charity: water
An Interview with Scott Harrison
Some people have had enough. Enough self-aggrandizement, enough waste. Instead of defining their lives by how much cash they can blow in a weekend living large, people are beginning to find that true self worth comes from giving ... not taking. Scott Harrison is one of those people. His picture perfect New York life left him wanting, yearning for something more. Scott found that "something" in water. One billion people on the planet don’t have access to clean drinking water. That’s one in six of us. So Scott decided to do something about it: charity: water.
Like all good Trap Door Sun interviews Scott's requires something from you. Get involved. Go to their site and find out how you can join Scott's team in bring clean drinking water to the world.
www.charitywater.org/
TDS:Tell us a little bit about the inception of charity: water.
HARRISON: charity: water started in a Soho apartment as a crazy dream. I’d written words about poverty all over the walls. I was 30 years old, and was on a journey back to faith embracing a new love for the poor after 10 years of decadent living in New York City nightlife. Two years earlier, I had ditched my New York life of $16 cocktails and $350 bottles of Grey Goose for the shores of Liberia West Africa. My life transformed while serving surgeons on this amazing hospital ship, the Mercy Ship Anastasis, and upon arrival back in New York, wanted to throw the rest of my life in the lap of God and the poor.
Most of my friends were disenchanted with charity and giving, and cited bloated organizations with a complete lack of transparency. In short, they didn’t know how much of their money went to help the poor, and what impact it actually had. So I wanted the charity I started to bring people back to the table. In faith, we stepped out with a new 100% model (We have separate donors funding operations and staff) and a promise to prove the work we did.
Then I needed an issue to launch, and water just screamed at me. There are a billion people without it on the planet. Eighty percent of all disease is related to the lack of it and basic sanitation. Water touches everything, changes everything. I put them together and got charity: water, and started running.
TDS: How has your experience as an event planner helped in this endeavor?
HARRISON: When I headed out to Africa after 10 years of selfish living,I had collected about 15,000 email addresses over the years. It was an audience of people who could make things happen. When I came back and started charity: water people used to laugh at me because I brought my laptop everywhere. I’d accost some of our former doormen at the doors of their clubs, and DJs in their booths at 2 a.m. Everyone had to look at the pictures, and I wanted them to promise to help me do something about it. Most did.
TDS: Why water?
HARRISON: I immediately hear the chanting of my friends in Ethiopia. “Without water, there is no life. Without water, there is no life.” It’s true. You can survive ages without food, but not long without water. And it’s just shocking that in the twenty-first century, there are a billion people without it on the planet. One in six. And it kills. Kids die of diarrhea and other waterborne diseases. People go blind with trachoma and right now, worms are crawling through the bodies of 200 million people. Water starts things. It changes everything.
TDS: What have you been able to accomplish, with regard to clean water, since starting charity: water?
HARRISON: charity: water has been blessed. Wildly blessed. We’ve been on the receiving end of more favor and generosity than I’ve ever thought possible. We’ve raised more than $10 million in under 3 years from the gifts of 60,000 people around the world. And by October, we will have been able to help our first million people get access to clean water. Stadiums full of people, a big impact for sure.
Now, take a deep breath. We’ve just solved one tenth of a percent of the problem. That’s actually so discouraging it’s been encouraging to our team because we believe epic scale is needed. We’re now focused on serving 10 million people in the next 5 years and need about $200 million to do it. And then we’ll set our sights on serving 100 million, and so on.
TDS: How does American excess compare to the areas you visit? How can we better steward our excess?
HARRISON: Because of my past, I’ve had a unique opportunity to walk between these two crazy worlds. I’ll be at dinners with donors and friends who have no problem spending $500 on a bottle of wine, or $5,000 on a hand of blackjack. But my approach hasn’t been to make them feel guilty. I look at all this excess as opportunity.
You see, the money is there for the taking. It’s our job to inspire people with vision. I mean what if you didn’t play that hand, and a village in Tanzania with 250 people was able to get clean water? What if that $500 could help 25 people in India stay healthy and be able to wash more than twice a month? I heard recently that $450 billion was spent on activities surrounding Christmas last year. More than double than the highest number I’ve heard to solve the entire water problem.
On the other end of that spectrum, Shane Claiborne recently said that generosity is not measured by how much you give, but how much you have left. A powerful concept that really resonates with me, but so many people aren’t even giving. We want to infect them with the joy that it brings – it makes "the taking" pale in comparison.
TDS: How has starting charity: water changed you as a person?
