Hi,

Found it interesting that the Charity Water lists neither contact address or phone number, nor any Board members on its website. The fine print on the donation page says it has applied, but yet received its 501(c)(3) status.

As a professional nonprofit fundraiser, the first thing I'd tell these folks to do is to stop accepting donations because it cannot only threaten their nonprofit application, but donor gifts are currently not tax-deductible.

It's interesting the only person listed on their website is photojournalist and founder Scott Harrison. Love his donation page wish list, which includes 2 new Nikon d2x, d1x or d200 cameras, HD Video camera, 2 TVs, 4 LCD projectors, couple of PowerBooks, photo printer and a moving van.

You know, first there was the for-profit Ethos Water, and their cause marketing pitch to give away a nickel on every $1.80 bottle of water, a product for which other businesses charges half the price, but this one beats them hands down. Now your $20 will buy you a virtual bottle of water from a virtual nonprofit.

In our push for a sustainable economy, bottled water is one of the first things that should go. There are a lot of great resources out there documenting this fact that any google search will reveal. Here's just a few: Bottled Water Blues, Food and Water Watch, Earth Policy Institute.

The Association for Professional Fundraisers code of ethics reads in part, "put philanthropic mission above personal gain." Along with bottled water, cause marketers and individuals making personal profits off the poor and oppressed, without any public accountability and oversight, should be shown the door.

Peace,
Gayle
Fundraising for Nonprofits
gayleroberts.com/blog/

Hi Gayle,

Thanks for your comments and due diligence!

I'll address a few of your points here. Our board of directors is and always
has been listed on our site - the direct link is here -
http://www.charityis.org/bios.pdf

However, our site was under construction and was done by myself and a bunch of volunteers. There were a lot of things that weren’t perfect. Our new and better site is now up.

I am blessed to have an amazing (and quickly expanding) board of hard workers and experienced individuals, and am certainly not hiding their identities!

Hey, On point two, I see you've only been a professional fundraiser since 2006, so maybe that's just inexperience talking, but organizations are allowed to accept donations while their application for exempt status with the IRS is pending. The organization must make that status clear, which we did both on the website and on receipts.

And great news! We’ve just recently gotten that acceptance, and are now a full-fledged 501c3 organization. All gifts to charity: are tax-deductible.

Thanks for bringing attention to our wishlist. We've been blessed with more than $100,000 of gifts in kind from well known corporations and generous individuals. When we file our form 990, you'll be able to see that these donations and all equipment will be show as assets of the non-profit, and not any individual. Hey, I don't need any more camera gear, If you’re curious as to why we are requesting these gifts, we simply use the gear to equip the volunteers that fly into the field for us at their own expense to prove the wells we fund. We use projections and televisions at all our exhibitions (our December exhibit was in 18,000 square feet), and have been renting moving vans for distribution of water and exhibition materials. Maybe somebody on tree-hugger has a lead for us on a beater.

Contrary to Ethos whom you cite, we give 100 percent of the total proceeds from both our virtual bottles and physical bottles (we sell tons in boutiques, hotels, salons and through the exhibitions). We're able to do this because our infrastructure, overhead, educational campaigns and materials are funded by a separate group of donors.

This allows us to give 100 percent of all money from charity: water to fund
different projects on the ground. In order for ethos to raise the equivalent $20,
We have already granted and proved 6 wells in Bobi Uganda (a destitute
refugee camp in the north) and this week are granting more than $200,000 to
build and rehabilitate the following:

10 wells in Ethiopia through our 4 star partner Healing Hands
16 wells in malawi through our 4 star partner Water for People
33 wells in Central African Republic through 4 star partner Living Water,
and
7 wells in Pader, Northern Uganda through 4 star partner Concern Worldwide US

The details about those projects and our partners in the field can be found
clearly listed on our project page, as well as a link to charity navigator,
which reviews and rates organizations once they reach the age of 3 years.

hey, and I generally agree with you about the bottled water industry. But at
$20 a pop with the average cost of our well at $4000, each bottle is giving
at least one person clean water for 15 years. In some cases, such as the
Ethiopia projects, the wells serve villages larger than 4000 members!

Treehuggers will be happy to know that we are moving to biodegradable corn starch. A slightly larger cost to our donors that pay for the actual water, but well worth it, we all think.

Thanks for your concerns, I hope I have been able to answer some of your questions.

We are always very excited to get people like yourself interested in Charity: I'm personally very proud of the fact that Trent Stamp (the founder of Charity Navigator
–America's largest Charity Watchdog) recommended giving to us on Valentine's day, and hope that after having some of your questions answered, you will join him in supporting us.

http://trentstamp.blogspot.com/2007/02/tuesday-tidbits.html

Thanks for your questions Gayle!

Scott Harrison
founder, charity:
charityis.org