Nonprofits are faced with more challenges to accomplish their missions and the growing pressure to do more, raise more and be more for the causes that improve our world.
We're here to learn with you from some of the best in the industry, bringing the most innovative ideas, inspirational stories, all to create an impact uprising.
So welcome to the good community, where Nonprofit Professionals, philanthropist, world changers and rabid fans who are striving to bring a little more goodness into the world.
So let's get started. Becky, can you believe this is happening?
I mean, we thought we were marketing nonprofit disruptors, but now are like oracle is in the house.
Totally in every single way. I mean, I remember the day that I first came across Charity Water, and truly as a nonprofit purist that spent my career in a nonprofit, my life changed in a lot of ways. It encouraged me to dream bigger to see what's possible, to see that you can get people radically excited. We're so honored to have Scott Harrison with us on the podcast, you know him. He's the founder and CEO of Charity Water. His wife, Vik has been a two time guest on the podcast. And we love learning from her wisdom as well. But today, you know, we want you to get to know the Scott behind Charity Water, but also to tap his brain. I mean, a lot of nonprofit leaders listen to this podcast. And we want you to dream bigger for this new year, you know, this podcast is launching at the start of 2023. And we want us all to lean into what's now what's possible whenever we kind of link arms with this impact uprising. And so this is just a conversation we've been counting down the days to and Scott, for you to be in this house means the world. Thanks for spending time with us today. Welcome to the podcast.
Thanks for having me, this will be fun.
Catch everybody up, that's not heard your story. Tell us a little bit about your founding story, and maybe how you got started in this work. But then we want to tap your brain just for what's happening in the moment, but catch us up first.
Well, I was a club promoter in New York City for 10 years and moved there when I was 18 years old, to rebel against a very conservative Christian upbringing. And I rebelled in style for about a decade, you know, working in 40 different nightclubs, and running around chasing watches and cars and models that were on the cover of magazines and probably got to the top eight, you know, there are kind of eight of us running all nightlife in in Manhattan at the time, and just really hated my life. And it was emotionally bankrupt and spiritually bankrupt and morally bankrupt. And you know, I'd go to dinner at 10 and the club at 12, and some, you know, disgusting cocaine bar at you know, six or 7am and stumble home around noon, wake up at 7pm and do it all over again. So it was a really unhealthy life. And I had a real, you know, awakening at 28 years old, I had some health issues, and to start asking the question like, well, what if I died? Like, what was my life about? And, you know, do I still believe that Heaven and Hell stuff, because I know where I'd be going. So, you know, I really reassessed my life and, you know, came back to faith, I think in in a different way, as a, as an adult getting to opt in and not having it force fed to me. And I was really compelled with the idea of, of service, and asked myself kind of what would the opposite of my life look like. And then I started applying to these famous humanitarian organizations I'd tangentially heard of along the way, you know, the World Visions and Red Crosses, and Doctors Without Borders and Salvation Army's. Nobody would take me because it turns out, they're not looking for nightclub promoters. But I was very fortunate one, one did take me at the at the very end and said, I had to pay them $500 every month for the pleasure of volunteering, and I had to go live in post war Liberia, which at that time, had just come out of a 14 year civil war, and was the poorest country in the world. So really, in a moment, I mean, I I quit smoking, and I quit drugs. And I vowed to never look at pornography again and never gamble again, and kind of have this, you know, coming clean moment. And I joined this incredible mission of humanitarian doctors and surgeons who were working on a hospital ship that would sail up and down the coast of Africa and, and bring high quality medical service to people who couldn't afford it, or didn't have those services in the country. So that was kind of the first year and then that led to a second year. And of all the things that I had seen in a country with no electricity and no water and no sewage system and no mail system. It was you know, not leprosy. It was not cleft lips, it was not surgeries. It was not the lack of education. It was people drinking from swamps. I just couldn't believe that human beings, that children were drinking brown, green, viscous water, that I wouldn't have given to an animal. I would have never let my dog drink the water that the people were drinking. And with the lens of health being with these doctors, I learned that half of the disease in the country was caused by people drinking disgusting water, and not having access to sanitation and hygiene. So that that was really it took me two years, I guess, to find the issue or the mission that I was most passionate about. And then I came back to New York City completely broke, I found out my nightclub promoter had not dissolved, my partner had not dissolved our company, nor had he paid his taxes. So I was $40,000 in debt, living on a closet floor in New York City for free rent. So he didn't give me that at least. And, and just decided that I would try to start an organization to bring clean water to everybody alive before I died. And that was 16 years ago, little over 16 years ago.
