Latest / Success Story with Scott Clary / Scott Harrison - Founder of Charity Water | From Nightclub Promoter to Billion Dollar Charity

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Scott Harrison - Founder of Charity Water | From Nightclub Promoter to Billion Dollar Charity · Success Story with Scott Clary

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  I was the guy at 28 years old standing behind the one-way glass, really thinking I was fabulous
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  because I had a Rolex watch and I drove a BMW and I had a grand piano in my New York City
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  apartment. That was what life looked like on the outside, on the inside. I was just so deeply
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  unhappy. What drives someone to walk away from a glamorous life to pursue a mission of compassion?
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  For Scott Harrison, founder and CEO of Charity Water, it was a moment of reckoning.
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  I was in South America, in Punta de Lesta, on this amazing opulent vacation. I just hated all
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  that and I wanted a massive change. I get this idea that I'm going to start life over at 28.
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  I'm going to sell everything I own and I'm going to go volunteer on a humanitarian mission in the
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  poorest country in the world. I'm going all the way in. I went all the way in. After a decade promoting
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  Manhattan's biggest parties, Scott's life took an unexpected turn. My mother walked across her
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  bedroom and collapsed unconscious in the floor. That is really when I discovered why so many people
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  were sick. Half of the people were drinking dirty water. 100% of the people listening right now
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  have never experienced dirty water. Scott's mission has now provided millions and developing
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  countries with access to safe drinking water. In this episode, Scott opens up about the moment
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  that changed everything. How he transformed his skills and nightlife into a global movement for
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  clean water. I knew exactly what I wanted to achieve in life. That would be to try to bring
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  clean water to every human being on planet Earth before I die.
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  Welcome to Success Story. I'm your host, Scott Clary. The Success Story podcast is part of the
• 1:40
  HubSpot podcast network. I'm also a big user of HubSpot products. I've supported the show for
• 1:45
  over three years now and for all entrepreneurs out there. I need you to go back to a time and place
• 1:51
  when building businesses as tough as it is can be sometimes a little bit fun. When you're marketing,
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  it should be fun. But marketing is not so fun anymore because it's very time consuming,
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  it's very difficult and it feels like there's just a lot of friction. Content was simpler to make,
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  leads were easier to capture and we weren't all spread so thin. As marketers, as entrepreneurs,
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  the bottom line is that marketing used to be fun. It's not so fun anymore. But with HubSpots
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  newly launched to marketing and content hubs, I've been using it myself. It brings a little bit of
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  in your data so put the fun back into your marketing funnel with HubSpot. Visit HubSpot.com to get
• 2:55
  started for free. Scott, I'm very excited to do this. Thank you for coming on. I appreciate you.
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  So I want to ask a question about your origin story and I know that some people have heard it,
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  some people may have not and I think it's important because it really shapes who you are as a person
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  and you've gone through so many different seasons of your life. But think back,
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  what would be out of all the different inflection points or very notable moments in your life
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  that sort of set you on the path to where you're at today and we just spoke before we pressed
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  record over a billion dollars which is congratulations for charity water that's fabulous but
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  going way back obviously you didn't really understand where this was going to go in the beginning.
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  So what was that inflection point sort of pushed you down the path that you're on today?
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  I like to use the word seasons. I think there were three main seasons of my life and the first one
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  really began when I was four years old and it was New Year's Day 1980 and my mother walked across
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  her bedroom and collapsed unconscious on the floor and this led to a series of blood tests, was she okay?
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  Why did she pass out? It led to the discovery of massive amounts of carbon monoxide in her blood
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  stream and it led to the discovery of a gas leak in the basement of our home that we had just
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  purchased and she was kind of the canary in the coal mine so to speak which saved us all from dying
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  and my dad and I wound up bouncing back after the heater was ripped out and replaced
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  but she never did so from that moment on she became permanently disabled she became an
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  invad and my I guess what would have been a pretty idyllic childhood or was on the path to that
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  you know was really interrupted where I became a caregiver at a very young age and mom what
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  happened to her was her immune system irreparably shut down and was unable to process anything
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  chemical at that point so you name it and it made her sick whether it was car fumes or soap or
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  perfume or fabrics often or the ink from a book the print would make her sick so she very quickly
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  moved into an isolated life living in special rooms that had been covered with aluminum foil
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  connected to oxygen tanks wearing masks and my mom just kind of disappeared and I became
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  really in charge of helping her survive helping her with the cooking helping with the
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  cleaning helping to run the house later as I got older helping to accompany her to doctors
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  visits and then eventually you take her to some of them so the big family that my parents
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  hoped to have never materialized my mom miscarried what would have been my sister and I was an
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  only child and I grew up in a really conservative Christian home with two parents who loved
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  each other but a very very sick mom and I wanted to be a doctor when I grew up so I was going to cure
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  my mom and I was going to cure other sick people that I'd met with with her similar condition which
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  just you know confounded the medical science the day I didn't spoke I didn't drink I didn't
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  cuss I didn't sleep around I played by the rules of the church and was it was a really really
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  good kid that was season one then there was an inflection point the began season two where instead
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  of becoming a doctor I decided actually I was going to move to New York City and do all of those
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  things that I said I was not doing before I did want to smoke and I did want to drink and I did
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  want to sleep around and I did want to swear and I did want to kind of experience life
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  outside the rules outside of the somber tone that was really you know a part of our house
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  and I remember going to a club in New York City called it was it was it was actually not tunnel
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  um little gosh club USA it was called and I remember going down the slide from the balcony and kind
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  of emerging on the dance floor surrounded by a thousand people at 18 years old and I just said
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  this is what I want this is what I want I want to be surrounded by a thousand people who are
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  partying and drinking and have execs and doing drugs this is my childhood I'm going to experience
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  my childhood and that led to a 10 year season where I actually became a nightclub promoter so I
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  liked the club so much I wanted to actually run the going all the way in I went all the way in
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  and I learned man if you want to rebel in style I mean there's probably no better job
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  in New York City than to fill up night clubs full of beautiful rich famous people
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  and charge them $30 a cocktail or a thousand dollars a bottle of shame paying to sit in the right
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  chair at the right table so over the next 10 years really to the horror of my parents
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  their uh virginal pure you know want to be doctor kid you know it's climbing up New York City's
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  nightlife ladder spring champagne out of DJ booths and you know doing coke and ecstasy and MDMA
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  and smoking two packs of marble or reds a day and gambling and going to strip clubs and you know
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  addicted to porn and you know all the things that kind of go with what you're doing out I don't leave
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  anything out I left heroin out that's it all good good and you know I became pretty good at it
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  so I climbed up to the top of that food chain and I was the guy at 28 years old standing behind
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  the one way glass deciding who got into the club and who got to sit where and booking DJs from
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  Paris or Milan and really thinking I was fabulous because I had a Rolex watch and I drove a BMW
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  and I had a grand piano in my New York City apartment and my girlfriend was on the cover of fashion
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  magazines and I had arrived and that was what life looked like on the outside on the inside
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  I was one of the most unhappy