HARRISON: My faith has definitely gotten bigger. I believe I serve a big God who has all the money in the world. Compared to Him, I’m often ashamed of my small-mindedness and practical lack of vision. God doesn’t want anybody to be thirsty. I believe He’s looking for people to partner with him in redeeming this broken world. It’s the most incredible work to be a part of. The most incredible thing to do each day. And as the organization explodes, it’s incredibly tiring and stressful at the same time.
TDS: What has surprised you the most since you started charity: water?
HARRISON: That such a small team of people without extensive experience in International Development, Charitable Fundraising, Design and Branding etc. was able to do so much in such a short time. And I think perhaps that’s the point. We used our inexperience to attack some traditional problems with a non-traditional approach. And we’ve become really good at both what we do in the field and what we do here to raise awareness and money. I can’t tell you how many larger and more established organizations have come to us for advice with regards to both. That still surprises me.
TDS: How has social networking, the media, and celebrity helped your cause?
HARRISON: Facebook, Causes, SocialVibe, Myspace, YouTube and Twitter among others have all been used to raise about $500,000 for the cause. A good example of that is the Twestival, where 202 cities came together in February to host a one-night fundraising event for charity: water. We then flew to Africa and broadcast the drilling of the first well so the 10,000+ supporters could see what their money was doing.
The media at large has been extremely generous to the issue and us. We’ve had more than 400+ items including pieces on CNN, ABC, Good Morning America Now, FOX News etc. We’ve got a great pro-bono team helping us with this, but believe that if you do good work and are passionate about it, people will help you tell your story.
We’ve never looked for a celebrity “spokesperson” but also haven’t been afraid to engage celebrities in our mission. We’ve had amazing performers like Chaka Khan and Cat Power give of their time, talent, and money. Adrian Grenier from Entourage has now hosted all 3 gala events and has personally funded several wells around the world. Terry George who directed Hotel Rwanda has helped us out and become a friend. But the issue is really the star. The people giving of themselves to solve the problem are the stars. We want to keep it that way.
TDS: You've gotten a lot of celebrities involved in charity: water exhibits—how? And is that Jennifer Connelly in the PSA on your website?
HARRISON: With the exception of hosts for events, we’ve just simply invited interested celebrities to learn more about the cause and engage. For some, that meant giving up their birthdays as part of the borninseptember.org campaign and asking for their age in dollars. For others like Jennifer Connelly, it meant giving up an entire day to make a PSA we think came out great.
TDS: Do you see a day when the whole world has access to clean drinking water? When?
HARRISON: Gosh, I hope so. I think you have to think that big, you have to believe that big. If God continues to give me health and strength, I’ve got a good 45 years left in me to fight, and I’m the second oldest on our team. They’ll outlast and outrun me, I think. We have the resources and money to fight the problem, but there are still many missing pieces. The "when" part of the question is harder.
TDS: You have stated before that you were a selfish person before starting charity: water. You now ask people to forfeit birthday, wedding, engagement, and baby presents in exchange for donations to charity: water. How have you seen people get over this hurdle of conventional gift giving? How is charity: water causing people to examine their own selfishness, as well as the pride that comes with giving an expensive traditional gift?
HARRISON: I’m most excited about the birthday campaigns we’ve run. Their success moved us to build a new website (mycharitywater) that will launch this September. Like many things, we sort of walked into something that just worked. We launched charity: water in a nightclub on my 31st birthday in September 2006. 700 people came, gave $20 or more at the door for a little over $15k and helped us build our first few wells in Uganda.
A year later, we got the idea to “give up” our birthdays, and invite everyone not to attend the birthday/ anniversary party. We found a hospital in Kenya with dirty water coming from its taps, and I asked everyone for $32 donations. We raised $59k, and then asked other people to give up their September birthdays.
The concept had some stickiness to it. You see, we all normally get stuff we don’t want or need for our birthdays. And there are a billion people living without the most basic thing – clean water. So, we gave up our birthdays so that they can have birthdays … 92 people signed up in 2007, and we raised $159,000 – 10 times Day 1 of charity: water.
Then last year, we tried to 10x again by getting more September birthdays with a goal of $1.5 million to serve 75,000+ people in Ethiopia with clean water. We didn’t quite get there, but we did mobilize 750 people, and raise a not too shabby $965,000 through the campaign. The mission statements some of those 750 people wrote really moved us.
I think my favorite was: “This year I’m turning 89. I’d like to make that possible for more people in Africa.”
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