And the movement that has built beneath that idea. I mean, I think about that closet floor is like a metaphor of the bottom. And what's come out of that is nothing short of extraordinary. And I think we're sitting at a time, you know, post pandemic, the world is different, the world is new, we're looking at it with different eyes, and I think of you like coming out with just fresh eyes and having sort of an awakening. And I want to thank you, not just on behalf of people like Jon and I, who believe so deeply in the basic human right of clean water. But, believing that we could do something differently. And I want to thank you for the way that you gave nonprofit dreamers like us the license to think differently, to think about story and disruption differently. And we want to talk about how you dream right now. And where you see the sector moving in 2023 and beyond when you look at where nonprofit is standing. And we're like sort of at a crossroads. We're watching the generosity crisis unfold right in front of us. And we're wondering, what do you see is on the horizon? And what do nonprofits need to seize right now?
Well, let me first say, and this may be a little uncomfortable, I spend no time thinking about the sector. I don't like that is that is like alien language to me. I don't go to nonprofit conferences. It's just not I don't read the Chronicle of Philanthropy. It's just not really what I do. So, you know, trends and all that stuff. You know, there's, there's other people on the team, I'm sure that that know, and think about that. But, you know, I'm I'm typically focused on, you know, exponential growth or disruptive innovation. So what can we do that, you know, takes us from $100 million a year organization to a billion dollar a year organization, in the shortest amount of time? And what would be those exponential unlocks the things that we make the products that we might create, or the people or companies that we might inspire to join the mission, or, you know, a new a new revenue stream, a new channel for growth? So, you know, I'm spending most of my time, you know, thinking about, you know, honestly, how little we've done, I get asked a lot, you know, did you guys ever think you'd be this successful and, you know, raise $700 million, or, you know, go build $100 million a year, you know, charity, I'm like, I thought we'd be an order of magnitude more successful. This is a fraction of what I had imagined. And it's a fraction of what I'd hoped or believed we would have achieved in 15 or 16 years. So I think that's an animating factor for me is, you know, we haven't done it yet. This is not, this is not success. We've helped 15 million people get water. And there's 770 million people who need water. So we've done 1/50 of the work, you know, it's 2% of the current problem solved. You know, it's how do we do a lot more? And what are the new tools or techniques or ideas or stories that will unlock more?
I mean, Scott, your answer there tells me and our alignment is through the roof, because I think, you know, we think of an iceberg a lot and people love to copy Charity Water, I mean, somebody that's been in the sector for 15 plus years. If Charity Water does something, people want to emulate that. But what they're missing is like, what's happening and what's driving you below the surface. And I love that you're breaking down to say we're saying in these echo chambers that we're talking amongst ourselves and not dreaming big enough. And so I love that you dream ridiculously big. And I think that's incredible. When you tell us other mindsets, I'm gonna hear that of an entrepreneur when I look at you, you're entrepreneurially minded. What are some of the mindsets that you lean on, as you kind of build the vision and bring a team along for something that's as big as solving a worldwide water crisis?
