Charity: Water

by Mackenzie Miller

Yesterday in my Communication Criticism class, I was in for a real eye-opening treat. My teacher strayed from his usual format of lecture, lecture, lecture and pulled up some YouTube videos to show us in class! You see, we were learning about playing on the emotions in viral marketing. After showing many funny videos ranging from guys jumping into a pairs Levi jeans to a spoof about health care improvements, he played a video clip about a non-profit: Charity: Water.

Have I been living under a rock for the past 3 years? How have I not heard of this organization? More than half of the people in my class had, and after watching the video, I see that this company’s efforts have been featured on the news and received a lot of press. Scott Harrison founded Charity: Water with donations from his 31^st birthday. Three years later, they’ve raised over $10,000,000 to provide clean water to communities and villages in Africa. 

Wait. That’s ten MILLION dollars. In three years. Pretty fantastic, if you ask me. And how did they do it? By using the internet to spread the word, of course! It really makes me appreciative of the technologically advanced era we live in when the technology is used for such good purposes. A-list celebrities like Jennifer Connelly have even gotten involved, appearing in ads reminding Americans how lucky we are to have such clean drinking water. Check out one of the Charity: Water video's out – it speaks for itself.

While Charity: Water continues to grow and bring access to clean drinking water to so many by drilling wells, Plant With Purpose will continue to support their efforts while diligently focusing on the root causes to restore watersheds that once provided water in abundance.