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May 1, 2013
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Water Cooler Talks: Theron Humphrey & This Wild Idea

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Water Cooler Talks are a new thing we’re doing at charity: water — where we bring in smart, talented and inspiring people to share their story with our staff. It’s a chance to unplug for an hour, gain some new perspective and hopefully continue to get better at what we do.

Today, we were honored to have Theron Humphrey and his incredible dog, Maddie, in the house.

And although you surely recognize the extremely Internet-famous Maddie (who can stand on anything!), the really great story belongs to Theron.

Last year, Theron created a 365-day long documentary project called This Wild Idea — which took him all over the United States in search of stories. He literally spent each day meeting and connecting with a single new person, documenting their story with photos and audio and then sharing it with the world on his site.

The project was ultimately named National Geographic’s Travel project of the year.

It was an inspiring story for all us, and a great reminder that there’s so much value in the everyday moments of our lives — and the lives of people we meet around the world.

Thanks for the dose of inspiration, Theron.





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April 1, 2013
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World Water Day Thank You

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Last Friday was such an unbelievable day. We’re still in awe. We saw so much support from sponsors, partners, volunteers, and donors… lots of great news stories and enthusiastic comments. It was just a really fun day– which we appreciate. And as a result, we have 7,408 new birthday pledges!

Just to put that into perspective: if every one of those people follow through and raise $770 (what the average birthday campaign raises), we’d raise $5.7 million for clean water projects. Amazing.

On behalf of everyone at charity: water, thank you for a very memorable World Water Day!

A few more highlights we wanted to share…

Our Waterwalk in Times Square:

Awesome Volunteers & Jerry Cans Around the World:

Internet Excitement:

Roundup of cool news stories that came out of World Water Day:

• World Water Day highlights life-threatening shortages (USA Today)
• charity: water rules social media on World Water Day (PRNewser)
• 9 World Water Day Campaigns Making a Splash on the Web (Mashable)
• Raising Awareness on World Water Day (Instagram)

—-
And one last thank you to all of our partners!
TOMS
W Hotels
Seamless
AG Jeans
Outbrain
Bazaarvioice
Zynga
Twitter
ThredUp
AOL Impact
Zendesk
Responsys

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December 13, 2012
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We did it. $3,000,000+ raised at charity: ball

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Monday night was unforgettable. We hosted our 7th annual charity: ball gala at the 69th Regiment Armory in NYC, and more than 1,800 of you joined us. Seth Meyers of Saturday Night Live hosted the evening and we raised over $3 million in one night. We want to say thank you to everyone who made it out to NYC and celebrated with us.

The Waterwalk.

The Waterwalk is a constant at every charity: ball — but this year we built it around a circle stage in the middle of the room. We asked guests to walk a fraction of the distance that people in developing countries walk to bring water home to their families. For every person who walked, W Hotels and TOMS each donated $250 to water projects in India. We raised $500,000 through the Waterwalk alone.

The Live Auction.

We’re not fans of long, stuffy sit-down galas, but instead, we treat the night like a huge celebration… a big party. We’re all about trying new things at charity: water so this year, we tried out a completely new concept during the live auction. Years ago, we abandoned the traditional model of selling vacation packages, expensive watches and handbags, and turned our Live Auction into a pure giving event. But there was one thing that still bugged us — the price tags remained high. The auction worked, and we always raised money, but it alienated a lot of our guests. So this year, we decided to turn the concept upside down, and start low. We started the auction by asking guests to join at a minimum of just $200. Then they had the opportunity to move up to levels of $500, $1000, $5000 and finally, $50,000. It worked. In 25 minutes, we had $800,000 in pledges from more than 200 people.

Here are some photos from the evening:


Photos by Adam Mason, Audrey Rudolf, Josh Wong/Guest of a Guest, Matthew Borowick, Nancy Borowick

See All Photos

A huge thank you.

We’d like to thank our incredible corporate partners and key supporters for making this night possible.

