Between our staff here in New York and our remote team members around the world, we make dozens of international trips every year. Our team travels to plan and monitor water programs with our local partners. They travel to develop new technology and ensure that the water projects we build continue to provide water for years to come. They travel to gather stories about the people we serve and the incredible impact of clean water on communities.
And those flights around the world? They’re expensive.
Enter Cathay Pacific.
In an effort to help us out this year, Cathay Pacific did something incredible and offered to cover every one of our flights to Southeast Asia.
That alone is amazing. But they didn’t stop there! They also joined us in fundraising to bring clean water to people in need. And everyone from the Senior Vice President to the kids has risen to the challenge!
One picnic day in the park alone raised enough money to bring clean water to 26 people in Cambodia. Since then they’ve donated from flight purchases, gone bowling and planned potlucks for an even bigger impact.
We just want to say thank you. Thank you for your incredible generosity. Thank you for making this story your story and sharing it with your families and friends. And thank you for continuing to make our work possible. We appreciate all of you!
Picture this: a world where everyone on Earth has access to clean and safe drinking water; now that’s something to smile about.
At charity: water, we’ve always believed in photography as a powerful vehicle for storytelling. Since day one, we’ve used beautiful images of the places we work and people we serve to tell stories about transformation, hope, and the impact of clean water. So when Aura frames approached us about creating a limited-edition frame that would give clean water to people in need, we were thrilled.
Aura launched the the limited-edition Crystal Blue frame in early 2017. By donating $60 for each frame sold, they generously provided clean and safe drinking water for 600 people in Tigray, Ethiopia. Now they’re ready to help even more.
This year, we’re honored to celebrate Aura re-releasing this beautiful charity: water limited-edition digital picture frame. This time at a lower price, but the same $60 donation to bring clean water to two people for each one sold. They created 750 Crystal Blue frames with the potential to give clean water to 1,500 people.
The sleek and sophisticated Crystal Blue frame was specially designed to make a difference. The color was inspired by the transparency of our 100% model and our shared belief in the impact of clean water. Each limited-edition frame is engraved with the charity: water logo and edition number. Aura will even make sure you never forget the impact of your purchase; every few months, Aura will push a charity: water photo with a corresponding story to your frame to inspire you and help keep you connected to the cause. Download the free app to sort your photos into albums and add an unlimited amount to your wifi-powered frame. Unlike other frames, this one is run 100% from your phone and will automatically add new photos from your camera roll to your frame for a surprise and delight. It’s never been easier to display all of your favorite memories at once.
Aura is reimagining the digital picture frame with innovative technology that will give you something to smile about, and we hope framing your contribution will inspire you to keep fighting for a world where everyone has access to clean water. You can purchase your Crystal Blue frame at auraframes.com/charitywater.
World Water Day is one of our favorite days of the year. It always inspires us to see the way our community floods the Internet with the hope of clean water.
This World Water Day, we introduced people to Nora, a six-year-old who mailed charity: water $8.15 from her piggy bank because she “wanted people to stop dying.” We were so moved by her compassion and generosity that we centered our World Water Day campaign around growing her impact.
The response was awesome. Over 3,600 people joined her in giving and raised enough money to bring clean water to more than 2,500 people in need.
It wasn’t just one-time donations that made this day successful, but also our community of corporate supporters that found unique ways to make a difference. This year, we were thrilled to see the community use their brands to raise awareness and funds for clean water.
Here’s what they did to change lives…
Corkcicle created a limited edition charity: water bottle and donated $8.15 for each one sold. They also surprised every charity: water staff and intern with their own!
1,000 folks made their dentist (and us!) proud by purchasing Quip’slimited edition yellow metallic toothbrush featuring our beloved Jerry Can. They committed to donating $8.15 for each one sold, and even matched that for a total of $16.30 per brush. The best part? They sold out!
InStitchu has a range of (8) suits with custom charity: water lining donating $150 of the proceeds and one navy suit, The Tetbury, where they will be donating $30 of proceeds.
Getty Images and FCB Chicago launched Watermarks for Water, a collection of images that highlight the global water crisis. Getty Images will donate 10% of every licensing fee from the collection of images to charity: water. They also celebrated the launch of this campaign by showcasing some of these photos in a NYC gallery on World Water Day.
Aura launched another limited edition digital picture frame: the Crystal Blue Frame. Aura created 750 of them and will donate $60 for each one sold. They’re engraved with the charity: water logo, and Aura will keep you connected to your impact by sending photos and stories of our work straight to your frame.
