Thursday, December 8, 2011

Free Water

I recently came across this video which showed me how a small simple idea can grow into a multi-million dollar non-profit organization. The video above pretty much explains the whole story. Anybody would be awestruck by such an ingenious plan to help so many people. Let me go into more depth.

Scott Harrison founded “charity: water” in 2006 when he was 31 with the motive of wanting more out of his life. Having previously been a NYC club promoter, he committed 2 years of his life studying the poverty situation through volunteer services. By tracing problems surrounding these situations, he deduced that a lack of clean water was a key factor. After which he began using his network to garner as much support for his cause as possible. As mentioned in the video, he started using the simple idea of giving up his birthday presents and asking people to give him a small sum of $20 instead.

When I first watched this video, I could only think how innovative this man was. How many people could honestly change so many people’s lives just by this simple idea? The truth is almost everyone. By creating awareness, the organization has raised over 40 million dollars as of July 1 2011 and this number continues to rise. The idea has struck so many people over the last 5 years that donations have been received from over 50,000 individuals and served about 19 countries in the world. People’s attention was captured since it was founded. So ask yourself, how do you start from scratch and grow to a multi-million dollar organization in such a short span of time?

Obviously if I had the answer to that above question, I wouldn’t be talking about it but rather getting on with the answer. The truth is that it’s easier said that done. However this example here shows us the importance of drive and passion when you’re trying to grow your company. Scott Harrison found a cause he believed in and it pushed him to “never stop” contributing to his organization. By aligning thousands of peoples interests with his own, he managed to do something huge for the people who require that simple resource that we take for granted everyday.

Inspiring don’t you think?


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