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  the soulless, sick of fantic damaged people that I knew and I was just so deeply unhappy
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  with the shape of my life and it took me 10 years unfortunately to reach that point
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  but I realized hey I'd become you slowly and then suddenly the worst person that I knew
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  and if I died at 28 years old the only thing I could imagine someone would write on my tombstone is
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  you know here lies a club brat they got a million people wasted I'd contributed absolutely
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  nothing positive to society and you know I had this kind of I guess you know an another
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  cathartic moment which started season three of my life where I was in South America
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  and pointed to Leicester on this amazing opulent vacation and I just hated all of it and I wanted
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  a massive change and I realized that a pivot was not in order it was a 180 degree change that was
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  needed you know go basically try and think of the opposite say the opposite do the 180 degree
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  opposite of everything I've been doing for 10 years and see where that would take me and in some
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  ways you know I wanted to come back home you know I missed the foundation of morality and spirituality
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  and and purity in a way that my parents would try to instill in me so I I get this idea that I'm
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  going to start life over at 28 I'm going to sell everything I own and I'm going to go volunteer
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  on a humanitarian mission in the poorest country in the world and see where that might take my life
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  and that really started chapter three which we are now still in and hopefully hopefully we'll
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  hopefully I will end in in this chapter over this season why do you think such you went through
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  such a dramatic one eighties in in your life I'm assuming your your mom's condition had
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  something to do with it because I think that the if I think and I try and place myself as a
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  kid in that situation turning into the role of a caregiver it's almost like too much responsibility
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  you just it was good for a moment you felt duty to your family you raised up a good kid you know
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  the religious ideals and and what what good is you know I think no drinking no drugs no party no
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  nothing and then added responsibility it's almost like you were like in this pressure cooker situation
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  then you just went the opposite direction I think that's a great way of describing it I mean it
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  was just rebellion you know I I want to reject the rules I want to reject not fun you know a life
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  of service felt not fun it felt like it was about others and it's it's me time I want I want
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  to have a childhood I want to go have fun my friends were out playing with with their parents
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  and I was doing unfun stuff I thought I mean I was I was some of the some of the stuff that you
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  had to do for your mom there's stories of you having to so correct me if I'm wrong but you had to
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  bake the books to remove the smell or I guess the the the scent of the egg the chemical and then
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  you had to wrap them in plastic and then cheat or or there's a hole there was a there were
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  rituals yeah for mom yeah holy bunch of rituals the ink would have to outgas and we would do that
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  in the oven or we would lay it out in the backyard in the sun and then I would bring the book up to
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  her tin foil covered bathroom that had been the walls had been washed with baking soda her
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  cot had been washed 20 times with baking soda she would open up the door with a mask on I would
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  hand her the book she would have gloves on and she would put the book inside a cellophane bag
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  and that was her reading ritual so it was there's a weird stuff I mean it was really bizarre
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  but you keep seeking purpose like throughout your life you keep seeking purpose it even in that second
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  season so I've heard you speak about how you were always trying things that would be considered
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  addictive so like drugs alcohol gambling women you would always like you try these things for a
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  period of time but then you'd get bored and you shut off and you go into the next thing and it
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  was always about seeking purpose and I'm curious how after seeking purpose in all these you know
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  traditional vices how none of it paid off and none of it really gave you what you needed what prompted
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  you to do that 180 where you realized okay outside if somebody's from the outside looking in
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  life looks great life looks like I'm fun I'm kingshit I have a hot girl I mean I have influence
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  whatever but what was that what was that point that you realize that all these vices that you're
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  trying to find purpose and we're not really doing it yeah well in in many ways it was a spiritual
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  awakening so I hit that kind of moment in South America where I just remember it was almost like
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  the game of musical chairs and for the first time the music stopped and I had nowhere to sit down
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  it was a jarring existential moment where I think if I put it in a sentence I realized
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  there will never be enough someone will always have more and I was actually surrounded with people
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  who had more who had planes who had you know yachts and they seemed unhappy too so this endless
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  pursuit of more would never bring the happiness and so what is the opposite of that you know
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  the self-serving so I look to God and I remember reading the Bible again and and you know rediscovering
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  that faith as a 28 year old without it being shoved down my throat without being told what I
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  must believe I remember just thinking like well Jesus is kind of badass he's he's not religious in
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  fact he was raging against so much of the religious establishment of the day and you know he was
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  really all about service you know pouring your life out for others so that others can flourish so
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  that others can benefit I remember coming across this this book in this this verse in the book of
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  James where it said you know if you care about true religion true religion is this look after
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  widows and orphans and just keep yourself from being polluted I'm like I'm frigging over too I
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  mean I have done nothing to look after anyone in the widow and orphan category and not only am I
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  polluted I actually pollute others for a living and the more people I pollute in my clubs the more
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  money I make so it was a lot of these things happening you know kind of reaching the end of rope
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  reeling this wouldn't it realizing this would not make me happy coming back to this lost faith
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  in spirituality morality and then just needing an idea which was actually you know when back to
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  this concept of the tithe when my parents were growing up they would always give 10% of whatever
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  they made to the church I was like well what if I tithe time I just blew 10 years what if I gave
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  one of the 10 years in service and just saw where that would take me and you know interestingly
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  it was almost impossible to volunteer so I remember applying to the first 10 humanitarian
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  organizations from the Red Cross to World Vision to save the children and you know nobody wanted
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  a nightclub promoter these are serious you know doctors without borders it turns out once doctors
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  to join their mission you know not club rats so it became incredibly frustrating because I now
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  had the desire to try something different to serve and nobody would take me and then I was very
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  fortunate that you know I I call it the 11th organization you know wrote me back and said hey
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  if you're willing to pay us $500 a month and if you're willing to go live in the poorest country in
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  the world you can join our mission and I just remember thinking I mean that is really the opposite
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  of my life you know going from clubs in crystal champagne to a post-war country in West Africa
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  and actually having to pay money to be of service what was the organization and is that how like
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  outside of all the ones you apply to is that how they operate they actually get you to pay
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  they do they do your stuff that I'm great exactly it's a brilliant model they're called
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  mercy ships they sell a well now a couple of hospital ships up and down the coast of Africa very
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  simple ideas let's recruit the best doctors and surgeons from around the world let's invite them
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  you know on effectively a cruise liner that had been converted into the state of the art
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  floating hospital and then let's sail up and down the coast of Africa pull into port and offer free
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  life-changing surgeries to people who can never afford them and who don't even have the medical
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  facilities in their country so what I joined as was the volunteer photojournalist
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  for the was going to say what what what was a I like the most for motor going to do on these
