100% of your money goes to water project costs on the ground. Private donors cover the salaries of our staff in New York so your money can go directly to the following costs (breakdown can vary by country, partner, and technology):

• 50% for materials: cement, pipes, pumps, construction supplies, training materials.
• 20% for local staff costs: drillers, welders, well technicians and hydrogeologists.
• 10% for mobilization: fuel, vehicles, lodging for drill crews in remote areas.
• 20% for in-country program support: accountants, drivers, computers, internet.

If you sponsor a water project at a school, we may use a portion of your money to build latrines in addition to the water project. Latrines are crucial to reducing water-related diseases, especially at schools or health clinics where populations are more dense.

charity: water works in some of the poorest and most challenging countries in the world because that's where the need is greatest. Naturally, despite our best efforts to meet your and our expectations, forces beyond our control occasionally require a change of plans. The list of uncertainties we've encountered is long: governments collapse, policies change, roads get washed out, pipes break, wells come up dry and community needs change.

No matter what happens, we promise that 100% of your donation will directly fund water project costs. In addition to updating you about our progress, we'll inform you if the location of your sponsored project has to change. In the unlikely event that we need to totally reallocate your funds, we'll put them toward projects substantially similar to the one you chose to support in the first place. If we absolutely cannot find a suitable project in the country you had hoped to help, we'll work with you to find an alternative country.

When your project is built and we receive completion data from our partners (about 21 months), we assemble and send you a report with the following information:

• Photos of the actual project
• A virtual plaque plotted on Google Maps
• Type of water project technology used
• GPS coordinates
• Population served

As much as possible. We don’t consider our projects “complete” until the community receiving them is engaged and empowered to care for them.

Where possible, our partners enlist local community members to help dig wells, construct filters, build ditches for piping or help out with any other construction tasks. Our maintenance models for each project reflect the community. Often, this means our partners train a local Water Committee to collect fees to maintain their projects.

We believe in water as a catalyst for social change. Our partners try to make sure the underserved or minority members of a community are represented and served by our water projects.

Building water and sanitation projects is a time-consuming business. We allow 21 months because we don't consider a project “complete” until we know that all of its components are in place and working for the best of the community. That includes community participation and training, as well as collecting photos, GPS coordinates and other details from each project. We require detailed data about each project from our partner organizations and verify it at charity: water headquarters to make sure there are no mistakes. Only then do we assemble your completion report. See above for a timeline of what happens in 21 months.

Yes. When we started in 2006, we funded water projects that cost approximately $5,000. But since then, the average cost has gone up.

Here’s why: We’ve expanded our work to include new regions, many of which are harder (and therefore more expensive) to reach. We also fund a wider range of technologies to ensure that communities are getting an accessible, sustainable solution for their specific context. For some communities it makes sense to have BioSand Filters in each household, for other regions piped water systems can serve an entire population.

We also now fund more than the raw costs of building a project. Sponsorship covers things like machinery, drilling teams, and sanitation and hygiene training. The latter is critical; by educating communities on the importance of building latrines and healthy hand-washing practices, the rate of water contamination and communicable diseases decreases significantly. Finally, the increase you see in sponsorship costs also reflects inflation.

This cost adjustment ensures we are able to implement comprehensive and sustainable projects for every community we serve. If you have questions, we’d love to connect. Please reach out to sponsoraproject@charitywater.org.

Each quarter, we have specific water project opportunities available in a variety of countries. Get in touch to learn about the specific countries we’re working in this month, and how your gift can sponsor some of our most urgent needs.

If you make an undesignated gift online, we will send your donation to the country where it will make the greatest impact. Our water programs team chooses which countries to work in based on need, and forms long-term partnerships with on-the-ground organizations. If you'd like to talk about where we work before you give online, email us!