Leroy Eadie is Vice President of Programs at Waters Meet Foundation (formerly Empire Health Foundation) and an alumnus of the Philanthropy Northwest Senior Leaders Cohort. Based in Spokane, WA, Waters Meet boldly advances health equity across the Inland Northwest.
At Waters Meet Foundation, we are constantly exploring new ways to support community. Recently, that’s meant shifting our approach from a narrow focus on grantmaking and issue-focused programs, to a more holistic one that includes program and mission-aligned investments. This is part of a deeper shift in our strategic direction to align our full resources with community identified priorities.
A project that broke ground in May 2026, the new campus for the Salish School of Spokane, shows how a flexible approach to financing community projects can make a meaningful difference for community partners.
The Salish School of Spokane is a language immersion school dedicated to reviving the Southern Interior Salish Languages traditionally spoken in the greater Spokane region. Since 2009, the Salish School has been leading language and cultural revitalization. The school started with a few toddlers and has since grown to a pre-K through eighth grade school.
As the school and learning community have grown, the Salish School has been hosted by a combination of old classrooms and a repurposed old house. With classrooms bursting at the seams, the time has come for the Salish School to move into a purpose-built forever home.
Waters Meet has been working alongside the Salish School as a flexible financial partner. Our first contribution to the capital campaign was a grant that allowed the Salish School to pay off the loan on their current campus. Ownership of the current campus has allowed the Salish School to leverage the current property while they raise funds and seek additional financing to build their campus. The new campus site straddles undeveloped Ponderosa Pine forest and the Spokane River on land donated by Catholic Charities of Eastern Washington.
Now, as the school is ready to break ground, Waters Meet has made one of our first program-related investments in the campus. This action falls under a new financial policy adopted by the Waters Meet Board that calls for 100% mission related investment of the endowment. Rather than granting money like we do for much of our program work, we are supporting the project with a short-term bridge loan. This loan has a far lower interest rate than traditional financing, saving the school money as they move forward with construction and continue to fundraise. This investment also means Waters Meet can support a partner now, while maintaining endowment funds to reinvest in other community-based projects.
While we’re excited about the creative ways we’ve been able to support the Salish School’s new campus, what’s most exciting is the impact the school is having on keeping traditional culture and language alive. For the first time in 70 years, a young student at the Salish School is speaking Salish as a first language and English as a second language.
On a Friday morning in late-May, Waters Meet staff were able to join the Salish School students for their daily songs. Songs that welcome the day and celebrate the community they’ve built. As a Colville Tribal member, it is powerful and emotional to see the joy these students have in singing, drumming and preserving Indigenous language and culture. Waters Meet’s health equity mission couldn’t be more aligned with or grateful to be a small part of building a new Salish School of Spokane.
To learn more about Waters Meet’s approach visit their website.