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  boats and it's kind of funny because I was not technically a photojournalist but I was a pretty good
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  writer and I was a pretty good photographer so I put up a blog with some of the stuff I'd written
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  and I put up some of my hobby photographs you know in fashion and you know beautiful buildings in
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  Prague in Paris and and I don't even think I realized it at the time but I was in so many ways
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  uniquely qualified for this job because I brought with me a guest list of 15,000 people who I had
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  emails of because I got them drunk over the last 10 years so here I land as kind of the storyteller
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  through pictures and and words in West Africa for this medical ship and I get to work
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  you know bombarding the 15,000 people that a few weeks earlier I had been inviting to come get drunk
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  and I start sharing photos of cleft lip surgeries and cleft palettes and tumors being removed
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  and cataracts being removed and people getting their sight for the first time and I was so
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  in awe of the work of these compassionate doctors who like me had flown into West Africa to pay
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  which which all that money like you said helped the organization run and I'm just blitzing my list
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  and you know of course there were some unsubscribes at first you know people didn't sign up for
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  you know facial tumors in Africa being removed but after that first wave the list actually
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  began to grow as people would forward these stories to their friends and then they began to send
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  money and I I started to realize maybe the same skills that I had developed you know filling up 40
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  different nightclubs over 10 years you know growing the party these skills could be used in a
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  compassionate redemptive way to actually save people's lives and I wound up raising a lot of money
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  for mercy ships that first year raising a lot of awareness and then when that year ended I just
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  didn't know what was next so I just went back to Liberia for a second year and that is really when
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  I discovered why so many people were sick and just to give you an example you know our third day
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  on this mission I remember waking up in five in the morning putting them on hospital scrubs
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  and jumping in this convoy of land robbers with doctors and surgeons and nurses and I had two
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  Nikon D1X cameras around my neck and I learned that we're going to the patient screening and this
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  is where we receive all of the people who have heard about the coming of our doctors and it's kind
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  of like a cattle call it's like a big casting it's an audition for surgery and I knew we had 1500
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  available surgery slots to fill we could hand out 1500 surgery cards and I remember just thinking
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  you know is it possible that there's 1500 people who need facial surgery or cleft lips or eye surgery
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  and it turns out the government had given us the soccer stadium the football stadium in the center
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  of the city to triage these patients and as we approached the stadium I'll never forget
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  there were more than 5,000 people standing in the parking lot waiting for our doctors to arrive
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  open the doors and begin screening and that hit me really hard you know realizing oh my gosh
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  we're gonna send 3500 sick people home 3500 people with deformities because we just don't have enough
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  doctors we don't have enough time here in this country and you know it was a really really
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  hard thing I learned later that many of these people had walked from more than a month
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  some of them had come from neighboring countries with their children walking for a month
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  just in the hope of getting their child to see a surgeon and we didn't have enough of them
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  so the first year was a lot of both sadness of around the people we couldn't help but then also
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  learning the skill of focusing on the hope and focusing on the people who we could help and telling
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  their stories and hoping that by telling their stories more people would want to contribute more
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  people would want to send money for surgeries we could expand the capacity of the work and hopefully
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  one day reach all 5,000 people the second year was going into the villages and seeing how people
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  were living in one of the poorest countries in the world and I learned something very very simple
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  half of the people were drinking dirty water half of the people in the country were drinking from
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  open swamps and ponds and muddy rivers and I learned that half of the disease in the country
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  according to the World Health Organization was waterborne and in the second year you know so now
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  I'm 29 years old I'm back in Liberia I just kind of feel like I have found the thing that I
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  want to work on you know why not jump to the root cause of so much of this sickness and for me
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  that was dirty water I finished that tour and I came back to New York City at 30 years old completely
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  broke I found myself actually 30,000 dollars in debt because my club partner had not dissolved
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  the business like he said he was going to do nority paid taxes so at a big tax bill but I knew
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  exactly what I wanted to achieve in life and that would be to try to bring clean water to every
• 24:46
  human being one plated earth before I died a big shout out to HubSpot and the HubSpot podcast
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  listen to hustle and flowchart wherever you get your podcasts when you go through this I guess
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  metamorphosis as a person I believe a couple things I just listening to your story these are
• 25:40
  things that I believe to be true I believe that firstly even if people do not believe in God
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  and this is not a religious podcast my name because people do not believe in God they find God
• 25:52
  in other things and other vices so I think that that's a big issue with society but then
• 25:58
  the on the on the and I'm glad that you sort of went through that process and and you tried all
• 26:03
  these different versions of quote unquote God and then you found sort of what I do believe that most
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  people aspire to be at some point which is serving other people I think that I'm very fortunate
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  kind of like in your position I have conversations with a lot of people that are very wealthy
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  and successful and and I'm like like like like nine figures hundred million dollar plus exits
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  five hundred million dollar I've spoken to billionaires and there's really no money makes life
• 26:33
  easier but it doesn't help you find fulfillment and I think it doesn't provide meaning or purpose
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  for sure no it doesn't and you're very fortunate because you didn't have to spend your whole life
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  going through this rat race of trying to make more money it's almost like you like
• 26:48
  drank from the fire hose of vices and then you realize that none of it means anything
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  and then that's what allowed you to see what actual film in this which is I think serving humanity
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  and serving people yeah I mean not to you know go back to the the biblical parable but I you know
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  I remember that story growing up of like oh the prodigal son who had everything and his dad loved
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  him and he's like ah screw you dad you know I hope you're dead give me my money now and then he
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  freaking just lives large he parties at its girls and it's you know that whatever the version
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  back then of was fast cars and and like at the end of that story he winds up somehow completely broke
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  and in a pig pen he's like this sucks I want to go home like home was way better
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  but you know he had to go through that process I think to appreciate his father his home
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  and and I think you know in that you know what's great about that story is there's grace and like
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  guess kind of walk back in the door as if nothing ever happened and I think you know if that life
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  would play out really really well having seen the proverbial pig pen and I think I got there I know
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  what the darkness looks like I know I've met lots and lots of really unhappy rich people I've
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  seen a lot of broken marriages and you know it might look you know when you're 65 and you sell
• 28:14
  your company and then you start dating somebody younger than your daughter that might be fun
• 28:19
  for a few minutes to have a 21 year old girl but I've seen that that does not bring you know human
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  flourishing it doesn't it doesn't typically I agree with you it doesn't typically and I've seen
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  I've seen a lot of unhappy people with a lot of money that have divorced had broken homes again day
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  day people that are younger than their daughter and then they're trying to find purpose and they're
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  trying to find fulfillment and trying to find meaning and listen we've also seen we you know just
• 28:45
  to stay on this topic because we've seen so many times someone works so hard and build a company
• 28:50
  and build real value and build some of this world class and then have that exit and then go play
• 28:56
  right and then now everything is possible and I can't tell you how many people two or three years