I think optimism is really important. Far too many, you know, charitable founders, or people that I run into, just seem to really have the blues. And, you know, it's just so hard. And you know, it's so hard to make the budget, and it's so hard to raise what we raised last year. And, you know, they don't seem to feel great about the future. I'm you even said it at the beginning, right? This this decline in generosity or right, there's always kind of a narrative out there, that is typically bad. I'm not inspired by pessimism, or a gloomy outlook on anything. You know, I think that's one of the things that I try to remain optimistic, or, you know, certainly enthusiastic about the best is yet to come. And trying to bring that into, you know, every interaction or every meeting, and then maybe just believing that a lot more is possible. Couple years ago, I finally felt like I was at a point where I could start asking for eight figure gifts so $10 million. And, you know, I was really nervous about it. And I knew a couple people who, who could give that and we were to size and scale that we could very easily absorb $10 million. And it was kind of like, you know, I remember flying out to Hawaii. And I had this proposal and it was gonna be a dinner with the family and all this and one of actually asked him for $12 million. And they said, Yes. And then a couple months later, someone else said yes, to $10 million. And then someone else said yes to $10 million dollars. And someone else said yes to $10 million. And then the next thing you know, we had four families that have given $10 million. And I just started asking people for 10 million. And this is like, why did it take me 10 years? So So I asked someone you know, who had who had really been along the journey. So this is not, this is not formulaic, but someone who had been with us for 15 years, who had been to Ethiopia with me, who had kind of mentored me. And I'd asked him and his family for 10 million, comes back to me. And a couple months later, he says, you know, thanks so much for the proposal. And it was really thoughtful, and you know, love the work that you continue to do, you know, kind of proud of you 15 years later, because I just have one question. He said, Why did you ask for so little like, and he gave 40 million as a commitment. Gosh, now the new number is 60. So I've asked seven people now for $60 million, which is what it costs to give 1 million humans clean water. So that's about 50 million indirect project costs is about 10 million overhead. You know, so if you roll up our two bank account model, you could get six, you get a million people clean water for $60 million, over 10 years, I don't need it now. I'd actually prefer to put the ball on a five or 10 year journey. So now it just kind of comes out of the tongue. It's, that's that's what we're selling. We are selling the idea that for $60 million, your company, your foundation, your family, your multi generational family could create a legacy of a million human beings on the planet getting clean water, because of your generosity. And it's tangible. It's measurable. It's not political. It's not religious. It's it's an inarguable common good. And we can deliver on that promise now with 59 operating partners and 22 countries and, you know, almost three quarters of a billion dollars deployed. So, you know, you can't go and ask for that kind of money unless you have the scale. And you know exactly what to do with it, as well. But, you know, now I'm, I'm just thinking like, Okay, well, at some point, I'm gonna ask someone for $100 million. Yeah. And they're gonna say, yes. What is that 10 figures, A 10 figure gift. And then I'm going to ask more people for $100 million.
In the more you say that, I'm going back to your number in your as you're saying we're at a 1/50 of where we need to be that 770 million. It, it puts the scale, it seems like the dream is tangible. And people want to close the gap on that. And I and I think, you know, Jon is reminding me like just of what Dan Pilates said, where he was like, we are not dreaming big enough. I also think the rejection of cynicism is huge for this sector. I think that there's so much that if we just go for it, I think we would be shocked because people who want to invest in radical change, in movements are going to be magnets to that radical vision, and that's what I want to compliment you on and you teased this a little bit Talk to us about this two bank account model one for ops one for mission and and talk about the reality of that we know that you talk about you almost went bankrupt twice. But that's like an ultimate long play. And we want nonprofits to learn from that.
That just to go back for one second, I know this is a little cutesy, but what are the first three letters in fundraising?
Fun.
Let's bring that joy back.