Quirky launched a Water Changes Everything invention challenge to inspire people to invent an everyday product that promotes responsible water use. Once the invention is produced and on the market, they’ve committed to donating a portion of the profit to charity: water.
Nautica encouraged their customers to “Give Change to Make Change” for charity: water and generously matched the first $5,000 raised.
Gundry MD used their popular newsletter to share Nora’s story with their fans and directed them to our World Water Day site. The email alone generated 627 donations totaling more than $10,000 and 25 new Spring members.
Clothing company Warp and Weft gave it their all on World Water Day by donating 100% of their proceeds that day to charity: water.
Finally, a special shoutout to our friends that showed us some love on social media to lift this cause a little higher:
Endless thanks to each and every brand that cares about this cause and uses their platform to help more people receive access to clean and safe drinking water!
If you’re interested in partnering with us, please email corporategiving@charitywater.org
This September, charity: water turns 10 and we’re celebrating by launching our biggest physical installation in charity: water history. We’ll be taking over The Winter Garden at Brookfield Place in NYC for three weeks this August to raise awareness for the 663 million people living without clean water around the world.
And we want you to be there with us.
We’ll be sharing our new Virtual Reality film, The Source, and inviting the public to put on a VR headset and meet Selam, a 13-year-old girl in Ethiopia. Guests will step into Selam’s world for 9 minutes and experience the moment her village gets clean water for the first time and their lives change forever.
Thanks to a generous anonymous donor and our friends at Morgan Stanley, every viewing of the film will unlock a $30 donation and give one person clean water. Our goal is to bring at least 10,000 people clean water by the end of the three weeks.
If you can’t join us in person, you can still experience The Source! Watch it online here.
When I stared working at charity: water three years ago, the adjective I would’ve used to describe gaming would not have been “philanthropic.”
The U-Pick Video Game Marathon is a perfect example of how wrong I was.
These guys and girls have now run THREE campaigns for charity: water and raised more than $8,000 for clean water projects. Not only that, but they’ve done it by having fun.
The U-Pick team gives people the option to choose games for them to play by making a donation to clean water. Then they play the most popular video games for 48 hours … straight! And they broadcast the entire thing (which you can watch live from June 12th at 8PM EST through June 14th at 8PM here: http://www.upickvg.com/watch-now).
The dedication this crew has to bringing clean water to people in developing countries leaves me speechless (which isn’t easy). I cannot wait to watch them beat their $5,000 goal this month!
Two years ago, humanitarian photographer Esther Havens met a young boy named Jean Bosco as a charity: water well was being drilled in his village. Since then, she’s photographed hundreds of people around the world for charity: water. She recently revisited that first village and met up with Jean Bosco again. Here is her story.
All I could hear was my heart thumping.
I walked a familiar dusty road with a camera in my right hand, a stack of photos in my left. I was on a mission to find Jean Bosco.
My world first collided with his two years ago when I traveled to Rwanda with an organization called Wishing Well Africa. We spent three days in his village, Murinja. Each morning, we followed people as they collected drinking water from small, murky ponds and watched them fill their Jerry Cans from the same place where animals sloshed and women washed their laundry. People here spent hours walking for water that made their kids sick. Their kids constantly complained of stomach aches.
I remember the first time I saw Jean Bosco; I took a photo of him immediately. He was a bashful boy but his face resembled maturity beyond his years. He showed me his home. He walked me along the path he used every day to collect pond water.
Like Jean Bosco, I never knew you could drill a hole into the ground and drinkable water would come spewing out.
I wondered if he’d ever know how many people would recognize his face. Without a clue, this one boy had helped bring clean water to villages all over the world by inspiring others to help.
But I saw this first-hand. The day we arrived in Murinja luckily corresponded with the day a charity: water well was drilled. Jean Bosco and I stood side by side and watched as the drilling rig bore into the earth, finding water 70 feet below. We rejoiced together when clean water gushed out of a new well that was a short walk from his home. We knew then that life for him and his neighbors would never be the same.
I left Murinja unsure if I’d ever see him again. But I couldn’t forget Jean Bosco. I shared his story with charity: water, and they shared his story with the world. Before I knew it, he was famous. His face debuted at the charity: water Saks Fifth Avenue gala and showed up at other fundraising events and exhibitions in NYC. I got calls and emails from people so moved by his story that they sponsored wells, started their own fundraising campaigns or in one instance, named a pet after him (the African Grey Parrot at Sea World is lovingly named “Jean Bosco”).