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  later I talked to in their board they want to start something else they you can't just play
• 29:10
  you know you can't find purpose in spending money and traveling and buying boats and cars and
• 29:17
  taking you know the vacations you could never have afforded to take and you dreamed about you
• 29:22
  you're sitting there and saying Bart's in a two thousand euro suite saying if I forget do it
• 29:28
  with like what am I contributing what am I building what value am I adding so you know I've tried
• 29:33
  to invite a lot of people to just experience generosity and giving and you know there is a lot of
• 29:41
  meaning to be found through through giving and asking yourself the question you know is it my time
• 29:48
  is it my talent and mentorship is it my money is it all three and a lot of people just never
• 29:55
  exercise that muscle before what did you discover about yourself during those two years well I loved
• 30:01
  it I mean I can't tell you I mean I think the best year of my life was that first year on the
• 30:06
  mercy ship I will say I quit I mean I quit everything I said I'm never gonna smoke again I'm never
• 30:12
  gonna touch drugs again I'm never gonna gamble again never setting foot in the strip club I'm never
• 30:17
  gonna look at a pornographic image again as long as I live I quit drinking for a long time now I
• 30:22
  drink a little bit but you know I I really wanted to walk away from that life of vice and there was
• 30:28
  something so symbolic of walking up the gangway of a 522 foot hospital ship and sailing away to a new
• 30:38
  continent and a new life like this really this idea of leave the vice on land and put an ocean
• 30:45
  between that and you know I've been really fortunate to to have not gone back I think the other
• 30:52
  thing that that helped immediately was my community instantly changed I don't think I could have
• 31:00
  quit smoking and hung out in the clubs I don't think I could have quit drugs and all that
• 31:05
  other stuff and still been in my old environment but now I'm with a bunch of doctors like it's not
• 31:10
  really cool to smoke in a hospital you know not not not banging ecstasy you know on a hospital
• 31:17
  ship you know when everybody goes to bed at nine o'clock and wakes up at five you know to start
• 31:21
  prepping the OR so I loved it man I loved this new environment I loved the the wholesomeness of it
• 31:29
  the intention of people to serve you know how can we help how can we be useful how can we take what
• 31:35
  we have been given and share it with others it was magical I mean it it was in such stark contrast
• 31:42
  to my life and the environment that I was creating the environment I was living in you know just
• 31:49
  weeks before when you sort of went on this two-year journey you mentioned one point which is
• 31:57
  incredibly sad about those 5,000 people waiting for 1500 surgery slots and I was just watching
• 32:04
  some of your content ahead of time and if I mean if you look outside the US or outside of
• 32:10
  western countries it's some ridiculous stat I think you listed it in your book in your book
• 32:15
  thirst about one in 50,000 people have access to doctors or medical treatment but compared to
• 32:22
  I don't know what the number is one in 280 or something yeah so it's just it's insane when you look
• 32:27
  outside how silly the things that you think are important are really not important at all when
• 32:35
  you look at the rest of the world and something as simple as providing clean water it seems like
• 32:42
  there are so many organizations that are already tried to achieve these goals but when you know
• 32:47
  you're telling me this story about what you're seeing boots on the ground it seems like in certain
• 32:53
  parts of the world nothing's improving at all even though we feel like there's a lot of charity
• 32:57
  organizations and whatnot and a lot of people trying to solve these problems so there's this massive
• 33:03
  disconnect between our reality in the US and I'm Canadian but the same difference and the rest of
• 33:09
  the world and I'm just more curious about why is there this massive disconnect because everybody
• 33:17
  if you ask anybody who's made money I think a lot of people give to nonprofits I think a lot of
• 33:22
  people donate I think a lot of people want to support organizations but I don't think that many
• 33:27
  people realize that one in 50,000 people don't have access or have access to a doctor overseas
• 33:34
  in some more impoverished parts of the world or there was no drinking water I mean
• 33:40
  what what you're doing it seems to be a little bit bleeding edge and novel and disruptive
• 33:44
  in the nonprofit world so there seems to be a massive disconnect why do you think that is
• 33:49
  there's a lot there um let me let me maybe just start with we are making progress
• 33:58
  you know let me just talk about water when I started charity water 18 years ago
• 34:02
  1.1 billion people were drinking dirty water every day on a six billion population so it was one
• 34:10
  and six people alive drinking toxic poisonous water globally now we're down to 703 million
• 34:20
  so a lot of progress on a you know seven billion plus close to eight billion
• 34:24
  population so we've gone from one and six to one and ten that's significant progress
• 34:30
  with 400 million people or so now most of that progress was made in cities and towns and now 82%
• 34:37
  of the people left on earth without clean water live in remote rural areas so now it gets a little
• 34:43
  harder right it's kind of last mile stuff I think well let me say two things I think first of all
• 34:51
  oh my gosh I mean I can and maybe we will I mean I can tell so many stories about water
• 34:57
  and what I've learned in 18 years I've been to Africa 55 times now I've been to 72 countries
• 35:02
  around the world the thing is that you know I'm gonna I'm gonna round up to 100% of the people
• 35:11
  listening right now have never experienced dirty water you know let's you let's you let's
• 35:18
  use your doctor let's round up to 100% of the people here listening have never lived in a place
• 35:26
  where there's no doctor you know water comes out of our taps you know it comes out of our refrigerators
• 35:33
  we and we give it to our pets we put it in golf course I mean we just we were born into a world
• 35:40
  of water and every once in a while you know we have to turn your sprinklers off because there's a
• 35:45
  drought right but we have never experienced what it's like for that 10% of the world for the 700
• 35:50
  million people and you know if you happen to be living there if you happen to be born there
• 35:58
  you're walking seven hours a day for dirty water and you're hauling 40 pounds on your back
• 36:04
  you're losing your child to diarrhea your child is is dying of dehydration in your arms because you
• 36:12
  have poisoned them from a swamp which is the only source of water you've ever known because it's
• 36:17
  in the center of your village and you know it requires some storytelling to bring people into
• 36:26
  these issues and then connect with them and then cause them in some way to reject the apathy
• 36:37
  that is so easy to accept with any paralyzing global issue and get them to raise their hand and say
• 36:43
  huh I could actually do something about that you mean to tell me that for 40 dollars I can get one
• 36:48
  person clean water or for 10,000 dollars I can pay to drill a well in a village of 250 people
• 36:56
  so it requires it's a little bit of a leap now if I'm talking I remember doing a big stage talk
• 37:02
  once ink magazines ink 5,000 there were 5,000 people in the room and I had to follow the sea of
• 37:09
  live strong at the time and I remember sitting there and you know Doug comes out and he says all
• 37:14
  right raise your hand if you've had cancer yeah a bunch of hands go up okay raise your hand if
• 37:19
  you've had a family member with cancer you know we're probably at 65% of the audience okay what about
• 37:24
  a friend or a coworker he's got 100% of the audience with the hands up and then he starts his
• 37:32
  talk you know I get out there and say okay raise your hand if you have if you're a woman and you
• 37:38
  were raped on the way to a waterhole okay raise your hand if your child died of Shisto Somiasis
• 37:46
  or parasites from the water right I'm gonna get nobody so I think that's that that you know
• 37:52
  American philanthropy right people think Americans are generous and and there's a lot of money
• 37:56
  that's given only 4% of all the money helps people outside the country 96% of all American
• 38:05
  giving stays here in continental US and that's because we experience issues like cancer and cancer
• 38:13
  research and homelessness and you know give to our alma mater because we got a great education
• 38:18
  and that made a lot of things possible now kind of moving on to the other there is a skepticism and
• 38:25
  as cynicism as well when it comes to giving to charities and I think that's why we've been so
• 38:30
  successful is because when I started charity water I had just come off the ship after two years
• 38:36
  I'm in New York City I don't freaking know anything about how to start a charity or an institutional
• 38:42
  you know agency humanitarian aid agency I'm talking to friends that go to clubs and they work at
• 38:48
  Sephora and Chase Bank and MTV VH1 and my everyday friends are like man I don't freaking give
• 38:55
  to charities I don't know where that money's going none of that money I give is actually going to go
• 38:59
  reach people yeah it's going to go into overhead it's going to go into a black hole so I remember
• 39:04
  going to I guess his barn's a noble or borders or whatever the time and and buying the yellow
• 39:10
  nonprofit for dummies book you know and learning like how do I actually do this I want to give
• 39:16
  everybody in the world clean water but but how do I do this and I just had the advantage of not
• 39:21
  knowing any better talking to friends realizing 42% of Americans pulled by USA today said they
• 39:28
  don't trust charities 70% of Americans believe charities waste their money their donations
• 39:34
  and I just thought well what if I like try to build the perfect charity that speaks to the
• 39:38
  objector what would that perfect charity look like it would be hyper transparent okay I'm
• 39:44
  going to build the most transparent charity in the history of the world it would follow the money
• 39:48
  okay great I'm going to build technology that tracks donations down to the final source
• 39:54
  um 100% of people's money would go straight to the projects okay I'm not sure exactly what
• 39:59
  that's going to look like but I'm going to open up two separate bank accounts and I'll raise all
• 40:03
  that nasty overhead in a separately audited bank account so that 100% of the public's money can go
• 40:10
  directly to help people get clean water and build projects so that people can't use that excuse
• 40:15
  here how does how much of my money goes the answer would always be 100% so you know this this very
• 40:21
  kind of unique structure began to form with a very clear mission so I'd be able to tell anybody
• 40:28
  in an elevator hey what are you doing I'm trying to bring clean water to every human being alive on
• 40:32
  earth and we have a really interesting structure and a way to do that you know do you have a dollar
• 40:38
  to give great 100% we'll go help somebody get clean water do you have a hundred million dollars to
• 40:42
  give great that's going to help a whole lot of people we know what to do with a hundred million
• 40:46
  dollars and all of that can go to the field so you know I put those kind of concepts to get us
• 40:51
  I'll say maybe one more thing is I looked at the charitable sector I thought the brands sucked
• 40:57
  and you know in nightclubs like the club needed a great brand to attract people you know you
• 41:03
  want to go sell a thirty dollar you know vodka red bull that costs you 30 cents you know you need
• 41:09
  a brand to be able to mark that up and as I looked at charities I saw a lot of bad websites I
• 41:15
  shot a lot of saw a lot of shame and guilt marketing you know you're probably old enough to remember
• 41:21
  the Sally Strothers commercials and you know the and the the slow motion kids in Africa flies
• 41:27
  landing on their face the 800 number and I was just looking around saying where's the apple of
• 41:33
  charities where's the Nike you know where's the creative imaginative inspiring organization
• 41:41
  which is it is is you know inviting people to become the most compassionate generous versions
• 41:48
  themselves who's building a movement of health and dignity and hope and human flourishing
• 41:56
  and I didn't see it so I said I'm going to try and build that.
