Practical Bravery - RADICAL WATER!

[00:00:00] This podcast is brought to you by AlwaysPossible

[00:00:04] AlwaysPossible.co.uk

[00:00:13] The sun is out, spring has sprung

[00:00:15] I'm in your ears for a little bit saying hello

[00:00:18] What a treat, welcome, welcome to the Possibility Club podcast

[00:00:22] I've got a question

[00:00:23] How can innovative partnerships transform global health initiatives

[00:00:28] And what role does transparency play when building trust

[00:00:32] And driving impact in the charity world?

[00:00:35] Today's episode is going to delve into this and other questions

[00:00:38] Through the lens of charity water

[00:00:40] The charity water is known for its transparency and innovative approach

[00:00:44] With a dedicated leadership and some very interesting funding models

[00:00:49] Some say as revolutionised how charities operate and engage with donors

[00:00:54] They operate on what they call a 100% model

[00:00:57] Where all public donations go directly to funding clean water projects

[00:01:01] While it's the private donors that cover operational costs, staffing, infrastructure overhead etc

[00:01:07] This model ensures that every contribution has a direct impact

[00:01:11] Which in turn, maybe, faster as more trust and engagement from donors

[00:01:16] What do you think?

[00:01:17] To my guest today has led the UK Arm of charity water

[00:01:22] For years, as she's led it to remarkable heights

[00:01:25] Focusing on providing clean, safe drinking water to communities in need

[00:01:29] Under her guidance, the organisation has implemented projects

[00:01:32] Benefitting over 15 million people worldwide

[00:01:35] She's pioneered new funding strategies, including subscription giving

[00:01:39] And she's developed partnerships across lots of different sectors

[00:01:42] All focused on addressing global challenges effectively

[00:01:46] Exploring people's attitudes towards charity funding

[00:01:49] My guest emphasises the importance of transparency in operations

[00:01:53] She openly shares how funds are used and the real costs of running a charity

[00:01:58] This isn't to deny that charities do cost money but being more transparent about why and how

[00:02:04] This approach seems not only to build credibility, but also encourage more consistent

[00:02:09] And impactful support from the community

[00:02:12] Additionally, my guest has roles beyond charity water

[00:02:16] Mentoring women through the Femment Board program and advising the good brains for good people initiative

[00:02:22] She also sits on the board for the cost of foundation

[00:02:25] Reflecting her dedication to supporting female leadership in the charity sector

[00:02:30] I'm Richard Freeman, this is the possibility club

[00:02:33] And my special guest this episode is managing director of charity water UK Hannah Bellamy

[00:02:43] Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, welcome to the possibility club

[00:02:46] It's Richard Freeman here with as always

[00:02:49] A far more eloquent intelligent and lively guest who is giving me the great honour of asking

[00:02:58] a few questions and having an interesting chat about their life work and world

[00:03:03] And as ever we're looking at themes of bravery and governance and impact

[00:03:08] And what happens when we roll our sleeves up to tackle an issue head on

[00:03:13] What does that look like? How do we do it sustainably? How do we scale it?

[00:03:16] And I've got no better guest, I think to answer some of those questions than Hannah Bellamy

[00:03:22] Who is managing director of charity water UK

[00:03:26] So big, big global movement but we're going to be talking specifically about the intersectionality

[00:03:32] between women's health and water

[00:03:35] And hopefully we'll shed some light on what happens when we invest in one thing

[00:03:41] And the ripples that might have on so many other things in a global context

[00:03:46] But firstly, before we get into these big, big topics, Hannah, how are you?

[00:03:50] I'm good, thanks Richard, how are you? Did you have a good long weekend?

[00:03:53] I did, yeah, very nice lots of family things

[00:03:57] And the sunshine was here, much to be grateful for

[00:04:02] Indeed, yeah, I know it was good to see it

[00:04:05] So tell me a little bit about your work and what got you into working with charity water

[00:04:11] And where you are at the moment?

[00:04:12] Yeah, of course so I've been with charity water for six years

[00:04:16] So it feels very much a part of my identity at this point

[00:04:19] So some of our really picked that up to think how I got there

[00:04:23] There were two main causes that I, head deeply about

[00:04:28] One of them is around women's issues and equality and what does that look like

[00:04:34] Not just for us in a day, it's basically about it around the world

[00:04:38] As you mentioned, we'll talk about an un sure water, pay a huge vote on that, for women

[00:04:43] And the other one is young children and about

[00:04:48] If and how what does it look like when children are born into circumstances

[00:04:54] And our disadvantage throughout life is purely because of where

[00:04:59] And they were born or the circumstances they were born into

[00:05:01] And that really gets me, so I'm going to go out on that

[00:05:04] Obviously again a huge role in water

[00:05:06] Actually not having access to clean water and sanitation is the leading children

[00:05:10] Undefined, which is just, gets me in the gut every time I'm a parent

[00:05:15] But I've also worked on that in other areas as well, some of my previous role

[00:05:18] Was with you know, just way and there we were looking at getting books to children

[00:05:25] Who didn't have books at home to help boost their vocabulary

[00:05:28] So whatever it is that the child needs to try and give them some kind of level playing

[00:05:33] The others they started life so those are the two things that really get to me

[00:05:36] I worked on a number of different issues throughout my career

[00:05:39] But I didn't actually, I didn't know when I began working or even when I was studying

[00:05:46] But working in charity was an option

[00:05:49] I don't think I don't remember ever considering it

[00:05:52] So I came to it having first work in publishing

[00:05:56] That was my first go at a career, it's difficult

[00:06:00] And it's also not what you imagine in terms of when you love reading

[00:06:04] It's very different when you look at books as a product

[00:06:06] So I went from that and I thought, okay, I'll go work in a corporate environment

[00:06:10] This is a business and books have to profit a lot

[00:06:13] So everything else they're product that's the business and understand that

[00:06:16] So I went to work on a graduate scheme of centricode

[00:06:18] Who owned British gas at the time they also owned the A.A.