It's not shame raising or guilt raising or make people feel terrible about what they have raising. Yeah, so at the very beginning, I remember, I didn't know anything about nonprofits. So I had 10 years of club promoting experience. And then two years taking pictures and following doctors around, you know, as this kind of volunteer photo journalist, so I really didn't know any better than I ever it worked for me because I got to start with a blank piece of paper. So I kind of came back to New York, and I'm talking to people who go to nightclubs and work at Sephora or MTV or Chase Bank. And I learned there was a real cynicism when it came to giving to charities, where does my money go? How much of my money is actually gonna get eaten up by overhead and salaries. And, you know, I'm sure the CEO is making $2 million a year and, you know, driving a Ferrari. And I remember the time, I think Anderson Cooper was doing these, he was exposing bad charities, bad charities, you know, you kind of march up to the doorstep of the McMansion and ring the doorbell, you know, some dude would come out in his bathrobe and you know, slam the door in his face. And he'd say, Well, you know, 99% of your money went to pay your family and your cousins and your nephews and like, this thing is all scam. Anyway, that was just the sense. And then I learned there was data behind that. So USA Today. I think it was a done a poll that found you know, 42% of people said, we don't trust charities. And the biggest problem people had was just all around money, like, where does the money go? Where does my money go? What does my money do? So the only person I thought that just as I looked at models, the only person I thought I'd kind of solve this with with a drop the mic moment, was this billionaire hedge fund manager called Paul Tudor Jones. And he's in New York City, him. And he started something called Robin Hood. And he basically said, I'm a billionaire, I can afford to pay the overhead for my charity, so that 100% of what you all give public will go directly to, you know, helping youth in, you know, in underserved and underprivileged education situations. So that was so successful, eventually got bigger than the overhead he wanted to pay. And he put together a small board. So I remember writing him a letter, you know, 16 years ago, he never wrote me back. But kind of said, well, I don't have a billion dollars. But I think I have a couple $100. And I went to it was Commerce Bank at the time on Broadway and bond in New York. And I opened up two separate bank accounts, as I'm gonna try and raise all the overhead separately from a small group of people who don't mind paying those unsexy overhead costs. And then I'll make this public promise in the other bank account that whatever a donor gives 100% will go directly to the field to directly construct water projects, and said, I'm even going to take it a step farther than this guy will pay back credit card fees. So if somebody donates $100, on our website with their American Express, unfortunately, we only get 96. Believe me, we've asked it's a big business, it's a big business charging
Got to get those points, you know.
But we would take the $96 we got and we would replace the $4, you know, from the overhead accounts that American Express took to send the intended 100 hours in the field. So that was really, I mean, that was it was a simple idea. We could just say forever, 100% of your money goes directly to fund water projects. And then I think we stumbled upon the next step, which was, oh, wow, money is not fungible, you know, it's kind of untouchable. So we can build technology tools and algorithms to track those dollars as they go out to different countries to fund different projects of different costs. And then we can close the loop with the donor and say, here's where your money went. And I guess that so so if the first kind of pillar was the 100% model, the second pillar very quickly was proof. And then building the tools from the ground up to try to show people where their money went. And I remember this really dates Charity Water, but Charity Water and Google Earth started at the same time. Like there was no Google Maps. Okay, when I started this thing about that I didn't have gray hair back then. And there was no Google Maps. I remember meeting the Google Earth founder at at a conference and he told me what he was building with Google Earth. And I realized that within months, we would be able to put up every single well, and show people, the satellite images of every water project we would ever build in the world. So we just committed to that early on, as, as it matched this brand new technology. So he said, we'll never fund a project that is not on our website. So I think today, like there's like 100,000 completed projects. And you know, again, it would be hard to retrofit now. So if somebody came into our organization and said, Okay, you got to train 59 partners across 22 countries, how to turn on a GPS unit, take a specific picture of it, verify the GPS unit, and then upload all that data, I can imagine how hard it would be to get any buy in on that. But when you start with your first one, and then your first five, and your first 20, that just got built into the core of what we did. So if we brought on a new partner, we said, well, this is our procedure. So if you're not willing to do this, you're never gonna get money from us.
I mean, to me, it's long game, because you knew it would pay off to in doing that I want you to talk I know the Birch family to is come behind you. And I heard you describe them as believers in kind of what you're building. And that's a term that we it's one of our values, that we're not here to gather just donors, but people who really believe. Will you talk about what that looks like communities, you connect with people that just believe it a different level and how you activate around that.
