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March 21, 2013
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World Water Day 2013

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Today is World Water Day. It’s a day when we can be thankful for the clean water coming out of our taps and turn the world’s attention to the 800 million people still living without access to clean water.

And that’s our plan.

We’ve got a whole bunch of exciting things in store this year — and support from a lot of awesome people. Here’s a little sneak peek of what’s to come:

charity: water Waterwalk in Times Square

Installation in Times Square

We’re raising awareness about the water crisis by setting up a Waterwalk in Times Square. Millions of people around the world walk hours each day to collect dirty water, so we’re asking people to walk a fraction of the distance to experience it for themselves. If you’re in New York City, come check it out. We’ll be located in Duffy Square (between 45th and 47th Streets, Broadway and Seventh Avenue) between 2pm and 7pm.

Some of the incredible charity: water volunteers

Jerry Cans Around the World

Our incredible network of volunteers will be out in full force tomorrow. In elementary schools and on the Atlanta Beltway, delivering PSAs and hosting their own Waterwalks. We shipped Jerry cans to friends all over the world to help make a scene. It’s going to be great. Keep an eye on our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram feeds to see some of that in action.

Pledge your birthday and help raise money for clean water projects

Birthday Stories

More than anything this year, we want as many people as possible to pledge their birthday to clean water projects. So we’ve created some video inspiration and pulled together all of our favorite stories to inspire you. Take a look at the brand new charitywater.org/birthdays!

TEDxRVA

There are also some really cool events happening. Like TEDx on Friday night in Richmond, Virginia — which will include the installation above, as well as a Waterwalk through the city.

We’re excited. It’s going to be a pretty amazing day — and hopefully an impactful one. You can join us by pledging your birthday or donating right now!

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A special thanks to our fantastic partners:
TOMS
W Hotels
Seamless
AG Jeans
Outbrain
Bazaarvioice
Zynga
Twitter
ThredUp
AOL Impact
Zendesk
Responsys

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February 1, 2013
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Sneak peek: a redesigned campaign page

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Have you ever had a project that you knew needed attention, but you never got around to it because it was just too daunting? Well for us, that’s been the mycharitywater.org campaign page. Thousands of people see it every week and it’s the most visited page on our site, but the design has been stuck in 2008, and it’s time to clean up the cobwebs. This month our team assembled, rolled up their sleeves and re-envisioned the entire page.

The new page is set to launch around mid-February, so stay tuned.

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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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December 4, 2012
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A brand new technology supported by Google

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We’re proud to announce that charity: water is a recipient of a Global Impact Award from Google.

The first projects we ever built were six wells in a refugee camp in Uganda. We wanted to prove to our donors that their money was spent exactly how we said it would be, and where it went.

So we walked into an electronics store and bought a handheld GPS device for $100. We took it to Uganda, went to each project and plotted six points on Google Maps™. Then we made the information public on our website along with the photos for everyone to see. We’ve been doing that ever since.

Fast forward six years later, and we’ve now funded over 6,994 water projects in 20 countries that will serve more than 2.5 million people. And although we’ve continued to map every single water project, we don’t think knowing their location is good enough anymore. We want to know whether each one of them is working right now, in real time.

Today, we’re excited to announce that we’re launching a $5 million pilot project with Google to develop remote sensor technology that will tell us whether water is flowing at any of our projects, at any given time, anywhere in the world. Google has funded this entire initiative through the new Global Impact Awards. This award will help charity: water further advance transparency and sustainability in the water sector.

Although our staff and local partners visit our programs frequently, it’s simply not possible to visit every project often enough to ensure that water is flowing all the time. Thanks to this Global Impact Award from Google, we’ll be able to go from hoping that projects function over time, to knowing that they are.

Over the next few years, we’ll develop and install 4,000 low-cost remote sensors in our existing and new water projects in several countries.

sensors

These sensors will transmit real-time data to us and our partners, and eventually to you, the donor.

But just knowing the status of projects isn’t good enough. If a breakdown occurs, there needs to be a system in place to ensure that it gets fixed quickly. That’s why an important part of this pilot will be to continue training and establishing local mechanic programs all over the world who can dispatch to communities within their reach and make repairs. This will create new jobs and small business entrepreneurs in places where they don’t exist today.

india

We know the data will uncover new challenges, but we’re excited and committed to meet them head on. We’ve used Google Maps™ to innovate over the last six years, and today we’re incredibly excited to work with Google on remote sensor technology, this time to further increase transparency for our donors, and to deliver water more reliably than ever before, to the people who need it most.

india

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October 19, 2012
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Check out our 2011 Annual Report.

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A lot happened at charity: water in 2011, so we put some extra TLC into our 2011 annual report. We also decided that this was the year to go digital, so we made it a website! Read all about the events, milestones and stories that made last year unforgettable. Launch the 2011 Annual Report »







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