During Catalyst Conference, Scott Harrison, president and founder of Charity:Water, discussed why he chose water as a charity, and what he’s doing to bring clean drinking water to every person on the planet.

So why water?

  • 1,000,000,000 people don’t have access to clean water.
  • 40,000,000,000 hours are used each year by Africans seeking to obtain water.
  • 5,000 children die each day because they don’t have clean drinking water.

Water changes everything.

His idea was to reinvent charity, because so few people trust them.  He did this in 3 ways.

  1. 100% of the donations go directly to the cause.
  2. Prove where each dollar goes.  Every project is linked via GPS coordinates, and pictures are taken as proof at each site.
  3. Create a brand.

He built a campaign that encouraged people to give up their birthday in favor of supporting Charity:Water.  And it worked.

1,000,000 more people have clean water now.

But his goal is massive.  Over the next 10 years, he wants to provide access to clean drinking water to 100,000,000 people (which will cost $2 billion).

To join this movement, visit mycharitywater.org.