2025 Annual Report
Building Tomorrow Together
For more than two decades, EWB-USA has worked alongside communities around the world and in the United States to build infrastructure that lasts. In 2025, that work took on new meaning as the world reeled from cuts to the aid system. Thousands of volunteers partnered with local leaders to deliver clean water, renewable energy, and essential infrastructure to over 1 million people, improving quality of life and livelihoods.
Impact
In 2025, the world reminded us why our work matters.
Communities around the globe faced growing infrastructure challenges as the institutions meant to support them pulled back. Funding dried up. Programs paused. And yet, the engineers in our network showed up. Local leaders showed up. Our partners showed up.
Together, we completed 84 projects across 25 countries, reaching more than 852,000 people. We also carried 345 additional active projects connected to more than 1.4 million community members whose infrastructure needs are at the center of everything we do.
In a challenging year, that kind of impact is anything but small.
Purposeful
Partnership Model
Real impact takes time and trust to build.
“Thanks to the foundational work done in 2025, the Purposeful Partnership Model is no longer just a vision. The stage is set to deepen our collective impact alongside our partners and we are excited to expand what’s possible together.”
Gretchen Smithwick,
Senior Program Manager, EWB-USA
The Purposeful Partnership Model (PPM) is EWB-USA's commitment to bringing all parties into a shared strategy built on long-term community collaboration. Throughout 2025, the model served as the guiding framework for partnership development across five country programs: Ecuador, Uganda, Guatemala, Peru, and Kenya.
Through this model, we envision achieving a collective impact through the following:
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Unified Strategy
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Mutual Capacity Strengthening and Learning
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Programmatic Advancement
Learn more about how we’re deepening our impact and what’s ahead in the full report.
Purposeful Partnership in Peru
In Pusunchas, local leader Julio Avalos gathers the community to share feedback on their experience working with EWB-USA and reflect on how completed infrastructure has changed daily life.
Community members from Prado welcome back EWB-USA Chief Programs Officer Melissa Montgomery during a return visit to completed projects in the Peruvian Amazon.
In Pusunchas, local leader Julio Avalos gathers the community to share feedback on their experience working with EWB-USA and reflect on how completed infrastructure has changed daily life.
Purposeful Partnership in Kenya
This photo featured the moment when staff and partners all met together for the first time to launch our Purposeful Partnership programming in Kenya. Pictured left to right: Leshan Sancha, EWB-USA Kenya Country Coordinator, Gretchen Smithwick, EWB-USA Senior Program Manager, Eric Lundborg, EWB-USA Senior Program Engineer, Norman Muguisha, Program Engineer with our Partners EWB-East Africa, and Stacey Nyandiko, WASH Business Development Manager with our partners at Xylem
Every summer, Montana State University volunteer Anne Cline Dolson and her team begin their trip in Kenya the same way, by sitting down with local partner M-Koko's founding members to listen, ask questions, and plan together before any work on the ground begins.
This photo featured the moment when staff and partners all met together for the first time to launch our Purposeful Partnership programming in Kenya. Pictured left to right: Leshan Sancha, EWB-USA Kenya Country Coordinator, Gretchen Smithwick, EWB-USA Senior Program Manager, Eric Lundborg, EWB-USA Senior Program Engineer, Norman Muguisha, Program Engineer with our Partners EWB-East Africa, and Stacey Nyandiko, WASH Business Development Manager with our partners at Xylem
When a midafternoon downpour interrupted a community meeting in Kapchorwa, volunteers from the Northwestern University student chapter turned the moment into something better: smaller, more personal conversations with teachers, parents, and students. Tap the arrows to explore
Miguel Mejía of FIEA Ecuador connects with community members in San Pedro de Cachiguayco during field visits to assess water system needs across seven rural communities. Tap the arrows to explore
The Auburn University student chapter and community partners mark a milestone: gluing the final section of pipe on their water system in Parramos Grande. Tap the arrows to explore
When a midafternoon downpour interrupted a community meeting in Kapchorwa, volunteers from the Northwestern University student chapter turned the moment into something better: smaller, more personal conversations with teachers, parents, and students. Tap the arrows to explore
EWB-USA in the United States:
A Foundation of Partnership,
and the Decade Ahead
Our Story of work in the United States
As the program moves into this next decade of impact, there's much to be excited about. We're sharpening our focus on the places where the infrastructure gap runs deepest, strengthening the path from engineering solutions to funded, built, lasting outcomes, and continuing to invest in the volunteers who carry this work forward.
The work is evolving, but the measure of success stays the same: communities with the infrastructure they need to thrive.
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"Real change is built from the ground up, with communities, not for them. In a year that tested our sector, EWB-USA's network showed up with focus, adaptability, and a sharper sense of the world that we are building together."
Boris Martin CEO,
Engineers Without Borders USA