The Amazon (Rainforest) Investor Coalition Announces $1 Million in Grants and Helps to Launch #TeamWater Campaign with MrBeast
Belem, Para, Brazil – August 1, 2025
The Amazon (Rainforest) Investor Coalition (AIC) — a global learning-and-collaboration platform advancing forest-positive economies across the Amazon region — today announces grants totaling $1 million USD for projects to support the Amazon forest. At the same time, the AIC announces its collaboration with the world’s biggest Youtuber, MrBeast, as well as Mark Rober, and other allies, to launch their latest global philanthropy campaign #TeamWater. The launch video features members of an indigenous community in the Amazon, and includes a representative of one of the latest AIC grant recipients – Con Amazonia. Like MrBeast and Rober’s previous record-shattering campaigns #TeamTrees and #TeamSeas, #TeamWater is set to take over social media, and may become the most impactful clean-water fundraising campaign in history.
“This is our largest set of donations yet,” says Jose Mattos of the grant portfolio announced. Based in Belem, Mattos serves as the corporate affairs lead for the Coalition.
Founded in 2020, the Amazon Investor Coalition, or AIC — also sometimes referred to as the Amazon RAINFOREST Investor Coalition (to avoid confusion with Amazon.com) — unites investors, philanthropists, and allies to shift the economic drivers in the Amazon region away from deforestation.
In the #TeamWater launch on YouTube, MrBeast recognizes the AIC, and thanks the Coalition for supporting work in the Amazon. In response, the AIC announces its first public list of grantees, a portfolio of 18 organizations from across the Amazon basin who collectively received grants totaling more than $1 million USD.
The primary beneficiary of the global #TeamWater campaign (not part of the AIC portfolio) will be WaterAid, an international nonprofit that improves access to clean water, sanitation, and hygiene in some of the world’s poorest communities. #TeamWater has set a goal to mobilize $40 million USD for the charity, a benchmark that seems likely given the $20 million and $30 million, respectively, raised by #TeamTrees in 2019 and #TeamSeas in 2021.
The #TeamWater film crew visited one of the communities that will benefit from the AIC’s work: the Serena community of the Kichwa people of the Ecuadorean Amazon. The video shows solutions that prevent waterborne diseases, including water filtration systems from Agua Camelo. To support water purification and the leadership of indigenous women in the community, and their efforts to defend themselves from illegal gold mining and mercury poisoning in the Jatunyacu river, the AIC connected #TeamWater with Maria Jose Andrade Cerda of the Kichwa. She is a leader of Yuturi Warmi, one of the first Indigenous guards led by women in the region. Cerda is also part of CONFENIAE (an indigenous federation of Ecuador), and is working with the AIC on a grant to her organization, Con Amazonia, to help improve economic opportunities for indigenous artisans in her region.
The collaboration between the AIC, #TeamWater and Cerda was presented in June, 2025, at the NEXUS Global Summit during a discussion of the Global Commons Fund with the Global Governance Philanthropy Network. (See a part on Youtube).
Why the Amazon Matters for Global Water Access
The Amazon rainforest is a central pump of the global water cycle. To support a movement dedicated to philanthropy and clean water access, the AIC helped #TeamWater feature the Amazon, and its people, in its launch video in order to highlight the importance of the region for the planetary hydrological cycle.
The Amazon is ground zero for global water security and climate stability. The “flying rivers,” as some scientists call them, of water that evaporate from the forest propagate rain patterns around the world, influencing the rain and snow as far away as Tibet. Deforestation leads to drought and disruption of these patterns, impacting water supply worldwide.
