WHO WE ARE & HOW WE WORK
Our Culture Statement
The standard we hold ourselves to as we work toward a world where every person has clean and safe water.
Our MISSION
Our Singular Focus
We exist to bring clean and safe drinking water to every person on the planet. That’s it.
Since 2006, millions of people from every background, belief system, and corner of the globe have joined us in this mission. Not because they agree on everything — but because they agree on this: Clean water is the most basic human need.
We stay focused on what unites us. We don’t take sides or speak into issues outside our work. That clarity builds trust. That trust scales impact.
What Guides Us
Our Values
01
Integrity
We tell the truth, embrace transparency, and do the right thing, even when no one is watching.
02
Innovation
We never stop looking for better ways to move our mission forward.
03
Respect
We treat everyone with dignity and value every background, identity, and experience.
04
Passion
We’re energized by the urgency of our mission and our desire to help others.
05
Excellence
We bring our best to everything we do, no matter how big or small.
06
Generosity
We give freely — of our time, our knowledge, and our resources.
HOW WE WORK TOGETHER
Team Culture Statement
01
We operate like a championship team.
Championship teams are built to win. They know every position has to be filled by the person best equipped to play it — even when that means making hard roster changes. Because alleviating human suffering is at the core of our work, we have always taken talent seriously.
Our team is our greatest asset. To attract and keep exceptional people, we invest in them. We pay competitively in the nonprofit market, offer generous benefits, and create real opportunities to grow. And because no team can run at full speed forever, managers encourage recharging with generous PTO and sabbaticals to celebrate moments of commitment.
We say the real thing in the room. We ask the question behind the question. We don’t do meetings after the meeting. We disagree and commit. Our work is too urgent to let dysfunction fester and slow us down. We don’t always get this right. But we all hold ourselves accountable to these standards — especially our leaders. Modeling these behaviors starts at the top.
02
No accountability without empowerment.
From the beginning, charity: water has empowered local partners to deliver clean water. It’s the same instinct that shapes how we work internally. We push decision-making out, trusting the teams closest to the work to make the calls needed to deliver — who they hire, what strategy they set, and how they execute the work. You can’t have accountability without empowerment.
Likewise, when teams are empowered, they are accountable for the outcomes. We maintain a high-performance culture.
We develop leaders who develop others — giving their teams real ownership, clear expectations, safety to take risks (and sometimes fail in the process), and the autonomy to deliver.
We are more interested in finding the best idea than having the best idea ourselves. This empowers teams to source ideas from everywhere in and outside the organization.
03
We live in the gain, not the gap.
A championship team doesn’t win on talent alone. It wins by getting better. When you’re pushing boundaries and taking risks, failures happen. We don’t fear them — we expect them. We celebrate what we’ve built and learn from what didn’t work. Some of our best work exists because something else fell apart first. We live in the gain, not in the gap. This isn’t optimism for its own sake. It’s how high-performing teams stay in the game long enough to win it.
We don’t believe in using guilt to make people pay attention. Instead, we look at the work we do as an important and exciting opportunity to help people in need. We communicate hope, not despair, because hope is much more powerful than guilt.
04
We are all portfolio investors for our donors.
It’s hard to say no to a good idea, pause meaningful work, or shift direction midstream. But we are accountable to both our beneficiaries and donors to be exceptional investors.
Just as our water programs team has to be selective about which water projects to fund, we expect leaders around the organization to help their teams ruthlessly prioritize time and budget, spending donor dollars on the most strategic initiatives.
05
No white lies.
We’ve made some bold claims as an organization, like our 100% Model and proving every project in the field. We take people’s money every day, and we ask them to trust us with it. That’s why we never lie, even about the small stuff.
We believe character is what you do when no one is looking over your shoulder.
06
We live in reality.
Change is coming fast, so we embrace change. We pivot when new information tells us we should. We’re not afraid of the messy middle.
We don’t decide by committee. But we do need the right voices in the room. We use decision-making frameworks to be clear about who owns a decision, who contributes, and who needs to be informed.
We love the freedom and diversity that come with remote work, but we have to work at it. Things like keeping calendars visible, cameras on, frequent communication rhythms, and annual summits create connection and remove friction.
07
We value diverse perspectives.
We have over 50 local partners across 20 countries representing thousands of people: engineers, community organizers, mechanics, and local leaders who use community-driven development to co-design our work on the ground. Our donors are children, dentists, Fortune 50 companies, and people who gave up their birthday gifts. This breadth of culture and experience is part of who we are.
We design our hiring process to reduce bias and look to source diverse candidates from a variety of places. We use structured interviews, salary ranges, recruitment trainings, and hiring panels. We always hire the best candidate for the role, and final decisions rest with the hiring manager. We don’t use quotas. We build a fair process.
We believe that real diversity creates real friction. Healthy conflict is not a mistake. Different perspectives produce better arguments and stronger decisions — the same way our partners in Ethiopia or Bangladesh bring us perspectives we’d never arrive at from a US or UK office. We want that tension. We build a culture that can hold it.
08
Our team is rare.
Ask any charity: water team member what their favorite part of working here is, and you’ll often hear the same answer: the people. When you spend your days doing something that matters alongside teammates who care deeply, teammates can turn into lifelong friends.
We celebrate when someone is new, when they earn a promotion, when it’s their birthday, when they’ve given another year. As colleagues we are always looking for moments to cheer on our teammates.
And the surprise and delight we’re known for with our donors? We hold that same value with our team. When we get everyone together, nobody leaves without a story. Ask anyone about their favorite magic trick, how their team did in a relay race, or their go-to karaoke song. We take the work seriously. We don’t take ourselves seriously. We are completely comfortable with the ridiculous.
Every member of our team had a hand in shaping our Culture Statement.
It reflects both where we are and where we’re headed. Some of this we live every day. Some of it we’re still working toward.
We are always a work in progress. So is this living document.
As we grow, we’ll build on it with ways of working, behavioral norms, events, and traditions we haven’t invented yet.