just another blog pressed for words

Many of you may be familiar with charity:water, the non-profit started by an ambitious entrepreneur, Scott Harrison, who after spending some time in South America and Africa and getting to know intimately some of the issues the poorest among the continents’ residents faced, began to understand that some of the world’s most crucial health emergencies, diseases, and more all stem from one specific source– lack of access to safe, clean drinking water. And unlike most, he set off on a mission to do something about it.

But now that charity:water is a few years in, the story of how and why it started is less important than why it still exists, and what it is contributing in the world. To start off the new year, they just sent out to all of their followers and loyal fans a roundup of what they have achieved in 2009, and it is truly impressive.

What I find most inspiring about charity:water is that its success is almost in full due to the passion of a small group of people who started something that they believed in, and its momentum is carried by the passionate crowds of people they have since inspired. Unlike some other charities and causes, they don’t fall back on old standards of shoving celebrity appeal in our faces to try and illicit reactions, but rather let the idea and the necessity for action speak for itself. Sure, now that the charity has taken off there is a bit more shine and even cameo appearances to it, but it’s almost never the main focus, nor do celebrities stand as the face of the movement (and importantly, they were drawn to it after the fact, not in an effort to launch it).

There are no crying babies with flies in their eyes, but rather images of hope, optimism, and communities getting the hand-up they need for a chance to live long and productive lives. Something that started as an under the radar idea by an ex-club promoter, in just a few years time inspired involvement the likes of which we rarely see- including the first ever twestival, a global gathering in cities around the world of everyday people, taking just a few hours of their time to raise money for a cause they believe in (over $250K was raised by this entirely community organized and planned event).

Given all of the economic turmoil in the developed world over the past 1+ year and the resulting decline in overall charitable giving, it’s truly inspiring to me to see a success story like this. And it’s a great way to showcase what happens when brands (charity or otherwise) allow passionate people to co-create experiences around an idea. Charity:water started getting noticed not because of actors talking about it in fluffy interviews or massive, big-budget TV campaigns, but because of the energized core of people who truly believed they had a chance to do something important in the world, and who willed it into existence.

To me, part of the success of charity:water to is that they quickly and naturally identified who the most active and engaged people were, and let them do much of the work on behalf of the cause. For them, Twitter was an invaluable tool, and as they started getting more and more interest from followers wanting to get involved, they turned the reigns over in large part to self-styled community organizers across the world, who built out their own networks and without whom things like twestival may have never happened.

And I think it also highlights the importance of focus in a fluid and dynamic world, where trying to connect with everything and everyone in the world simply isn’t feasible and in most cases could even be wasteful and counterproductive. Not everyone may believe in what you do or what you stand for, but I think if you can find that vocal and active core, things tend to take on a momentum of their own, and draw in more people than you could ever bring in on your own (as a brand, charity, individual, whatever).

Congrats to Scott Harrison and everyone at charity:water on a job well done. Can’t wait to see where things go, and help out, in 2010.