To do its part and help reverse the Amazon forest tipping point, reduce drought, and ensure the ecological integrity of the Amazon region, the AIC has selected the portfolio of organizations below as grant recipients. All the organizations named act in alignment with the AIC’s mission: to help ensure that the Amazon forest is worth more alive and standing, than cut and burned. The AIC believes that advancing forest-positive economies is the most efficient way to reverse deforestation, and actively invites partners to come to the Amazon to learn and help. “With COP 30 and the world coming to the Amazon this year, we need all the help we can get,” says Mattos, referring to the UN climate negotiations that will convene in the Amazon in Belem later this year. The AIC is proud to report that 100% of the unrestricted donations that it manages flow to beneficiaries in the Amazon region.
Amazonia Calling
Also relevant for celebrities, online creators and influencers like MrBeast and Mark Rober, the AIC is helping to launch an umbrella alliance titled Amazonia Calling. It aims to amplify and connect diverse campaigns across the region—ranging from the Indigenous Declaration for COP30 to longer-term movements like the Food Culture Guardians Manifesto. Amazonia Calling serves as a collective platform to elevate Amazonian voices, strengthen global solidarity, and link the region’s regenerative solutions with the world.
About #TeamWater
The #TeamWater Campaign may become “the largest cause campaign ever driven by online creators and influencers,” according to the campaign producer Joshua Sage Thome. That’s a big claim, but it will be the third in a series following two previous record-breaking campaigns. The first was #TeamTrees, which raised over $20 million to plant 20 million trees. The second was #TeamSeas, which raised over $30 million to remove 30 million pounds of trash from oceans, rivers, and beaches. Both initiatives engaged thousands of creators and influencers and generated more than one billion views. The campaigns were founded by MrBeast and Mark Rober. MrBeast, or James Donaldson, is the most-watched YouTuber in the world; his videos often receive more views than the Super Bowl. Mark Rober is a former NASA engineer turned YouTuber and one of the most popular science educators for young people globally. #TeamWater aims to raise over $40 million to ensure access to clean water for 2 million people for decades. The donations will go to WaterAid, with the Alok Institute serving as one of the WaterAid implementation partners in South America.
Amazon Investor Coalition: List of Newest Grant Recipients
To support support sustainable commercial activities of riverside communities and families | |
To support production, transformation, and marketing of Non-Timber Forest Products | |
AMWAE – Waorani Women’s Association of the Ecuadorian Amazon | To support sustainable commercial enterprises of Waorani women, helping communities to sustainably use forest resources and preserve their culture |
To support responsible production best practices, new value chains and fair trade in the Brazilian fishing industry | |
To launch a new pan-Ecuadorian brand to create sustainable market opportunities for indigenous entrepreneurs in the Amazon | |
To help coordinate productino, increase volumes, and strengthen existing commercial arrangements in native Amazonian rubber supply chains, to benefit families and conserve forested land. | |
To create a revolving fund for Brazil nuts, and other raw materials, to guarantee market growth and income generation | |
To coordinate curriculum development, educate professionals, and strengthen technical capabilities in forest restoration economies and community-led sustainable forestry management | |
To conduct a study on territorial and regulatory risks in the Amazon, with investment viability considerations in Colombia and Brazil | |
To improve supply chain transparency for Amazonian products | |
To support a fintech platform that enhances the bankability of local regenerative businesses | |
To support networks of native seed collection and distribution | |
To publish ethical and legal guidelines for companies and investors who wish to operate in the Amazon sustainably | |
To support legal assistance for indigenous and tradicional communities and legal training for popular lawyers and IPCT leaders | |
To launch a new superfood brand and help conserve 10 million HA of forest territory | |
To support Indigenous self-governance in the stewardship of their territories and the conservation of biodiversity | |
To scale fair trade market access for artisan economies in the Brazilian Amazon | |
To integrate traditional knowledge and modern techniques for a circular bioeconomy in the Juruá valley of the Amazon |
To learn more about Amazon Rainforest Investor Coalition’s work in the Amazon, visit www.AmazonInvestor.org.
Contact
Jose Mattos, Amazon Investor Coalition, Head of Corporate Affairs, secretary@amazoninvestor.org