• 41:59
  Nick Kristoff had written in the New York Times there's a great line he says you know
• 42:04
  toothpaste is peddled with far more sophistication than all the world's life-saving causes
• 42:12
  so why is it that co-gate is better at marketing than save the children or you know any noble
• 42:19
  cause that is trying to end extreme poverty so put all that together and then day one of charity
• 42:25
  water was a party in a nightclub because I just didn't have any better ideas and I didn't even
• 42:29
  realize the redemptive turn back then or just like I think I can get a club donated I know I can
• 42:34
  get open bar donated and I'm an email everyone I know and I'm turning 31 and everybody likes going
• 42:39
  to club promoters birthdays because everybody comes and that night 700 people came and they put
• 42:45
  $20 in this big box that I had put at the front door I said to get in the club you got to give
• 42:50
  a $20 donation and at the end of the night we collected $15,000 we took a hundred percent of it
• 42:57
  to a refugee camp in northern Uganda and we built our very first well and then we sent a team
• 43:04
  and they took pictures and they took video and they took satellite coordinates and then we sent
• 43:10
  the Google Earth satellite images and the photos in the video back to the 700 people who gave
• 43:15
  $20 and we said you came you gave you were generous here's exactly where your money went
• 43:21
  and here are the people you helped now let's keep doing this and we really tried to put those
• 43:29
  principles the 100 percent model proof building a beautiful imaginative brand into the DNA of the
• 43:37
  organization and that one well has now turned into 171,000 and that you have $15,000 has turned
• 43:45
  into a billion dollars now as millions of everyday people around the world encounter the story
• 43:53
  feel like it's not paralyzing and that they can do something they can use their resources
• 43:58
  to impact people's lives in the most tangible way in the most you know a political a religious way
• 44:06
  I mean Republicans and Democrats can actually agree on clean water for humans
• 44:11
  an atheist and a Jew and a Mormon and a Muslim and a Christian can all come together and say
• 44:18
  you know in all of our religions in in our non-religion people need water they need water
• 44:26
  to live a good life and I think you know because of the simplicity of that storytelling of that
• 44:33
  in arguable common good we have been able to build a very very big tent of consensus of millions
• 44:40
  of people around the world I've got kids out there that'll do six dollar and fourteen cent lemonade
• 44:45
  stands and send in their change and we've had families commit $50 million to help a million
• 44:52
  people get clean water so all across the spectrum and at the end of the day you know it's it's water
• 45:02
  it's water for people one of the things that I love about your story is you didn't come
• 45:08
  from nonprofit and you didn't say that this is the way that we have to do things I think that's
• 45:14
  probably that's probably what made you so unique and set you set you apart but all I mean almost
• 45:19
  all entrepreneurs you know see some sort of problem or some sort of gap and say I think I can
• 45:24
  help solve that problem ours just happened to be in the giving space and wanting to reach out to
• 45:30
  people you know in a way that 70% that doesn't trust charities or the 42% they're missing out I
• 45:38
  mean people are missing out by not engaging with great causes by you know you you you're missing
• 45:44
  out by not living vicariously through your money as it goes out and and impacts human lives
• 45:53
  so we wanted to just build a vehicle where people could experience the joy of giving Simon Sinek
• 46:02
  has been a long time friend of mine in the orgs and you know he said once in an elevator is like
• 46:07
  the more people give the more they give you know it's almost like you want to get people addicted to
• 46:13
  generosity I was addicted to selfishness you know I was hit the more I get the more I want to get
• 46:21
  and that just led to a really dark place when you look at what you've done right with charity water
• 46:28
  what do you think I mean there's a lot of components in the how you've built this into a very
• 46:32
  successful organization but compare what you've done outside of the 100% and compare what you've
• 46:39
  done with the brand with the the people you engage with the way that you market compare that to
• 46:44
  traditional nonprofit and if I think of nonprofit even growing up those images of children with
• 46:53
  like flies around them or whatnot seem to be the go-to marketing strategy for a nonprofit but
• 46:59
  now if I'm thinking about I don't remember the last time I don't remember the last time I've
• 47:04
  seen an advertisement or a commercial or marketing efforts on behalf of a nonprofit it seems like
• 47:10
  all the nonprofit marketing efforts are like fancy dinners or lunches or charity balls or galas
• 47:17
  but it still hasn't like I would say I'm not I'm not somebody who I'm not somebody who doesn't trust
• 47:27
  all nonprofits but I also believe that some nonprofits have big corporate issues and red tape and
• 47:34
  don't allocate proceeds properly I've always I've always felt that to a degree but it's not because
• 47:39
  it's not because they're a nonprofit it's because I feel like they're not attracting the talent
• 47:44
  to build it into an organization that is operationally efficient and it's not an organization that
• 47:50
  if I was an investor I'd want to put money into because I feel like it's just this bloated
• 47:54
  grotesque thing that that doesn't seem to want to modernize so what have you done outside of the
• 48:00
  100% donation which is that's incredible what else have you done that is from like a transparency
• 48:06
  or marketing standpoint that that more nonprofit should look to the charity water as a role model for
• 48:12
  yeah I want to be a little careful here our 100% model was right for us I'm actually not a believer
• 48:18
  in tiny overheads you know that there's a a guy out there called Dan Palata who's given a very famous
• 48:25
  TED talk about yeah I think it's called the way we see charities dead wrong it's it's worth
• 48:31
  checking out for sure you you actually can have and you alluded to this a little bit in the question
• 48:36
  but you can have a nonprofit that hires such they have no money to pay their staff they hire
• 48:42
  really poor people they might look efficient and then all their programs suck so if they're spending
• 48:47
  five cents on the dollar you know on their team and 95 cents on the programs because the team is
• 48:54
  so anemically funded or just poor you know they are really wasting the 95 cents so I'm actually
• 49:00
  not a huge I don't I don't think people need to adopt the 100% model it was right for us
• 49:08
  you know 17 years ago or 18 years ago it continues to be right for us what I do think charities
• 49:14
  need to do is be more transparent and I think people just want to know where their money's going
• 49:20
  I mean this sounds so simple but it's really hard to know where your money is going when you give
• 49:27
  to so many nonprofits and you know if I told listeners right now the biggest needed charity water
• 49:35
  was an Epson copy machine for some reason and we needed a $650 copy machine and ours broke
• 49:42
  and somehow we're gonna use those copies to help save like people would give $650 they would
• 49:47
  meet a need you would know where your money's going okay I'm going to buy a copy machine that
• 49:52
  somehow is going to move the mission forward our unique double bank account model because I have
• 50:00
  to fund all of the overhead and the staff salaries separately has has helped us because I went to
• 50:07
  entrepreneurs and business leaders for that money and I said to them look you know an organization
• 50:14
  is only as good as the world class talent it's able to recruit and then retain we need to pay
• 50:21
  people well we're gonna need great benefits I want to be able to compete with you know Google I
• 50:26
  can't compete with Google on comp but I want to get a little closer than the average nonprofit
• 50:33
  and and then the brand as well you know and the purpose I've ever done pink gave a famous
• 50:40
  talk many years ago about drive and he said you know everybody wants three things they want
• 50:45
  autonomy they want mastery and they want purpose so as we think of you know building the organization
• 50:52
  we've tried to build a world class effective transparent organization innovation I know everybody
• 50:59
  talks about innovation but you know I could probably you know talk for 30 minutes about things we
• 51:06
  have tried to do that that other people have said are really innovative and some of that is
• 51:11
  just associating outside the nonprofit norms well giving example we made the first virtual reality
• 51:19
  film in our space and that was inspired by me going to some demo of Marriott and Marriott put on
• 51:26
  a headset on my face and this is eight years ago or so and they took me to a penthouse in Dubai
• 51:31
  and I'm like well wait a minute if Marriott can put me high up in this sky and Dubai I can take
• 51:40
  you to Ethiopia to the drilling of a well and you know we very quickly kind of associated got
• 51:46
  a GoPro's donated built a VR rig sent on a team to Ethiopia made this beautiful eight minute film
• 51:54
  where a 13 year old girl named Salam gets clean water for the first time in her life and people
• 51:59
  would put on the headset and you see the disgusting water she's drinking and then you watch these
