Since launching the UnPodcast, out of 200+ episodes, we’ve had just two live guests and done one Skype interview. Not exactly the podcast norm…

We just don’t like most people. Not you wonderful reader, all the other people.

On episode 139, “An Unprecedented Episode”, we we invited Charity Water founder Scott Harrison to join us via Skype and talk about the organization's history and goals for the future as they celebrated their tenth anniversary. Being fans and past donors, it was a great honor to speak to Scott and we had a lot of fun learning from him.

Why did we want to speak to Scott Harrison and learn about Charity Water?

We love the name Scott. We have been continually impressed by Charity Water.

We first learned about Charity Water when one of our friends online shared that she was waving her fees as a photographer to the cause - giving away free headshots in exchange for a donation. One of the best things about social media is learning about new causes, because your friends care about them. This builds immediate trust in the charity, because the trust you have in your connections is immediately carried over to the cause. If the cause means something to our friends - then it means something to us.

Scott started Charity Water after coming out of a job in the nightlife industry. He realized he wanted to do something different:

“I had become the worst person I knew.”

He left the vices and opulence of his club promoter life behind, and decided to make a change. He sold everything he owned and dedicated himself to giving back. He joined a humanitarian organization and moved to Liberia, where he witnessed extreme poverty for the first time. The lack of access to clean water he saw shocked him - a complete 180 degree turn from the life he lead before, where ten dollar water bottles were left unopened in clubs without a second thought. He worked with others dedicating their time to helping communities, and was inspired especially by one man, Dr Gary Parker - a plastic surgeon who had volunteered for one year and stayed 29 years. Scott spent two years there, learning all he could and returned to New York with a new perspective, wanting to solve the water crisis.

He began by seeking donations from the community he knew - people at nightclubs. Early on, Scott experienced the power of storytelling - that he could be a “bridge” connecting the stories he’s heard and seen with his own eyes to others who hadn’t known about them previously. Scott also believed in sharing real stories - not overly produced or glossed over, but authentic stories - to “move people toward greater compassion”.

As he spoke to friends about Charity Water he learned very quickly that there was a big problem - people didn’t trust charities - in fact 42% of Americans don’t trust charities. He knew he needed to create a new charitable business model that could challenge these concerns and build trust. He did this by focusing on three steps:

Handle money differently - He divided finances into two separate accounts - one that funded the work, which would allow 100% of public donations to go directly to people in need and one for overhead, funded by a separate, smaller group.

Use technology to show impact - Because none of the public donations were used for overhead, they could track donations to projects and demonstrate impact more easily. They began putting every water project on Google Earth and Google Maps. Drilling rigs now have Twitter accounts and GPS trackers - all in the name of transparency and sharing results with donors.

Building a beautiful brand - Scott’s goal was to stay away from a “poverty mentality” and create a brand that looked more like Apple or Nike. Because overhead funding was separate from public, project oriented funding, Charity Water could accomplish this without taking away from the good work they wanted to accomplish.

Partner with local organizations and agencies - From the start, Charity Water would not be sending Westerners to Africa or Asia. They would instead partner with local organizations and fund them so the work was sustainable.

The goal of Charity Water over the years hasn’t changed - to deliver clean water to every human being alive today. In ten years, they have brought clean water to 6.3 million people, solving 1% of the global crisis. Going forward, Scott said they want to work even faster, focus on more remote areas where getting water to people is even harder. He hopes to keep elevating the conversation around the water crisis, bring it into more people’s minds, continue building the community and commit more people to subscription giving.

Some of the ideas that wow’d us most when speaking with Scott were:

Program where if someone abandoned their donation, they would email the person and let them know that if they went back and changed their mind that another donor would match their donation.
The Spring - a subscription donation plan for 30 dollars every month, enough to give one person clean water every month.
When they found they were losing donors in the subscription programs because credit cards would be lost or expire, they offered donor matches to those who would switch to bank automatic transfer.

Both for-profit and non-profit organizations can learn from Charity Water. They nourish a growing community by connecting them with authentic stories using technology and innovation. Even with a focus on subscription programs they love supporting the grassroots, creativity of their donors - like one guy recently who listened to Nickelback for 7 consecutive days and raised 36,000 dollars online. If that’s not commitment to a cause, we don’t know what is.