Research consistently shows Black children ages 10 to 14 drown in swimming pools at 8 times the rate of their white peers.

Since 2019, Making Waves has provided more than 3,500 swim scholarships for children and caregivers to learn life-saving swim and water skills, and we’d love your help to ensure more Black children and their families learn these life-saving skills.

Your donation helps to cover the full cost of life-saving swim lessons, helping families reclaim their legacy and build a joyful, safe relationship with water.

Our 100+ volunteers are community leaders who provide outdoor expertise, trip planning and guidance, and community to over 70,000 people across 62 networks throughout the US. The 1,000+ outdoor trips they lead annually create welcoming opportunities for people to explore, connect, and develop a love for their local land, water, and wildlife.

Your contribution ensures that our volunteers are certified in Wilderness First Aid and CPR, and have instructor-level skills in activities that require a high-degree of technical know-how and safety, so that they can continue to sustainably host outings within their networks, and lead their communities safely in nature.

No gift is too small. Every contribution allows us to foster more relationships between our local communities and the outdoors by sharing stories about Black connections to land, water, and wildlife.