• 52:04
  drilling rigs come in and you watch these locals jump out and start putting pipes into the ground and
• 52:10
  you see clean water shooting out in the ground in the middle of a village and people are dancing
• 52:14
  and you know clapping and her father picks her up and he's spinning her around and tears are
• 52:19
  streaming and then on the last day kind of eight minutes in you see her drink clean water for the
• 52:24
  first time in her life and because we were so early in that space you know we showed that film
• 52:32
  to tens of thousands of people and it was the first experience they ever even had in VR
• 52:38
  it wasn't a gaming experience it wasn't a Marriott experience it was a charity water experience
• 52:43
  now I remember one guy I had given $40,000 and he walked into my office and I was just thanking him
• 52:50
  for helping four communities get clean water and on his way out I said oh we just made this VR film
• 52:55
  just checking out real quick you know it's eight minutes long and he sits down and I put the headset
• 53:00
  on him and eight minutes later he's got tears streaming down his face and he pulls out his checkbook
• 53:05
  and he says I haven't done enough and he writes a $400,000 check on this spot for 40 more
• 53:12
  communities to get clean water so you know time over time time after time we have stories where we
• 53:19
  will see something out there outside the nonprofit world and say how could we use that technology
• 53:26
  for good whether that's you know sensor technology you know we've been working on
• 53:33
  creating smart wells that are connected to the cloud that basically self-report how much
• 53:38
  clean water is flowing so that when they break a mechanic can be dispatched to keep clean water
• 53:44
  well that was inspired by Nest I saw a donor change the temperature of their vacation home
• 53:50
  from a smartphone I remember just thinking this is early internet of things you know 10 years ago
• 53:55
  well if you can have a smart house why can't you have a smart well or smart water pump
• 54:01
  and you know that led us on many years of R&D and so I think you know innovation and maybe
• 54:07
  association how can we do things better how can we do things more efficiently in the work you
• 54:15
  know we now have 7,000 locals indirectly employed by charity water across 21 countries in 59
• 54:22
  partner organizations that we bombarded and vetted and audit we're always looking for efficiency
• 54:28
  in the way that we actually deliver clean water through 10 technologies in many different solutions
• 54:33
  many different environments and they were always looking for ways to innovate in the storytelling
• 54:38
  how do I get a list of who you know woke up today who's never thought about water yeah we have a
• 54:43
  fun idea we're playing with right now called count your taps which we might turn into a campaign
• 54:48
  guy that works for me was an Africa came back lives in a very modest three bedroom home 1200
• 54:53
  square feet and after he came back he counted the taps in his three bedroom 1200 square foot home
• 55:00
  where clean water comes out and he counted 16 and you know you just a different way of thinking
• 55:06
  about it right you've got your shower your dishwasher your garden hose you've got the washing machine
• 55:13
  every bathroom is a sink is it you know the toilet the shower the bathtub you're right you've got
• 55:20
  forward every bathroom you know so I don't know that we will turn that into a campaign but we're
• 55:25
  always just trying to uh creative wheat we've done water walks in time square we'll build a giant
• 55:31
  fashion catwalk and we'll get sponsors who are willing to pay a little bit of money if someone
• 55:37
  is willing to pick up 40 or 80 pounds of dirty water and just experience that walk for a moment
• 55:44
  you know to walk in someone else's shoes just for a moment so that's kind of taking the
• 55:48
  fashion catwalk idea recreating it but saying that what if you were one of the women who had to walk
• 55:54
  in Malawi or in Bangladesh or in Cambodia and what if that walk was seven hours a day and we'll
• 56:01
  give somebody a little card that's a great um you just walked one four thousand eight hundred and
• 56:06
  twenty one you know that's I don't know how to say that fraction but you know you get you want one
• 56:12
  one for four thousand of the journey that so many women and girls are making every single day
• 56:18
  would you help would you help to reduce the walk um and a campaign like that we will actually
• 56:24
  quantify hours saved through dollar donations I feel like a lot of the the ways to really make
• 56:30
  this real is just through like pattern disruption pattern interruption so that people understand
• 56:36
  it's it's not a it's not an over there problem it's when they experience it even a fraction of it
• 56:41
  whether or not it's through VR or or walking a couple steps carrying dirty water and just
• 56:47
  experiencing what that is it it really makes it real and I think that's probably the most powerful
• 56:53
  marketing that you can ever have I'm about we just shot up PSA public service announcement over
• 56:59
  the weekend and I'm very excited about this one I'm going to see the first cut in a couple hours
• 57:05
  and uh basically it's a diver it's an Olympic diver on a platform the high dive and it's early
• 57:12
  morning and she's getting ready to uh to make her dive and you know she walks out there kind of
• 57:18
  adjusts her uh bathing suit straps and begins this beautiful dive uh and then the camera pans and
• 57:26
  you realize that there's no water in the pool and right before she breaks her neck we cut and we
• 57:31
  say water changes everything 4,000 kids die every day of bad water you know will you help
• 57:37
  so that's kind of you know a different way of maybe I like that you use disrupting right um we
• 57:44
  also shot a really fun commercial with a bunch of kids in a slip and slide in a backyard and the
• 57:47
  slip and slide had no water and the kids just go tumbling and saying alch and uf and you know
• 57:53
  so I think we we shot an ad uh that just had tomato sauce over pasta you know brittle pasta you
• 58:00
  know how would your pasta taste without water how would your cool aid taste if it was just
• 58:04
  powder in a cup um what would it be like if you were brushing your teeth without water what if you
• 58:08
  were an artist and you had an easel and you had water colors but no water to mix your paint with
• 58:14
  so a lot of this is just exercises and creativity to find that way to bring people into this
• 58:20
  very human issue affecting 10% of the planet and then saying you're in the 90% would you
• 58:26
  consider helping would you consider joining us on this noble mission to make sure every human
• 58:30
  has clean water to drink now this this journey it's it's not just been all up into the right you've
• 58:36
  had difficulties too I mean at one point you almost went bankrupt um talk me through because
• 58:42
  again when you innovate you're going to have to solve things that people have never solved before or
• 58:46
  this particular business model is not the way it's always been done which ended up working but
• 58:51
  I'm going to be tons of growing pains in the process so talk me through some of the some of the
• 58:56
  difficulties the hurdles the the shit hitting the fan moments you had to go through when you're
• 59:00
  building a charity water I mean I think the biggest one is uh one of the early ones was uh grinding
• 59:06
  to a halt because we couldn't raise the overhead money as fast as we were raising the water money
• 59:12
  you know it turned out the 100% model is very compelling if I give a donor two choices
• 59:17
  hey do you want a 100% of your money to go straight to the field and build a water project that
• 59:22
  you can see getting a satellite image in photos of or would you like to pay for a staff salary
• 59:27
  in accounting right I mean you know where we know where the money was headed so it it took a lot
• 59:33
  of really creative storytelling to and and finding the right people the builders the entrepreneurs
• 59:40
  the business leaders who saw the value in you know John's job in accounting and and how important
• 59:47
  that would be to the to building a world-class organization that would eventually impact you know
• 59:53
  hundreds of millions of lives on the planet so yeah we we almost went bankrupt and you know we
• 59:58
  almost ran out of cash and uh there's a story in in the book where you know that I wrote about
• 1:00:04
  where this this stranger walks in at that existential moment of insolvency and write some million
• 1:00:13
  dollar check and says I love your idea you just need more time and gave us more rope more runway
• 1:00:19
  and we're able to steward that extra year of opx capital and actually build out what's now a program
• 1:00:26
  where 130 and growing families and entrepreneurs pay all the overheads so the millions of people
• 1:00:31
  can give it a pure way and we call that program the well and it's multi-year and multi-tier and
• 1:00:37
  it's international and we do events and we treat them like shareholders or LPs so it's it's become
• 1:00:42
  sophisticated but it almost didn't work um you know we we built a really cool platform that allowed
• 1:00:50
  people to donate their birthdays to charity water and we wound up raising over a hundred million
• 1:00:55
  dollars as people effectively crowdfunded for us and then we realized nobody would do it again
• 1:01:02
  so it was all kind of a one-time donation business that we built and people would only do one
• 1:01:07