You know, it's interesting with that family, I think they are more passionate about the charity water way than water. It's and I would say this is true. If I think of our biggest families of supporters, what attracted them was the innovation, the storytelling, the brand, the creative. I remember Michael's first email, he had commented on the website that Vik had designed and said, this just doesn't look like a nonprofit website, like it looks so good. And he was out of Silicon Valley. So you know, his initial kind of in was the design, because in a way, it's a completely foreign problem for 100% of our donor base. Okay, call it 99.9% of our donors have never experienced the problem. And that's not true with you know, education challenges, or maybe the local food bank or homelessness where, you know, we certainly experiences you 99.9% of my donors have never had to drink disgusting water that then made them vomit or killed their child of diarrhea, or, you know, walked five hours in the hot sun to be attacked by you know, a lion or a hyena or raped, you know, in the jungles of West Africa, you know, in a water walk, it's really our job to bring them into the the story, both the problem and then the solutions. But I think it's the way that we have run the organization that is most attractive, that has made them believers, so so the way that our 100% model is funded today, there are 131 families who pay all the overhead, it's actually really simple. So in that separately audited bank account, 131 families pay all the overhead and they start to get in that group, you have to give at least $100,000 a year for three years. So the minimum kind of commitment to pay for the overhead is $300,000. And then we have families going up to 1 million or 2 million a year for the overhead. I really believe that I could go to those 130 families and say, We're changing from Charity Water to charity, food, you know, or hunger or shelter, or health or education, you know, a basic need. And I don't think anyone would leave. Now we're not going to do that we're deeply focused on water. But it's they would say, okay, good idea, right. Good idea, oh, you're going to make sure that nobody goes to bed hungry. You're gonna make sure that every family and child has a safe roof over their head. Okay, we can get behind that. I think it is the the unique way that the organization runs and operates. And, you know, I remember I think it was Michael actually said like, the minute you stop innovating the minute we stopped giving something like that. I mean, it was a it was a challenge to continue innovating to continue being curious to continue moving us forward. You know, don't get lazy, don't sit on your, you know, on your laurels. I mean, Vik says this a lot in her courses people give to people. Yep, I really believe they give to people and not causes. So you know, if we think of our personal charitable giving so many of the people that we give to, we never thought about their cause once. I mean, it didn't even cross our mind, our radar, you know, but we want to help them. We want to help a passionate social entrepreneur pursue the you know, the injustice that they're focused on, even if it's, you know, not something that we're deeply passionate about or really even thought about. So I've so many people have said that specifically like, Scott, we want to help you on this life mission of yours. We're not deeply passionate about the global water crisis. But we kind of want to fund you and this extraordinary team of passionate individuals. So I think that's, that's really, you know, sometimes people lead with the issue, you know, they'll come in, and that's not often what a donor wants to hear the donor wants to know why you care. Tell me your story. You know, why are you sitting here and not working at Google? Why are you, you know, advocating on behalf of this cause? So, I'm coaching somebody who's doing a local fundraiser, and the guy's been at it for 21 years, and he's got all these celebrities coming. It's like a 40 person dinner, and he wasn't even going to talk. It was just gonna be you know, a video, and then somebody else is gonna make the ask, and I'm like, No, bro, you gotta get up there and tell the founding story. 21 years ago,
Unleash that passion.
21 years ago, I saw this, and I started the organization to meet this need. And 21 years later, I'm optimistic about the future. We've accomplished a lot in two decades, I'm unsatisfied with what we've accomplished. And then you need to invite those 40 people in to give you know, to change the trajectory of the organization in year 21. And alter the curve.
I think there's a beautiful transition to talking about the spring, because I know this is not going to shock you, Scott. But we have so many people in the We Are For Good community who we've met who know each other through the spring. And this is your incredible monthly giving program. And I mean, Jon, I think about like Brian Ford on the West Coast, talking to Max Friedman, who's in Boston, who met in the spring, Lynn Wester in the Caymans, you know, talking to clay buck in Vegas, who she got him into the spring because of the experience. And there's something that has happened with the way that you have built the spring and Vik's come on to the podcast. And she's kind of shared the incredible framework for this monthly giving program, but really supports this idea that everyone can be a philanthropist. So please share your perspective on this program, and just the impact that it's been able to have on your mission?
