Ways to Support The Water Project
As a member of the Philanthropy Team here at The Water Project (TWP), I’m often asked by our amazing donors how else they can help beyond their donation. I love this question, and honestly, the best ways I’ve seen to expand your impact have come from the examples other passionate donors have shared with me!
Here are a few of my favorites:
Striking up clean water conversations at the dinner table.
A family I recently spoke with shared that their children are involved in helping choose the community they support! Not only that, but they use the Give, Save, Spend method with their kids, instilling a spirit of generosity in them at a young age. They talk about the struggles of the communities they read about and make a family decision on who they want to help.
How you can help: Talk to your kids and family members about your family values, and through simple acts of kindness, they can change lives.
Share your giving story with your network
One of our donors was at horseback riding lessons for his teen daughter and, through a conversation with another parent, shared how much his support to clean water means to him and his family. The other parent asked for our contact information and joined in with their own donation!
How you can help: Share your TWP-giving story with coworkers, friends, and even your barista! You can share your story on social media if that’s something you use.
Double your impact!
Many companies offer matching gift opportunities that allow you to double your impact!
How you can help: An HR rep can usually provide you with the necessary information to get started.
Communities uniting around a worthy cause
Faith communities, schools, and clubs are incredible platforms for conversations around water scarcity. In these groups, we inspire one another and unite around a common goal—helping others access a basic resource we don’t really have to think about on a daily basis.
One church I worked with passed out eight-ounce water bottles to their congregation and asked, once they had finished drinking it, to fill each one up with dimes and bring it back when it was full. The church raised over $4,500 from this (as it actually fits a little over $50 worth of dimes!), and everyone had fun trying to find dimes since they aren’t used much anymore.
How you can help: Use water scarcity as a conversation topic or theme with your community group with a simple Water Challenge!
Start a Fundraising Page
Using your voice and your network, you can inspire others within your network to change lives through the power of clean water. We have all the tools that make it easy for you to start your own Fundraiser!
Some personal fundraising pages that did an amazing job rallying support for clean water are:
- Donations for celebratory occasions like birthdays, anniversaries, or a wedding
- Getting sponsorship for a race or other sporting event
Make an impact through your business
Making gifts through or as a company is another great way to help while increasing employee engagement & affinity!
Here are some creative ways companies we work with support The Water Project while engaging their staff/clients & enhancing company culture:
- Double your employees’ impact by offering to match their donations (a reflected version of our suggestion above!)
- Requesting holiday donations rather than holiday gifts (some utilize a fundraising page for this)
- Providing TWP gift cards as alternatives to birthday or holiday gifts (employees or clients can choose who they help!)
- A staff-giving challenge. If every staff member gives $X, employees can take ownership of either a partial or full project! This builds camaraderie with everyone sharing and celebrating in the joy of seeing the completed project
- Hold a flash-funding event for sales of a specific item or day (online or in-person) and donate proceeds to TWP (examples: World Water Day, Giving Tuesday, Black Friday, International Women’s Day, Global Handwashing Day, etc.)
- Gifting donations for employee referrals
- Donate a portion of sales to clean water (Note: there are special requirements for these! Please contact [email protected] for more info)
Become a world changer
Hands down, the most critical part of our work is our commitment to keeping clean water flowing for every water point we build. Monthly donations support The Water Promise, our sustainability program.
How you can help: Many of our donors support projects annually and commit to a monthly donation to The Water Promise to ensure the reliability of the projects they supported.
Additional resources:
Charity Navigator has some great options for additional ways to help!
Do you have a great story of how you are expanding your world-changing impact? We’d love to hear it! We are always so grateful for new ideas to help us stretch our reach and help even more families access clean water.
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