  birthday they'd have a great experience but they'd never come back and you know we wound up having
• 1:01:12
  a down year and uh kind of having to to kill the engine the drove growth for the first eight years
• 1:01:20
  and completely reinvent a new engine which was a subscription engine um you know much more of the
• 1:01:26
  Spotify or Netflix or you know Disney Plus model that's the spring that's called the spring
• 1:01:31
  and we had a couple years of kind of down years while we were building that that then wound up
• 1:01:37
  tripling the size of the organization um but it it felt bad for a couple years when you're
• 1:01:42
  killing the thing that got you there you got to completely reinvent and reimagine something new
• 1:01:47
  you're not sure it's gonna work um in our case it it didn't we were fortunate but oh my gosh
• 1:01:53
  challenges i mean i hired a president six months ago and you know she basically said your CRM's
• 1:02:00
  a mess i said well yeah we never really have the time to invest million the dollars in you know
• 1:02:06
  great data management and great CRM you know we were always putting that money in the field or
• 1:02:10
  hiring the next you know marketing person so you know there's there are myriad challenges that come
• 1:02:15
  with um you know it's you're always fighting for resources and it's really hard i mean you're
• 1:02:26
  you know my my wife you know kind of knows i joke that there's not a day in my life in the last
• 1:02:31
  18 years where i'm not asking someone for money and some ways you're not in control of your own
• 1:02:36
  destiny you know we are we are the guide in the heroes journey you're the hero right you're the
• 1:02:42
  hero we're just the guide saying you want to be generous you want to make your money uh work in the
• 1:02:47
  world um we have this vehicle that we've created that can help you do that but if there's no heroes
• 1:02:55
  there's there's no money you know we're just sitting on our hands you know waiting for somebody
• 1:02:59
  who wants to to take that step um and and i think you know sometimes i'm jealous of my friends who
• 1:03:06
  feel a little more like masters of their own destiny because they're selling a physical product
• 1:03:11
  or they're selling software they're building something that people are buying and they need to
• 1:03:15
  sell more widgets where they need to sell more software you know i'm selling an idea of generosity
• 1:03:24
  i'm selling an idea of clean water and you know it's you hear no a lot it sucks it sucks to hear no
• 1:03:34
  but i mean you still i you you're selling an idea but i think that a lot of people listen at the end
• 1:03:40
  of the day everyone's selling an idea but the way that you've built a process that accomplishes
• 1:03:45
  an objective yes you're selling an idea but i do believe that people are inherently altruistic and
• 1:03:50
  they really do want to give back i think what you've done very very well is you just bridge that
• 1:03:55
  trust gap that i i know you hear no a lot but i think that bridging that trust gap is probably the
• 1:04:00
  most useful lesson that somebody can take away who's trying to build a nonprofit or even just build
• 1:04:06
  a company i think that if you applied the framework and the trust gap that you that you've deployed
• 1:04:11
  in charity water i think that would help most companies yeah i think that's that's true trust is
• 1:04:16
  a really big and and you know you you get opportunities all the time to compromise and to
• 1:04:25
  compromise your integrity or or play in the gray and you know that that has been i think one of
• 1:04:32
  the things i'm most proud of is just i see the world in so black and white and maybe you know
• 1:04:38
  maybe not as a surprise with the extreme changes in my life but you know at that moment of
• 1:04:43
  insolvency it was interesting um we had eight hundred eighty thousand dollars in the water bank
• 1:04:47
  account it was more than eight months of operating capital we could have borrowed from that we could have
• 1:04:52
  written in i.o. you we could have said our money's fungible i was going to shut down the organization
• 1:04:58
  rather than borrow one penny of the public's money because we'd promised that all of it would go
• 1:05:04
  straight to project so i was calling lawyers at that moment is the second year of charity water
• 1:05:09
  say how do you unwind a 501 c3 because i don't i don't have enough money to run the overhead side
• 1:05:14
  but i i intuitively knew that if we borrowed if we dipped even one penny into that public bank account
• 1:05:22
  they would be a crack at the core of the foundation yeah there would be a crack in our integrity
• 1:05:28
  and i didn't want to work at a place like that i would rather you know shut the organization down
• 1:05:32
  and try again or try with the the traditional business model and you know we were very fortunate
• 1:05:38
  at that moment to to have somebody walk it and kind of save the day for us
• 1:05:44
  but i i i would have been willing to you know take take i guess the high high ground make good on our
• 1:05:52
  promise and walk away with integrity intact and maybe no organization you know you keep you keep
• 1:05:58
  mentioning that resources are constrained and win it in the charity or nonprofit and you're
• 1:06:05
  always thinking about how do i get how do i get the most out of the the operational expense
• 1:06:10
  and the the most out of the money that i do have you've built a massive brand over a billion dollars
• 1:06:16
  raised there has to be a lesson in there for the people that you attract into the organization
• 1:06:22
  because i think that companies with budgets two x and three x what you have have a tough time
• 1:06:28
  attracting people that are sort of on for the ride and on for the mission so when you look at the
• 1:06:32
  president you hire all the way down to you know Joe and accounting or the the latest marketer you
• 1:06:38
  just brought on what's the secret to getting people that are really willing to go above and beyond
• 1:06:44
  for the company and the mission brand is really important uh and ambition i think he's really
• 1:06:50
  important you know we hired 36 people last year we had 16,500 full applicants for those 36 jobs
• 1:06:58
  and it's 10 times harder to get into charity water than you know Stanford or MIT or or Harvard
• 1:07:04
  and and that i think is because uh people also want to work with purpose so i think we're also just
• 1:07:11
  tapping into a little bit of a zeitgeist where people say i want my work to matter you know um
• 1:07:19
  maybe more people are realizing what i i came to realize without the 10 years going down that path
• 1:07:26
  i mean we have people applying to charity water as their very first job
• 1:07:30
  exiting college exiting you know a master's program and saying i want to dedicate my life
• 1:07:36
  and great if i can make an income that helps me to support my family um i'm happy to do it over here
• 1:07:42
  and make and and trade that financial success and trade you know the the vacation house or the
• 1:07:48
  you know the boat to the plains or those aspirations for work that matters for work that that
• 1:07:54
  benefits other humans as you scale i mean again over a billion billion dollars raised
• 1:08:01
  obviously your impact is huge now what are some of like the biggest
• 1:08:06
  biggest hurdles that you find yourself encountering now that you're still struggling with maybe
• 1:08:11
  you don't have an answer for in terms of global access to clean water global access to resources
• 1:08:17
  that you're trying to figure out that you just wish more people would be aware of
• 1:08:22
  you know it's interesting ability is is a fraction of what i thought we would have raised by now
• 1:08:26
  that is interesting when we hit that mark it was it's funny i called my wife was with me that day
• 1:08:32
  was actually our 15th anniversary and i called one of my business coaches i felt nothing i
• 1:08:37
  felt no sense of satisfaction really i can't believe it took 18 years i mean it's water
• 1:08:45
  it's water for humans there are resources out there you know uh a hundred million people give
• 1:08:51
  a dollar you know it's a hundred million all right there's when you really think about it
• 1:08:56
  um we we have not cracked the code at all so this is a fraction of what i'd imagined i can't
• 1:09:05
  believe it took us so long to reach this milestone so for us the billion correlates roughly with
• 1:09:10
  20 million people who now have clean water because of charity water you put 20 million into 700
• 1:09:16
  million people it's like 136th i didn't set out to solve 136th of the current global problem
• 1:09:24
  two and a half percent so you know to me it really feels like we better be in the second inning
• 1:09:30
  of the game i mean this better be the top of the second where you know we scored a run
• 1:09:36
  and and it's it's one nothing and i'm hoping we have a 10 run game you know a 50 run game
• 1:09:42
  you know at the end because we're really batting for for 700 million people out there to to get
• 1:09:50
  access to clean water so it's really a resource so the issues are not even in the in the countries
• 1:09:55
  the issues are at home i could i could do you know an order of magnitude more work and deliver more
• 1:10:01
  clean water to people than we have the money for the infrastructure has been built out ahead of
• 1:10:06
  you know any current levels of funding so yeah that's why i'm out there you know
• 1:10:11
  90 flights a year i'm talking to students i'm talking to corporations i'm talking to billionaires
• 1:10:16
  i'm talking to you know first graders and handing out lemonade kits and piggy banks right
• 1:10:22