Special Thanks to the following people for making charity: ball possible.
4AM / AAA Flag and Banner / A-List / Alex Hurst / Aggreko / Andrew Bell / Ani Quinn / AVS / Barnard / Blue Media / BNW Rigging / Bridget Sheils / Cash Cash / Christian Haberkern / Chelsea Leyland / Cort / Cube Passes / Dana Tanamachi / Daniel Lara / David Terban / Dazian / Drape Kings / Dream Center / Duggal / Erica Eng / Eric Rodriguez / The Jane Doze / Justin Demetrician / Justin Lawes / Katie Barnard / Larry Lucente / LeapStarr / Mancel Lindsey / Matt Stevenson / May Kwok / MB Productions / Metro Catering / Milk Studios / Nat Wittstruck / No. 8 / The Park / PartyRental / Polite in Public / Post Imaging / ProVision / Rainbow Broadband / Robert Hodgin / Rob Schlissel / Shawn Moon / Spoke Visuals / Starbright Florals / Starlite / SteelDeck / Strategic Group / SuperTouch / TekServe / Tracee Hollman / Uber / Yelena Teplitskaya

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September 10, 2012
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Our sixth birthday party: all grown up.

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charity: water began with a birthday party. On September 7, 2006, founder Scott Harrison asked friends to give $20 at the door and, in one foot-loose night, they funded life-saving water projects in Uganda.

Last Friday, September 7, we celebrated our sixth birthday at the gorgeous Hudson Terrace in Manhattan. Everyone was invited, and in honor of our current September Campaign, we charged $65 per ticket — the cost to give clean water to one person in Rwanda.

That night, we raised a total of $20,115, which means 309 more people will have access to clean, safe water.
Just because we threw a party.

Work is already beginning in Rwanda, thanks to our awesome supporters, so we paused to share this quick video shot that same day by our team in the field. We cheered and then we danced.

Enjoy the night in pictures:

Photos by Danielle Faletra, Parker Young, and Natalie Ingle.

charity: water sixth birthday

Huge thanks to Hudson Terrace for hosting, VeeV and Anheuser-Busch for the libations, and Anthony Batista for spinning great tunes.

September Campaign 2012 website

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April 5, 2012
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Looking back at World Water Day 2012

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On March 22, we celebrated World Water Day with one of our biggest asks ever — we asked everyone we knew (and didn’t know) to give up their next birthday, ask for donations instead of presents, and help give people clean water. So far, over 12,000 of you have pledged, and we’re just getting started. Why birthdays? It all started when founder Scott Harrison gave up his birthday five and a half years ago. Since then, thousands of people have done the same, helping millions of people get access to clean water. We believe birthdays can change the world, but don’t take it from us. Hear from the people who’ve done it in this video.
ClearCorrect

When World Water Day rolled around, more than 5,400 of you pledged to give up your next birthday for clean water. In the weeks that followed, that number has grown to more than 12,000!

charity: water staff, volunteers and supporters gathered in the office on World Water Day, and emailed, tweeted and called everyone we knew to get the word out. As a result, we saw #worldwaterday trend on Twitter across the USA. Many of you also donated to bring clean water to people in need. We’re so grateful to all of you who joined us and so passionately gave your support.

Check out our favorite photos of some friends we spotted celebrating World Water Day — with a unique charity: water spin!

ClearCorrect
ClearCorrect created this awesome Jerry can out of balloons to prepare for World Water Day.

Nautica store
Nautica launched an in-store campaign that encourages customers to round up their purchases and
donate the difference to charity: water. Nautica’s teams from San Diego (left) and NYC (right).
Zappos event
Zappos employees held a water themed event coordinated by Pua (Joy) Medeiros, Mercedes Mincks,
and Kristin Colbert. Find out more about the event here > (photos: Jia Tse)

Check out these other organizations that focused on the water crisis for WWD:

–Klout launched a new site, Klout for Good on World Water Day to encourage everyone to give up their birthdays.

–Mr. Youth, an NYC based advertising agency, shared photos on Facebook with thought-provoking pledges on WWD.

Missed World Water Day? It’s not too late to pledge your birthday. Get started here ». If you have photos or stories from World Water Day, we’d love to hear from you! Leave us a comment below with a link!

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