The Long Road

Do you ever feel like giving to charity is a bit of a black box? The charity presents the image of need, you give, and then hopefully they present the success story at the end?

I know I do.

It all seems so simple, so clean. What happens 10 years later? What else in our life functions so perfectly, 100% like that, 100% of the time? Why would the biggest problems facing humanity work the same? 

This isn’t because charities are bad, or misusing your money or incompetent. But we tell a simple narrative because we’re focussed on the short term win, the one time transaction, and the one time impact. 

We’re trying to change that. To zoom out and look at the bigger picture. Today is a big step in this direction. Our new map HERE lays out every water project we’ve ever done. You can see what’s working, what’s “kind of working” and what really needs improvement. My favourite part is clicking on each dot to see the pictures of the tapstands themselves. 

We’re thrilled to say that in a sector where 7 out of 10 water access points across Africa in general have failed, after 30 years only 8% of ours aren’t working. This is in part because the technology that we use: gravity flow systems, is quite frankly among the most sustainable in the world. And we’ve built more than any other in North America. 

We have a plan to address all of the systems we can (and leverage them to reach more!!) and we are inviting you into that process, to keep us accountable and to stay engaged – because I think the future is even more exciting than ever. 

With this map HERE we’re joining a tiny percentage of water charities, willing to be brave, to show you our results and to hold ourselves to a higher, more complicated standard.  

If you would like to take the long road, like us in sustainability – I’d love for you to join our Source Supporters Club – the group of Monthly Members committed to ensuring that once a tap turns on, it stays on. You can do so by clicking HERE.

Thanks for taking the long road.

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