  it's really trying to build a movement of people to engage with this issue educate them on the issue
• 1:10:29
  and then have them raise their hand and say not on my watch like not on my i don't want to live in a
• 1:10:34
  world where we might actually find water on mars 142 million miles away before we find water
• 1:10:43
  for humans on earth and and before we have the human will to to get that done uh and
• 1:10:51
  you know we hear in america we printed a trillion dollars a couple times you know you can give
• 1:10:57
  everybody clean water for about 15 cents of the dollar of one of those stimulus bills
• 1:11:03
  so it's it's it's really about moving and unlocking the resources you know it is
• 1:11:10
  the last thing i would say about it we know definitively how to bring every human being on earth
• 1:11:16
  clean water we have the cure we don't need to do research in a lab we're not trying to find the cure
• 1:11:22
  for ALS or Parkinson's or late-stage pancreatic we have the cure for water but we have not implemented
• 1:11:28
  it we haven't built the global will we haven't built the movement so i can't tell you how frustrating
• 1:11:34
  that is sometimes to know that there are people that that i i visit with communities i visit
• 1:11:44
  they don't need to be drinking dirty water no one needs to drink dirty water and yet i haven't
• 1:11:51
  convinced enough people yet to share their resources to to engage in this so i'm i'm very i think
• 1:11:58
  i'm driven by that idea of you know we have done a fraction of what's needed and a fraction of what
• 1:12:06
  i'd imagined our impact would be so a billion might sound like a lot to a small nonprofit
• 1:12:12
  it it's so much less than i imagined 20 million people with water yeah great it fills up
• 1:12:19
  medicine square garden like 1300 times great we've sold out the garden there that's so much less
• 1:12:24
  than i thought we would have accomplished in almost two decades i would ask why you think that is
• 1:12:29
  but i think it's it's probably just a little bit of selfishness and and lack of awareness i mean
• 1:12:36
  i can't think i'd get people to care about an issue that doesn't affect them so it's it's really
• 1:12:40
  hard to get people to care about an issue that they've never experienced and that's why the
• 1:12:44
  storytelling and the immersive storytelling and the creativity is so important if you
• 1:12:49
  gave everyone on earth access to clean drinking water just to paint a picture of people that are
• 1:12:55
  listening what would the downline effects of that be oh my gosh education improves you know so many
• 1:13:03
  girls drop out of school because the school has no water and they've got to go walk so you're
• 1:13:07
  educating generations of young girls women would get remember when i started the stat was 40 billion
• 1:13:16
  hours back just in africa you just take one continent and this is a problem in african indian
• 1:13:21
  southeastern central south america but women get you know imagine being a woman who's walking seven
• 1:13:28
  hours a day for dirty water seven days a week and then one day you walk zero you walk out your
• 1:13:36
  front door and you walk a minute imagine what you would do with 49 reclaimed hours in an instant
• 1:13:46
  and we know what women do they start small businesses they sell things at the market they
• 1:13:53
  start bakery businesses they earn income they use that money to pay for school fees
• 1:13:57
  into buy school uniforms for their kids they improve their houses they put roofs on their houses
• 1:14:03
  they they they build their families so water impacts health you know in some of these countries
• 1:14:09
  50 percent of the disease starts with water 50 percent of this you can walk into a country and
• 1:14:15
  provide everybody with clean water and cut the hospital in half just empty half of the hospital
• 1:14:23
  beds and say go you're here because you drank dirty water so there's health education time
• 1:14:29
  back dignity for women and girls local economy there's a 90 page paper that came out of the
• 1:14:33
  u.m. the track the economic benefit of water every dollar invested makes these communities
• 1:14:39
  four to eight times richer so all of the i love downline yes all of these downline
• 1:14:46
  benefits and you know to to somebody listening just just contemplate for a second like how
• 1:14:51
  radically different your life would be without clean water it would be unrecognizable from the life
• 1:14:58
  you have today i don't think many people could handle walking seven hours a day for clean water
• 1:15:03
  it's it's a necessity to figure it out but how radically altered their life would be
• 1:15:09
  i just don't even think they can compute it doesn't it's almost so it's so different from what
• 1:15:14
  everybody experiences right now it's hard to really understand what that life is like
• 1:15:20
  and that's our job that's that's the job of charity waters to is to try to bring that to life
• 1:15:26
  and create compassion and empathy and then get people to open up their hearts what can people do
• 1:15:34
  what can like i mean you you've built this incredible organization people want to get involved
• 1:15:40
  how can they help how can they support yeah i mentioned the spring earlier that's that's
• 1:15:44
  one really easy way so they could go to the spring.com there's also a video there that's
• 1:15:50
  gotten over a hundred million views cross-platforms it's a great way to share our story with some of
• 1:15:55
  the visuals you know it talks about the hundred percent model and and what water means for these
• 1:16:01
  communities and that's kind of you know most people have i think the average american has 12
• 1:16:06
  subscriptions these days so you know we're saying this is a subscription where we give you no music
• 1:16:11
  we give you no movies no tv no magazine articles to read but a hundred percent of whatever you can
• 1:16:18
  give every month goes directly to help people get water so the the spring i really think is the
• 1:16:24
  future i mean imagine if we had a million people giving forty dollars every single month that's
• 1:16:32
  a million people that would get clean water every single month so i'm really you know i love that
• 1:16:37
  there there might be some people listening that say i've had a good year i could give ten grand
• 1:16:41
  and knock out an entire community charity water is an awesome process for that you could pick the
• 1:16:46
  country you can sponsor that project we report back to you on the progress and construction and show
• 1:16:52
  you when it's built so you know maybe people listening could could do that and maybe somebody
• 1:16:57
  rang the bell and wants to help us with the overhead so yeah i'm easy i'm easy to find in that case
• 1:17:02
  that's that's kind of the you know the biggest challenge but really the a necessary one to
• 1:17:08
  continue to find people who believe in really kind of the the most sacrificial way of giving
• 1:17:14
  you know you don't get your name on a well but you do get to build an organization in the impact so
• 1:17:20
  you know charity water dot org a lot of stuff is on our website but you know of course if anybody
• 1:17:26
  is compelled to learn more about this issue or to get involved or you know he we started something
• 1:17:32
  called the tributary a couple years ago where people started including us in their wills
• 1:17:37
  and you know have seen some estate gifts now come in that have really transformed
• 1:17:43
  people's lives so so you know there's there's all these different ways to help it's really just
• 1:17:48
  getting people to say man i think i could stand for clean water it shouldn't be hard to get people
• 1:17:53
  to say that we'll put all we'll put all these they'll put all these links in the show notes before
• 1:17:59
  you before we wrap up is there something that i should have asked you some lesson or some
• 1:18:05
  piece of wisdom that we didn't go into that you'd like to leave the audience with it sometimes i
• 1:18:11
  like a lesson you tell your younger self after going through all these seasons but it doesn't
• 1:18:14
  have to i wouldn't have listened i might have my doubt yourself anything i wouldn't i wouldn't
• 1:18:18
  listen you know look i think what i've found is you know through service there is a real freedom
• 1:18:25
  you know if you wake up and you ask yourself how can i how can i help how can i use what i've
• 1:18:30
  been blessed with to to bless others to improve the lives of others here in my local community
• 1:18:36
  in the global community it's really worth doing i remember coming across a saying once it said
• 1:18:44
  you do not be afraid of work that has no end and it's kind of idea of endless twil and i really
• 1:18:52
  think about that you know if if you're positioning your life towards service and generosity
• 1:18:58
  you've never done enough there's no drop the mic moment but the more you do the more you do
• 1:19:05
  and then one day you get to look back and say well i've actually made an extraordinary impact
• 1:19:09
  you know it's funny i get to show donors off in their reports like five years in in charity water
• 1:19:14
  and almost everyone looks at the report and said i gave that much
• 1:19:19
  right because it and it feels good like i was that generous because they just got in the act of
• 1:19:25
  doing it you know again somebody signs up for forty dollars a month and eight years later you
• 1:19:30
  like here's how much you've given i gave that much i didn't even notice that forty dollars coming
• 1:19:35
  out of my bank account next to HBO max or you know so i think that's you know i love that idea
• 1:19:40
  of kind of endless work in the pursuit of others