Scott Harrison spent ten years as a New York City party promoter, throwing fashion and music events at top nightclubs for the likes of MTV, VH1, ABC TV, Cosmopolitan, ELLE, Universal Records, Island Records, Bacardi and Anheuser-Busch. In the fall of 2004, disgusted with the selfish and indulgent life he led, he returned to his childhood faith and left nightlife to volunteer with a team of humanitarian doctors and surgeons onboard a hospital ship in Liberia, Africa. Armed with a pair of Nikons, Harrison spent 8 months as the ship’s volunteer photojournalist, documenting the incredible need he saw there.
Returning home to New York City a year later, he produced a large exhibition in Chelsea of more than 100 photographs and videos from the journey. The show gathered major media attention and brought in more than $96,000 in donations for medical procedures and freshwater well projects in Africa.
After another tour of service in Liberia, Scott returned to NYC to found the non-profit organization charity: water. Turning his full attention to the global water crisis and the 1.1 billion people without clean water to drink, he and a small team created exhibitions in galleries and outdoor parks, online campaigns, and nationally-aired public service announcements.
In three years, with the help of more than 90,000 donors worldwide, charity: water has raised massive awareness and over $18 million, funding more than 2,300 water projects in 16 developing nations. Those projects will provide over 1,000,000 people with clean, safe drinking water.
Scott’s work has been featured over 300 times in the media including The New York Times, USA Today, NY Daily News, CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX News, Elle Magazine, People Magazine and more. He has given lectures and presentations to companies like Google, Twitter, SalesForce, Saks Fifth Avenue and Creative Artists Agency, and has spoken at many elementary schools, middle schools and universities around the country.
- When Scott was 4 years old, they moved from Philadelphia to New Jersey.
- His mom’s immune system was destroyed by carbon monoxide poisoning.
- She was allergic to the world, living with a charcoal mask and connected to oxygen tanks.
- His family didn’t pursue legal action against the gas company because of the carbon monoxide leak.
- At age 18, he began to rebel.
- Found a job in NYC as a night club promoter and spent 10 years getting wasted and filling nightclubs with people.
- Het got paid for getting drunk.
- On a vacation in Uruguay he realized what his life had amounted to… not much.
- Started reading the book The Pursuit of God
- God started calling him back.
- He hadn’t lost faith; he had lost obedience.
- He realized he couldn’t sell escapism for a living and serve God.
- Applied to many different humanitarian organizations to use his talents in marketing, photography, etc. to benefit a cause.
- He left everything behind and served the poor for a year on a medical missions boat.
- The medical boat focused on doing facial surgeries for deformities.
- Through his experience he learned so many of the medical issues they were treating were related to their lack of access to clean water.
- Read the story and watch the video of Harris.
- Water was a root cause for the sickness, disease and suffering.
- When he returned to New York City from being overseas for 2 years his mother was healed from her disease.
- Scott came back to New York with a new paradigm.
- People can spend $16 on a cocktail or provide food for four people for a week.
- He was angry but he realized what it wasn’t about guilt, it’s about opportunity.
- When it comes to charity, guilt is worthless. It’s about opportunity.
- People haven’t been told the right story.
- You have to tell a different story.
- He wanted to reinvent charity.
- A billion people (1/6 of the world) do not have access to clean water.
- They don’t have the means to get clean water or to purify it.
- 80% of disease in Africa is related to unsafe water and lack of access to a toilet.
- Kids and cows drink from the same source; schools don’t have access to water.
- 40 billion hours are wasted in Africa getting clean water.
- A typical clean water well costs about $5,000.
- Water changes everything.
- It brings hope into communities and transforms the health of people.
- Water brings dignity.
- At age 30 he decided to reinvent charity.
1 – 100 – They gave away 100% of their charity.
- People weren’t giving to charity because they weren’t sure of where all of their money was going.
2 – PROOF – They would prove where their money went.
- They send a GPS with every project and send a photo.
3 – DESIGN – They created a brand.
- They used beautiful design to tell their story.
- They designed ecards, worked with TOMS Shoes, infographics, etc to tell their story.
charity: water started with a birthday party.
- NYC donated $200,000 in bus advertising for charity: water.
- They created public service announcements that have aired on national television.
- Saks Fifth Avenue donated their window space on 5th Ave and helped raise over $700,000 in one week.
- First non-profit to reach over 1 million followers on twitter.
- They got into schools, universities, and anywhere they could go and
give up your birthday
- Scott raised $60K giving away his birthday and asked people to give up their birthday.
- Seth Godin gave up his birthday for charity: water.
- Read Riley’s story, a girl who only ate rice and beans for a month to raise money for clean water.
They realized it wasn’t their story and it would get better if they would get out of the way.
- They created my charity: water so people could raise money for clean water.
- 3,800 people raised $4M.
New Goal
- They want to raise $2 billion to reach 100 million people with clean water.
- If there’s ever a time that it is possible to make clean water a reality for people it’s now.
- We will not stop fighting until everyone on the planet has safe and clean water to drink.
- charity: water has already given 1 million people clean water.
- We can make it happen for others.
- Learn more about charity: water here.