Jean Bosco’s story offered a sobering look at life for millions of kids in the developing world. But to many, he became a symbol of hope and inspiration. Villages like his don’t have to keep drinking brown pond water. All they need is a little help.
In April 2010, charity: water asked me to return to Rwanda. Anticipation mounted as I took off for Murinja Village with water program director Becky Straw and multimedia producer Mo Scarpelli on a crisp Saturday morning. We passed the murky pond where the community once collected water and children fell in step behind us near the freshwater well. I pulled out a couple of photos from years before and asked if anyone recognized Jean Bosco. They giggled at the sight of their friend -– yes! He was nearby! They could show me.
I heard the familiar seesaw-like sound from the well; kids were pumping away, filling their Jerry cans, and I even recognized a few. I asked if they remembered their well’s drilling or if remembered me. “Last time, my hair was white, like Santa Claus,” I explained. A few laughed and said something in Kinyarwandan. “They say you are the same,” our translator told us. “But your hair was like an old man before, so you are younger now.”
“Jean Bosco!” A chorus of excitement rang out as a slight, graceful boy stepped up a small hill where I stood.
I was taken aback -– Jean Bosco looked the same! He was a little taller but his face was indistinguishable. Becky and Mo recognized him from the six-foot tall photo that hung in the charity: water office, a world away.
I handed him printed photos of himself. The corners of his mouth lifted slightly. He hesitated. Then a smile broke out on his face. He reached over — and hugged me. I was flattered and surprised. He remembered me! And he knew why the charity: water well was important to his community.
“We used to get sick,” he told us as his younger brother held tight to his side. “We don’t get sick now.”
“Our stomach pains are gone,” other children chimed in. I scanned the small crowd forming around us and recognized a young woman.
“Clarisse!” She smiled back up at me, bent slightly forward with a new baby on her back. She told us she watched the drilling two years ago while pregnant with her first child. “I knew the water would be safe for my baby,” she told us. “I was relieved.”
We asked her if the new well affected her in other ways.
“Before, I could not get clean,” she told us. “Now, I am shining. I am clean!”
Just two years of clean water transformed this village -– and I got to see it with my own eyes. As I stood with Jean Bosco again near his well before saying goodbye, I wondered if he’d ever know how many people would recognize his face. Without a clue, this one boy had helped bring clean water to villages all over the world by inspiring others to help.
This is why I tell stories, this is why I get close to the people I photograph and this is why I share their heart. Jean Bosco doesn’t yet fully understand the impact of his story. But I’ll keep telling it forever.
Ryan first learned about charity: water after following Instagrammers that were sharing our organization’s mission along with their charity: water campaigns (I love how community grows both organically and digitally — here’s to you, Internet!). He was inspired by our message and our model and boldly decided to take his first step in combating the water crisis by using his 21st birthday to fundraise for clean water.
His campaign concept? A personified Jerry Can.
Ryan is currently advertising his 21st birthday campaign on Instagram (@ryanjaydee) and wants to bring this symbol of the Jerry Can to life. In his words, “If you don’t already know, the Jerry Can is the symbol of charity: water because it represents the people in developing countries that have to carry containers to store their drinking water. When filled up it weighs about 40 pounds. It’s a part of these millions of people’s lives because they have to carry it for long distances to get water for their families. charity: water describes it as a “hope to change” and I completely agree with that. That’s why I want to personify this Jerry can and make people aware of the this problem!“
Ryan, happy 21st birthday! We celebrate you, and we thank you for the impact you’re making in this world.
Some days we’re better at being adults than others. Today is not one of those days. Halloween justhappens to be something we’ve always taken pretty seriously at charity: water.
Highlights from our office this year include: a very lovable Garth and Kat, a very terrifying set of twins from the Shining, a human taco, some mac n cheese, Amelia Earhart, a ship captain, an ape, a viking, a Frank head and some very scrappy ninja turtles. Enjoy.
Also– did you see our Snapchat (@charitywater) this morning?!
Even the charity: water staff who’ve never met Sarah Peck know her name. She’s famous in our office. Not for the number of campaigns that she’s run or even the amount of money she’s raised… but forone very crazy promise she made years ago.
It was 2012. 28-year-old Sarah had just heard charity: water’s founder, Scott, speak at Chris Guillebeau’s World Domination Summit, and she was fired up. She wanted to do something to help bring clean water to people in need, and there wasn’t time to wait.
