines the imminent extinction of bluefin tuna, brought on by increasing western demand for sushi; the impact on marine life resulting in huge overpopulation of jellyfish; and the profound implications of a future world with no fish that would bring certain mass starvation. The Waitt Family Foundation provided significant financial support for the production and marketing of this film.

Program Spotlight:

CATALYST

The Waitt Institute for Discovery’s CATALYST Program is a series of deep-sea expeditions that will significantly transform undersea exploration and the future of our oceans. The program makes available for the first time a versatile and highly portable deep-sea tool kit and operations team that is rapidly deployable all over the world. The program represents a major milestone in the effort to integrate public and private forces in exploring and understanding our oceans. The CATALYST Program marks an unprecedented collaboration between the Waitt Institute for Discovery and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

The Waitt Institute for Discovery is a non-profit research organization that serves as an exploration catalyst. We enable scientific pioneers to transform the ways in which discoveries are made and implement innovative technologies in the field through collaborations with world-renowned scientific institutions.

Working closely with the Waitt Institute for Violence Prevention, we are committed to changing social norms that accept violence as a part of life. We do this in our hometown, our nation, and our world.

Waitt Institute for Violence Prevention helped sponsor this billboard in Iowa.

The Waitt Institute for Discovery and the Waitt Institute for Violence Prevention are separately incorporated and carry out their own programs, working in the areas of interest they share with the Waitt Family Foundation. The Institutes do not make grants to other organizations, though they frequently work closely with nonprofit organizations receiving funding from the Foundation.