{"id":4404,"date":"2014-04-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-04-07T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/?p=4404"},"modified":"2024-05-08T17:49:59","modified_gmt":"2024-05-08T17:49:59","slug":"replicate-charitywater-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/blog\/replicate-charitywater-success\/","title":{"rendered":"6 Ways to Replicate Charity: Water’s Success"},"content":{"rendered":"

This past week, I was fortunate enough to hear the founder of Charity: Water<\/a> speak. As expected from a former club promoter, Scott Harrison<\/a>\u2019s life of the party<\/i> personality quickly illuminated the cozy nonprofit incubator, BeeSpace<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After a rollercoaster of emotion shown through Scott\u2019s words and a colorful and concise PowerPoint, I walked away with several hints of advice.<\/p>\n

Here are 6 things that can help your nonprofit replicate Charity: Water\u2019s success!<\/p>\n

\"Charity:<\/h2>\n

1. Know Your Why<\/h2>\n

Optimist and author Simon Sinek<\/a> states that the most important factor in an individual\u2019s success is to \u201cknow their why\u201d or to know the purpose, cause or belief that inspires you to do what you do. This same principle can be applied to nonprofits.<\/p>\n

Harrison\u2019s Charity: Water isn\u2019t a nonprofit based on clean water. The organization\u2019s why<\/i> is to create and run as the world\u2019s most efficient charity using their 100% model. And that\u2019s the foundation that they use to make all their decisions. So know your why<\/a> and your decision-making becomes clearer.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

2. Bold Design Matters<\/h2>\n

When you come across Charity: Water\u2019s website or branding offline, you wouldn\u2019t be far off by assuming it was a top-notch consumer brand. That\u2019s exactly the type of image Scott was trying to project.<\/p>\n

The brand\u2019s bold yet clean design makes it easy to stand out and remain on the minds of anyone who comes across it. \u00a0Building and designing a unique brand identity similar to Fortune 500 companies is no easy task, but it\u2019s essential in gaining supporters and donors<\/a>.<\/p>\n

3. Don\u2019t Be Afraid to Ask Boldly<\/h2>\n

When Charity: Water was running on fumes a year after it\u2019s founding, Scott Harrison boldly sent a cold email to a top executive at a tech firm. This email led to a meeting in which Scott asked for a million dollars.<\/p>\n

Asking for that mammoth amount by showcasing passion towards the cause, this charity in financial troubles was able to receive a check that gave it renewed life for the next year.<\/p>\n

Is this a normal occurrence? Absolutely not, but what this shows is that asking boldly and with passion can sometimes be just enough to get what your nonprofit needs!<\/p>\n

\"Completed_Projects___charity__water\"<\/a><\/h2>\n

4. Showcase Your Efficiency<\/h2>\n

In the perfect world, every nonprofit would be able to donate 100% of their proceeds to their cause, however, reality isn\u2019t so simple. While Charity: Water does work on a 100% model, the real reason behind their success is how they showcase their efficiency.<\/p>\n

By showing it\u2019s supporters where every dollar ends up, Charity: Water is building trust and a tangible connection between its donors and the initiative.<\/p>\n

Taking a similar approach, your nonprofit can also benefit greatly from the added trust and engagement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

5. Learn to Outsource!<\/h2>\n

Trying to make your nonprofit stand out, be effective towards the cause, and build community takes an all-hands-on-deck approach. However, being short-staffed or inexperienced in specific areas can hold you back!<\/p>\n

Scott Harrison was a marketer by nature but not a designer or engineer or clean water expert. He promoted the cause while his staff of in-house but also outsourced specialists took care of everything else.<\/p>\n

Outsourcing is expensive, but find industry-specific colleagues who can do pro bono work or at a discounted rate. People want to help!<\/p>\n

6. Get Good at Speaking<\/h2>\n

Scott\u2019s main role these days would have to be labeled as chief promotion officer (CPO). He is constantly getting Charity: Water\u2019s message out there by speaking at hundreds of events<\/a> every year.<\/p>\n

Get your whole team to get good at speaking! From directors to interns, everyone on the team should be able to convey your organization\u2019s message positively and concisely.<\/p>\n

Doing so will lead to everyone acting as CPOs and cutting down the jargon<\/a> in exchange for increased awareness of your mission.<\/p>\n

If you learned from other nonprofits’ success, we would love to hear from you! Contact us at hello@causevox.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This past week, I was fortunate enough to hear the founder of Charity: Water speak. As expected from a former club promoter, Scott Harrison\u2019s life of the party personality quickly illuminated the cozy nonprofit incubator, BeeSpace. After a rollercoaster of emotion shown through Scott\u2019s words and a colorful and concise PowerPoint, I walked away with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"acf":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Team CauseVox","author_link":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/author\/teamcausevox\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4404\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}