Often, I have not followed through with ideas because I don’t completely believe that my action can make a difference. I live in the middle of a city and a homeless man sits on the main road around the corner. I bring him lunch leftovers from my son’s daycare and have often contemplated organizing neighbors to make sure he has food every day. But I let the idea slip out of my mind and haven’t ever followed through. I say to myself, will it really make a difference? He’s strung out most of the time and I can’t help with what he really needs. So I don’t take action on ideas that can maybe help a human being who crossed my path.
I look at the state of the world and it feels hopeless. If I save one person, I say to myself, what about the million more? Does it matter if I get involved in this charity or that? Donate money? There are so many charities – but have they even dented the need in the world? So often charities seem like self-congratulatory events for rich and middle-class people to get together and feel good about themselves when most of the money is just circulating around management.
These are the lies we tell ourselves so as not to get out of our comfort zone and actually do anything.
And then there was Scott Harrison. This is his story:
He was “The Man” in NYC. King of the nightlife scene, he made his living promoting parties and brands. He knew all the cool people, went to the best parties and was invited everywhere. But it began to feel like bullshit.
He decided to pack it in and do charity work. Unfortunately, no one would have him. He didn’t actually have a skill that could be useful. Finally, one organization, Mercy Ships, allowed him to come along as a volunteer on their lifesaving hospital ship to Africa if he paid them for the privilege.
He said yes and moved from his gorgeous NY midtown apartment to a small cubby on a boat, with roommates. His job was to photograph everything. He saw the poverty of a kind he had never known to exist and unimaginable suffering. He took haunting pictures of children afflicted with debilitating diseases he had never heard of, met communities forced to drink from contaminated water sources and saw the reality of destitution where basic education and sanitation was considered impossible. He met people who lived for a year on the money he had spent on one bottle of champagne in a NY club. Without tip.
Analyzing what he saw, Scott concluded that the first change that needed to happen was access to clean drinking water. Just this one solution would eliminate the worst disease, enable education, sanitation and basic dignity. It would be a game changer.
He came back to NY. To the party scene. Where no one really got it. Seriously – how many times have we seen pictures of poor people in Africa. Has it moved us to change? Scott could have raised some money, done some gesture and gone on with his life.
But he had already made a decision. Two actually. He was going to make sure that everyone on this planet had clean water and he was going to transform charities. Now those are unreasonable goals, right? For his September birthday, he made himself a party, as you do; he was a promoter, after all. He charged $20 a head and invited 700 people. With the $15,000 he raised, he funded 2 water projects and sent pictures to all the guests, telling them what they had funded. charity:water was born. A completely transparent charity in which 100% of donated money goes to water projects, with separately raised money funding operational expenses.
He began by asking September babies to donate their birthdays by raising money for water projects in lieu of gifts (That’s where I met this story about 7 years ago. I raised about half a well and was sent detailed information regarding how the money was spent.). Today, about 8 years since his first birthday party, the organization numbers over 70 employees, has funded 21,118 water projects bringing water to 6,400,000 people in 24 countries. They have also started a program called Pipeline to continue to maintain the wells that they built. In 2014 alone, they raised 43.4 million dollars, 27.9 million for clean water and 15.5 million for operational expenses; theirs is a fully transparent charity that apprises contributors of exactly how their money was spent while offering an excellent workplace to employees. Win/win/win.
One person changed the world. One man who made a decision and made it happen. I don’t think for one moment it was easy. It was a process. It probably still is. But I believe that he will reach his goal. I know I want to help him make it happen. That’s what happens when you make a decision and go for it.
charity:water is Scott Harrison’s voice. Each of us has our own voice. We just have to follow it and do that thing we want to do. I think I need to talk to my neighbors.
Check them out here: https://www.charitywater.org/