Within 48 hours, Sarah had created her fundraising campaign. She set a $29,000 goal (for her 29th birthday) and announced her terms:
“If enough people donate a crazy amount of money, I promise to swim from Alcatraz to San Francisco in the murky, cold waters — in nothing but my birthday suit.”
Yep. You read that correctly. Sarah Peck volunteered to swim 1.5 miles in freezing cold water, wearing only a swim cap, to raise money for clean water.
“Water is incredibly important to me because it’s what makes me feel at home. I have the luxury of splashing around in giant bodies of water and I realized that some people don’t have enough to stay clean, I want to change that.”
The first $7,000 came quickly. But soon things started to slow down. Even though $29 donations were coming in from all over the place, it still felt like the needle wasn’t moving. That’s when Sarah’s competitive side really came out.
“I made it my personal mission for several weeks to ask as many people as I could — and to ask everyone I came in contact with, whether or not I knew them! I ended up taking taxis and using the ride time to share the story, and drivers would donate my fare or a cup of coffee to the cause, and I’d translate that into donations.”
With the help of 460 donations, Sarah didn’t just reach her $29,000 goal, she surpassed it. Her final tally: $32,398. Which meant that it was time to push aside fears of sharks, tides and giant ships and fulfill her promise.
She studied tide charts, hired a boat captain, notified the Coast Guard. And on a cold day at the end of September 2012, she became a charity: water legend.
It’s fair to call it crazy. Everyone at charity: water calls it crazy. Sarah herself called it crazy.
But crazy is what makes it memorable. Crazy is what inspired hundreds of donors. And, in this case,crazy is what brought clean water to more than 650 people in Ethiopia.
“At the end of the day, my discomfort came from being cold for about an hour, and breaking through some of my social insecurities to ask people for money — that’s nothing compared to not having access to water.”
In addition to the people who took part in her campaign, and the taxi drivers and baristas she befriended, Sarah has inspired every one of us. Our slogan, “the craziest thing we can do is nothing,” was written with her in mind. And her campaign is one we will share forever.
Thank you, Sarah, for giving your voice, your time and your humility to our cause. Here’s to the crazy ones, indeed.
“The world is not transactional. Love and light are expansive. Giving isn’t part of a zero-sum game. When you give, you don’t lose — you get something else in return, and the world keeps moving.”
That’s the number of people who have gained access to clean and safe water thanks to our brand partners. We are incredibly grateful for this community of like-minded brands and their ability to raise awareness for the water crisis in powerful and creative ways.
To celebrate their work and inspire new collaborations, we hosted our third annual Brand Partnership X Summit at Canoe Studios in NYC! This year, we were joined by over 65 brands for a day of insightful conversations. We focused on innovation and what it means for our work at charity: water, in partnerships, and in the world around us. From groundbreaking sensor technology and the launch of The Pool to jewelry crafted from meteorites and sprinkle-filled rainbow cakes, we left feeling inspired to keep creating and pushing the boundaries.
Check out the highlights from this year’s event:
We are so grateful to everyone who joined us. The Summit would not have been possible without our speakers who generously gave their time to help us see how purposeful innovation can drive change. A very special thank you to:
Professor, author, and entrepreneur Scott Galloway, for showing us the importance of having a meaningful career and helping us understand our life strategies, not just business strategies.
Kristin De Simone and Sylvia Hartley, Partners at Thrive Market, for sharing the story of how Thrive Market decided to partner with charity: water and for reimagining what giving means for their brand and customers.
Simon Sinek, optimist and bestselling author, for teaching us what it means to feel fulfilled and reminding us that we need to build the future together.
Artist and designer Monique Péan, for sharing her story and inspiring us with her incredible craft and unwavering commitment to sustainability and support of local communities.
Paull Young, Partner at Facebook, for showing us what being a true partner really means and encouraging the importance of working in tandem to create change.
Amirah Kassem, baker and entrepreneur, for urging us to be our true selves and demonstrating how working hard and inspiring joy can go hand-in-hand!
Another special thank you to Canoe Studios for the beautiful space and delicious catering; Taylor Creative for the comfortable and stylish furnishings; Badger Mountain Vineyard and Sunday Beer Co for providing the wine and beer for cocktail hour; Thrive Market and Scott Galloway for helping us fill our swag bags; C2 Imaging for printing and installing the stunning branding elements; Dear Bayard for the beautiful greenery; The Spaniard for hosting our pre-event cocktail party; and all of the volunteers who worked tirelessly and joyfully to ensure the day went off without a hitch.