Well, I don't think we do a great job. So it's nice to hear you say, I think we need to do a far better job of fostering the community and making the spring more essential and more dynamic. So I appreciate that. But hopefully we're at you know, 20% of what the eventual product and community will be. Look, monthly giving is not new. And we're not by any means, you know, one of the biggest, I think we have about 65,000 people, it'll it'll add up to maybe $23 million this year. So you know, it's 23% of revenue or so or maybe a little less now, I think for many years, we didn't do it because we didn't know what the product was. And I was. And this is a real regret. I thought if we didn't have a child, a sponsored child that could individually write letters to a donor giving every month, then that was kind of the only product that would work. And I mean, who would want to give every single month just knowing their money was kind of going everywhere, you know, going to 22 different countries. And without that, that specificity. So that got in the way, really, for the first 10 years. And it was it was really a conversation in the back of a Land Rover in Ethiopia with the founder of Spotify, and it was around the pain you all know well of January one the darkest day fiscal close of 12/31. And you know, you've hit it hard, you're dialing for dollars, your Christmas is ruined, your Thanksgiving was probably ruined, trying to make the numbers, trying to hit the budget, maybe trying to keep the board happy. And then you know, wherever you landed, January one you you literally realize you are at zero again. And somehow, you know, if you're successful, you're gonna have to go do all that again, which seemed impossible, you know, whatever, you just accomplish the year before, and then you're gonna have to grow, you're gonna have to beat it. I remember saying this in the back of a Landrover and Daniel's just kind of laughing he's like, I have a completely different business. He's like, I get a Spotify subscriber, and I'm gonna keep them for life. He's like, bro, you need to, that's terrible. Like, that's a terrible situation, like what a terrible way to run a business. So you got to start a subscription program. So that was really the impetus to come back and maybe take another look. And I just said, Alright, well let's see if the 100% model is enough. Because that does feel, you know, competitive that if I could say, if you have $10 A month And at least all $10 is gonna go help people get clean water. If you have $40 A month well, that's what it costs to take to give one person clean water. And then I kind of leaned into the, the expansive tapestry of storytelling that would be available to us, across 22 countries. So rather than, you know, I'm not going to say getting stuck with one child, but you know, an on an eight or 10 year journey with one child in Honduras, we could take them around the world, to Cambodia to Nepal, to Ethiopia, Malawi, we could take a spring member on a journey around the world where their impact is really being spread 100% of their impact is being spread. And hopefully get them make them believers to use your language. And then to launch it, you know, this, I don't know, I had this crazy idea, let's make a 20 minute video, actually, the first video is 30 minutes. And that's, that's the dumbest idea ever, like, you know, this, everybody's attention span is now down to six seconds or nine seconds, or whatever it is now, and nobody watches long form content, long form content is dead. And I just remember saying, you know, to get someone to make a buying decision this big, you know, 30 $40 a month, kind of for the rest of their life, or indefinitely. I don't know how to do that in three minutes. I don't know how to tell a complete enough, you know, story or take them on a journey in three minutes. So we did it in 19 minutes. And you know, the video now has over 100 million views. And it has driven I mean, that video specifically has driven close to $100 million. Because it because people see it and they they get we were about I mean, even if they don't take action, you at least understand where the organization came from, how the 100% model works, and why water is important, and what we're doing about it, and then what we're hoping to do about it with your involvement, you know, enter you and we have a lot more impact, and it's much more expansive. So we kind of put that together, and it works. And we're actually doing a community event tonight for spring members. And during COVID We we did a lot of events. And it's it's fun to see 400 members pop up on a zoom, knowing many of them are giving $5 a month or $10 a month, but they really feel connected to the work. And the vision is to make them see make them feel seen and appreciated that we see your $10 a month, we see you and the contribution you're making, we don't take you for granted. And $10 really matters. Every four months, another human has clean water, because you're giving $10 a month, if you stopped giving $10 a month, that's one less Yes, three less people we can help every single year. And we don't want to help three less people, you know, we want at some point, maybe you can go up to $20 a month, and you can help six people a year. That's how it grows. So you know, I think we have a lot of thoughts, we want to make it better. But it's it's a really powerful part. And I'll say when we move to subscription, we were raising about 35 million a year. So that pivot helped triple the size of the organization. And, you know, when you succeed at growing a grassroots movement, you also succeeded the other end of the barbell. So we have this saying at Charity Water, the mass fuels the major, I can't go out and ask for $10 million gifts. If we don't have a movement, the the family giving $10 million, the tech entrepreneur giving $10 million wants to know you have a million users at the $10 a month or $20 a month a $30 million. They don't want to just be you know, the rich guy or girl that's writing the check and funding the whole thing. They want to fuel more growth. So the pitch really is, you know, you can be added oxygen added fuel to this thing where we go out and get 1000s 10 1000s More hundreds of 1000s of more small givers powered by your big generous donation. So it's kind of a barbell approach.
