Scott is the founder of charity: water, a non-profit organization bringing clean, safe drinking water to people in developing countries – you may have heard me mention them before, and that’s because I’m deeply passionate about their cause and a huge admirer of what Scott’s done as the founder of the org. In less than a decade, their community has raised over $250 million to fund 22,000+ projects that have brought clean water to more than 7 million people around the world.
I want to highlight not just what charity: water has done, but how they’ve done it – because they’ve brought so much innovation to the space, and I’m hopeful that by unpacking the tactics that Scott used with charity: water, we can give others who are working on their own social entrepreneurship ventures some ideas that will help them make the same kind of impact that charity: water has.
For those who want to support charity: water, you can join The Spring here, or pledge your birthday here.
Today on the podcast,
- Scott has an AMAZING life story, like something out of a movie: he went from being one of NY’s top club promoters to realizing that life was empty and unfulfilling, turning his back on all of it to volunteer for a charity org and ultimately found cw
- He unpacks several of cw’s signature campaigns like their “donate your birthday” initiative and how they tie each one of their projects to GPS data so donors can see exactly where and how their contribution has been used
- Scott talks about the moment he realized that his identity as a human was inexorably tied to the performance of his company. It’s a super common issue for entrepreneurs, and he dealt with it head on – the only way to deal with it.
Enjoy!
Integrity above all else.
FOLLOW SCOTT:
twitter | charity: water
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Some Questions I Ask:
- How did charity: water get started? [2:00]
- Did you feel like after giving up your vices and going to volunteer you went back to a way that you were before or did you turn into someone new? [12:45]
- What was the thought process between your first volunteer experience and deciding that you had to do it on your own? [20:10]
- Can we categorize the charities that existed at the time to contrast against what you were trying to change? [29:40]
- What does charity: water look like now? [37:07]
- Can you talk about the vehicles that you’ve created for donating money? [41:49]
- What about the story of the girl in Seattle? [45:55]
- How can people get involved? [49:00]
- Do you ever talk about The Well? [54:10]
- What were some of your biggest learnings when starting out? [1:00:00]
- Does the world need more charities? [1:05:40]
- Is there anything that you feel like I’m not asking? [1:09:25]
In This Episode, You Will Learn:
- All about Scott’s upbringing, he and his family battling carbon dioxide poisoning, following all the rules until he turned 18 and decided to rebel by “getting paid to drink”. [2:10]
- After ticking all the boxes for the things that Scott wanted, he realized that he had become the worst person he knew. [7:00]
- Scott’s search for religion and transformation to become the opposite person that he had become. [8:30]
- The only volunteer program that would accept Scott with his resume said he’d have to pay $500 and go to Liberia. Sign him up! [10:20]
- How Scott used his 15,000 strong nightclub email list to share the stories of the Liberian people that were being treated by the medical charity he had started as a journalist with. [15:00]
- Harrowing stories of the ailments that Scott documented in Liberia. [17:00]
- The breakthrough Scott had, realizing that he could connect the people from his rebel years to his current mission of doing good. [18:40]
- The outcome from Scott choosing to open a photo exhibition in New York instead of hang out in South Africa while their ship got repaired. [21:30]
- Why Scott’s next journalism project after raising money for Mercy Ships was to follow the money that he had raised. [23:00]
- How Scott discovered the water crisis. [23:45]
- 52% of all disease is caused by bad water and sanitation. [25:21]
- The next question you should ask yourself; what can I do with what I have? [26:44]
- Why Scott targeted the skeptics and cynics in his fundraising efforts. [28:00]
- Rather than looking at other charities for inspiration and guidance, he looked at brands like Nike and Apple to invite people to be part of something amazing. [30:25]
- Scott’s original market research. [30:45]
- Why it’s so important that every penny of donation goes to the cause, and not to pay for overhead, and the tactics used to accomplish this noble feat. [31:15]
- 70% of Americans think that charities waste money. [32:35]
- How charity: water leveraged technology to deliver a great customer experience. [33:30]
- The old way vs the new way of marketing. [35:30]
- Why it was important that charity: water didn’t dig wells themselves. [36:30]
- charity: water is 10 years old, has raised a quarter of a billion dollars, has helped 7 million people get water, have about 80 people working in New York and support around 1500 workers around the world, and have about a million donors. [38:00]
- How Scott turned his birthday into a $59,000 donation day and live streamed the digging of a well to his donors. And then turned birthdays into a movement. [42:00]
- How a 9 year old girl who died in a car crash inspired a 1.3 million dollar donation spree. [46:00]
- Go to charitywater.org/birthdays to donate your birthday. [49:55]
- How Scott took inspiration from subscription services like Netflix and Spotify to create The Spring, a subscription donation service for charity: water. [51:45]
- Scott almost shut down charity: water because they couldn’t make payroll, even though they had over $800k in their water account. And how this experience birthed the idea of The Well, a program where 117 families pay for the overhead for charity: water. [55:00]
- The story of how Matt Hasselbeck showed up at a CreativeLive event where Scott was speaking and nearly got turned away by my wife. [57:40]
- Why you should define your values. [1:03:17]
- “The more you give, the more you give” and why that’s better than getting. [1:04:25]
- “isms”, profanity, and values at charity: water. [1:06:22]
- How Scott burned himself out, tried to quit, and then got so bored that he had to get back to hit the ten year mark. [1:12:38]
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