Water Envy
Someone recently said that Charity:Water has the best marketing in the
business (meaning nonprofit community). He may very well be right. Their marketing works on so many levels. It is interactive. It is focused and presents a clear value proposition. It is energizing and makes you feel like you are part of a movement. Marketing is core to the design of everything they do and not a second thought as it is for most organizations.
At Charity: Water, the mission is super simple. Take US charitable dollars and leverage them in the developing world where the donor is astonished by the impact. It only takes a few dollars to change a life.
The value proposition is really shocking. In a society where you have a $50 co-pay to visit a doctor about an acne flare up, the idea of saving ten lives for that same amount seems so exciting. In a society where it costs over a billion dollars to build a ballpark, it is exhilarating to pay $5000 to build a library for an entire village. It also makes a $5000 donor feel like a billionaire.
Nonprofits have been using this equation for generations. Before Charity: Water there was Room to Read, and before that there were all those Christian infomercials about adopting kids in Africa. Growing up, there were UNICEF boxes that showed how the $2.53 you raised would give a kid access to medicine. Donations to these charities demonstrate the compassion of our society but also show some kind of rejection of inflation in our lives where cost and value don't feel aligned.
Charity: Water gets this formula. Their innovation is not their product. It is marketing that they do better than anyone else. It may be the easiest value proposition to market, but they hit it out of the park.
Although I do like the look of the website a lot, I’m actually not a big fan of the name of the organization. The word "charity" is problematic for me.
“Charity” conjures up the dusty paradigm of “rich” versus “poor.” Givers and receivers. Us. Them. We have water, they don’t. They are “less fortunate” than us. They. Us. They are charity cases while we get to make a difference.
Who wants to be a charity case?
Access to clean water is a community issue. It’s a resource we all share and it’s a challenge that exemplifies our interdependence. I wished their name inspired the notion of being in community with one another. The U.S. wastes/pollutes tons of water—I’d love to see their thoughts on starting at home and making us better neighbors. How can we work together to find solutions not just for “them” but for us too?
“Charity” and “water” in the name also seems a bit presumptuous—water is not ours to give. I'm no water expert and I’m no marketing expert, but to me, “charity” can be an overly generic and yet divisive word. But friends have disagreed with me on this, so I’d love to hear others’ thoughts…
"Charity" sounds exactly like what they do: charity. If the organization were about human development, it wouldn't be an appropriate name. But, building stuff for poor people? That's charity.
Has anyone looked at the "Why Water" page?
AWESOME!
Every organization should show this amount of clarity and energy delivering their message!