I mean, I love that this conversations jump in at the beginning of the year, Scott, I just want you to my ear buds keeping us amped up. You know, for everything that's come in. We center all of these conversations with philanthropy we love just like the power of loving humanity leaning into service. I want to give you a chance to tell a story that has stuck with you you've been witness to incredibly huge philanthropy and the small everyday donor to what is a story that has just got punched him and you can't shake after all these years.
I mean, I think it's probably Rachel, who you know, I've written about this in the book. She's a part of The Spring video but just the idea. This This was a nine year old girl in Seattle, Washington that had seen me speak learned about charity water and decided she would give up her birthday gifts and cancel her birthday party and use her birthday as this giving moment. And she just asked people for $9 I'm turning nine, would you make a $9 donation instead of the birthday party. And, you know, I remember she wanted to raise $300, which probably seems like a lot for a nine year old girl. That means a lot of nines that add up to $300. And she fell a little short, but she raised $220. And I think what, you know, what sticks with me, you know, reflecting on this is, you know, her mom said she was unhappy. She did not like that she was $80 short of her goal. And, you know, said, Well, I'll just try again next year, I'm gonna get a do over for my 10. And then I'll hit my goal. And, you know, sadly, for people that know the story, she was killed in a tragic car crash, and there was a 20 car interstate pileup, she was the only fatality. But you know, the story of this little nine year old girl hit the local news through her church community. And then people in the church started giving $9. And then people the local community started giving $9. And then it just started spreading around the country, and it spread into Europe. And it spread down into Africa. And I remember seeing Africans going online and giving $9 for this little girl in Seattle, who wanted people in Africa, to have access to clean water, and she went up raising over $1.3 million inspiring, I think, like 60,000 strangers who had never met her, who had never heard her name before, to give $9 or more. And then, you know, it was really cool as we got to look at that data set years later. And she also inspired people who had donated to follow her lead and give up their birthday for Charity Water. And then she raised another few million dollars as that so you know, all animates, it's well over $3 million of impact, from an initial hope to raise $300 and help a few people. So I just, you know, I think there's so many powerful elements, and we got to take her mom and her grandparents to Ethiopia on the one year anniversary of her death. So 365 days after the crash, they were walking village to village meeting children, meeting families that now had clean water because of a Rachel's passion vision sacrifice. And, and it was a really powerful I remember one of the villages. You know, there were there were these older women and they were they were weeping and they came up to Rachel's mom was a single mom, and kind of fell prostrate at her feet. And they were you know, they were touching her feet. They were kind of wailing. And then they said through a translator, you know, look, we're mothers too. And we've lost children, we know your pain, but your daughter's life has given the children of this village life. Her sacrifice, you know, has made the lives of our children better. And you know, for that we thank you. So it was a really, really powerful experience.
Everyone can be a philanthropist. And we're winding down. Scott. And I want to ask you this one little question before we get to our one good thing. Because we've met Emma. And we've seen Jack, your two children. And I wonder how you look at the world in your work through their eyes now.
