Graduate Blog / Graduate Life

Build a well, drop by drop!

Tis the season to be jolly and apart from the Christian context, Christmas gifts are a crucial and curious component of this holiday. The thought of a Christmas gift paints an endearing, bright and warm picture in our cozy minds. But this Christmas, a new Santa Claus is helping to redefine generosity, gifting and giving.

For a marketing exercise, my group mates and I worked on auditing Charity Water, a non-profit organization that provides safe and clean drinking water to the needy in Africa. Charity Water’s USP is a 100% Model – meaning every donated dollar goes to building wells since operational costs are met separately by private sponsorships. This encourages donations to pour in, knowing fully well that the donor’s money can and will make a tangible difference, every time.

Impressed, my friend Lorenza Alatorre decided to make a difference this Christmas and give like never before. Charity Water enables you to run your own campaign and so, Lorenza started her own Christmas campaign at http://mycharitywater.org/p/campaign?campaign_id=32976. Aimed at raising money for a noble cause, her campaign is titled Build a well, drop by drop! Click the title link to see how people around the world are speaking the same language when it comes to charity.

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Another big innovation with Charity Water is an enhanced donor experience that ties the donor to the recipient. Now donors can track their projects and see how their every dollar translates to safe and clean drinking water for the underprivileged. All this encouraged quite a few of us to pitch in for such a charitable cause and the feeling has started to become contagious. While some are chipping in similar campaigns, others are giving up birthday gifts towards such causes and the flow is gaining momentum.

As another Christmas approaches, I’m sure a lot of you are waiting for your Christmas gifts. This time around though, I humbly nudge your anticipation into a world where Christmas and gifts are just fairy tales. In fact, clean water, good food and strong shelters are luxuries in these neck of the woods. However, every cloud has a silver lining and the upside here is that, this does present you with an opportunity to be a good and kind Santa Claus who can really make a difference.

So in the spirit of the season, go ahead and encourage yourself to commit to a generous act this Christmas. It’s said that Charity begins at home and if you are interested, Charity Water makes it very easy to get started. You can help contribute to Lorenza’s campaign or start one by yourself in a bid to really convey why gifts are a crucial and curious component of this holiday. May God bless you abundantly for your generosity.

Wishing you all a very merry Christmas and a blessed New Year,

Happy Holidays,

Kurian Babykutty