I mean, I definitely look at kids around the same age very differently. And I was in Madagascar, one last month. And you know, I'm in an elementary schools. And I'm like, Oh, that's a six year old girl. And that's an eight year old boy. And the school has no water, and the school has no toilets. And you're just it's kind of hard to imagine the privilege that the my kids are live, you're listening here kids were born into, because their school has water. And their school has toilets. And you know, when my daughter, you know, hits puberty and gets her period, she's gonna be able to go to the school, because the school has water and the school has toilets, and she's not gonna have to miss four or five days, every single month. Like the girls at that school in Madagascar or, or literally 50% of the schools throughout the developing world don't have water toilets now. So it's it's helped, I guess it's created more of an urgency to go faster to help more people. I mean, the beauty of water, and I'm sure this is true for almost everybody listening as you put this, in terms of your mission is it is a solvable problem, like we know how to construct now 14 different water technologies to get people clean water. They cost money. It's resources, money, team, staff, planning. But it's not like we're scratching our heads, saying, We have no idea how to solve this problem. And I think that just makes you want to that makes you hungry, or it makes me even hungrier to quickly get the resources to accelerate the impact, you know, across all these countries, and we can do more than we are raising money for and that has been really important to me to make sure that our capacity and our absorptive capacity or ability to, to construct projects is always more ambitious than the money we're raising. And it's the program's leading the way not, oh, my gosh, we have $100 million, but we only planned for 40. Like, Let's go sit on 60. I mean, this is it is a revolving bank account, you know, if money in money money out within, you know, three to six months.
That's it?
I mean, yeah, what a way to bring this home. I mean, Scott, we asked all of our guests to share their one good thing as we kind of round this out, what's a piece of advice, or maybe it's a mantra that you hold close to you that you'd share with our community?
Well, I just think, you know, you should be out there telling stories. And people aren't responding to data, they're not responding to statistics, you know, share your personal story, share stories of what's important about the work to you share stories of failure, share stories of success, share stories of challenge, but you know, I think in every in every instance, you have to be out there telling stories. And that's what moves the mission forward. That's what moves relationships forward. And it's not as common as you'd think. I mean, it sounds so simple. But, you know, I can't tell you how many times I'll sit in 30 minutes, and someone will talk about their work, and they won't tell a single story in 30 minutes. And then the meeting is over. And I don't remember much.
Yeah. Because you want to get to know Rachel, you want to see her. You want to like visualize her. They're like pounding the pavement, going door to door trying to get that money for $300 for a while. And I just want to thank you, Scott, for coming in here. And saying, maybe everything we taught just needs to be flipped upside down. Maybe everything that we thought we knew, needs to be personalized needs to be disrupted, and it's okay to fail. And I think that finding safety and peace in the fact that we're failing forward is a beautiful thing. You've told your story so well, it's how we came and found you. I just want to commend you and the team for what you're doing, tell our audience how they can connect with you tell us where the need is and tell them how they connect with charity water and with you.
Charity Water is very active on social so just Charity Water. Or, or if they want to see the video I think that's on thespring.com so you can learn more about the program and how we're talking about it, how to join the videos there. At the moment, I don't have Instagram or Twitter on my phone. So I'm I am really enjoying not having social media. We're doing a 30 day digital detox as a family. So no TV, no social media, it's fantastic. I don't know that I'm gonna put these things back on my phone. I'm thinking a little more clearly. You know, if you if you take TV out of your life, you have more time for reading and learning and sleeping and and hanging out and playing baseball. So you can follow my wife Vicki is very active. Vik Harrison with a que and she's she's she's launching a new course on on marketing and I'm actually looking at her framework right now. I think there's a different video 48 different videos that she's been working on for for the last eight months and trying to talk about some of this stuff, mindset and storytelling, and how to captivate people and how to convert them and how to keep them over time. So she's she's the better, the better follow than I am.
Thank you so much. We're just rooting for you and keep going. We'll be watching closely and learning from all you do.
Thanks for having me.
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