[00:06:21] They would want to tell like kind of look to themselves the eccentric services

[00:06:24] I worked with them and within working with them for a few years

[00:06:28] I moved into corporate responsibility

[00:06:30] So I started to think about, again, I just not something I'd ever understood

[00:06:35] I think the night was growing up in the 80s, growing up in the 90s

[00:06:40] We thought about business and the body shop for example

[00:06:44] But they were outliers we didn't necessarily think about other businesses

[00:06:48] And how they behaved and what that should look like

[00:06:50] So it was a whole new world to me

[00:06:52] And that's how I got into the charity sector

[00:06:55] And having worked in that area for a while and meeting some of the charity partners

[00:06:58] You see you've been in the charity water for six years

[00:07:01] I've always thought it as an American organization

[00:07:03] But I know you lead the UK team so tell me a little bit about how it works

[00:07:06] And what the sort of Genesis is and the funding model and all that sort of thing

[00:07:10] Yeah, of course and charity water was founded in the US

[00:07:13] Oh, coming into being story

[00:07:15] So we found Scott Harrison

[00:07:18] Lots of people know his story

[00:07:20] They don't know the name charity water they've heard his story

[00:07:23] So he was a nightclub promoter

[00:07:26] Really living

[00:07:28] What he thought had had the time with his best life

[00:07:30] But perhaps they'd started to write

[00:07:32] And he was the first life in the sense of

[00:07:34] That's a drink drugs

[00:07:36] Probably a lot of fun but started to be in much less

[00:07:38] Fun over time

[00:07:39] So he was a nightclub promoter for ten years in New York

[00:07:41] And he decided to give that up and volunteer

[00:07:45] And eventually found himself on a hospital ship in Liberia

[00:07:50] And what he was there he spent two years

[00:07:53] And he started to appreciate why people were coming to this hospital ship

[00:07:59] And he was the fact that our ship was needed

[00:08:02] At the first of just a few adjustments to looking at different countries

[00:08:06] And how they operate and things are needed

[00:08:08] It's hospital ship and people had walks maybe a month

[00:08:11] And a few days to be seen on this hospital ship

[00:08:14] Then what he started to realize is so many of them were coming

[00:08:18] With illnesses or other types of situations

[00:08:22] That came from not having clean water

[00:08:24] Where they were in their villages

[00:08:26] So he went back to New York and being a nightclub promoter

[00:08:30] Originally and thinking he knew as he threw a party

[00:08:33] Because that's what he had to do

[00:08:35] So he threw a party invited loads of people

[00:08:38] He then told them exactly where their money went

[00:08:41] And I think this is the difference

[00:08:42] So charity water was found with this principle

[00:08:44] But because it's someone who didn't come from the sector

[00:08:46] And so he didn't come from thinking about the existing framework

[00:08:49] Thinking about perhaps the existing government funding or grants

[00:08:52] Or different ways that maybe people within an or proper sector

[00:08:55] Things he thought

[00:08:56] Okay, party money

[00:08:57] Now I need to show you and give you a

[00:08:59] You know in this centre of this department

[00:09:01] Or why is that money gone?

[00:09:02] What's it done

[00:09:03] And he also was talking to people who traditionally

[00:09:06] Emigrude who jokes that he'd spoke to his drug dealer

[00:09:09] About giving to charity and he said,

[00:09:11] I know we're giving to charity

[00:09:12] Don't trust charities or where the money goes

[00:09:14] So people who perhaps had never thought about

[00:09:17] We're frustrated with the loot and charities

[00:09:19] He was starting to talk to them and understand that

[00:09:22] So that's why he said, I give 100% then

[00:09:24] I guarantee you give me your money

[00:09:26] 100% of it will be invested directly in a few more projects

[00:09:30] And I'm going to show it to you

[00:09:32] So from the beginning you took all the money

[00:09:35] He separated out, we used that to build this free water project

[00:09:38] And then he took photos of them

[00:09:40] He sent the GPS coordinates

[00:09:42] He told people how many people he was using them

[00:09:44] Where they were exactly all this type of information

[00:09:46] And we've done that ever since

[00:09:48] So we've always had this very different model

[00:09:51] Where 100% of funds raised on our website

[00:09:54] Anyone who gives me 10% power to whatever it is

[00:09:56] That will all be spent within the countries where we're working

[00:10:00] We won't do the work for ourselves

[00:10:02] We'll invest it in global organisations

[00:10:05] A local people to do the work

[00:10:07] And then we will prove that work

[00:10:08] So it's a very transparent

[00:10:10] We pin every single project on our website

[00:10:13] It's a hundreds of thousands of projects

[00:10:14] On our website you can see them

[00:10:16] And they know that they exist

[00:10:17] And that helps us to account

[00:10:19] To our donors for all sorts of people that we're serving

[00:10:21] This idea of water

[00:10:23] You know the revelation

[00:10:24] You'll found a hard

[00:10:25] But also just how important water is

[00:10:27] Because I don't really have to think about water

[00:10:29] Well I haven't had anything about it

[00:10:30] It comes out of my taps

[00:10:31] It's clean

[00:10:32] I can drink it

[00:10:33] For many many years

[00:10:34] I've just taken it completely forgotten

[00:10:36] It's interesting though

[00:10:38] I think even in the UK in the last few years

[00:10:40] And I think in this election that's coming

[00:10:42] It's a good quality

[00:10:43] For the first time that I can remember

[00:10:45] Is going to be quite a big issue

[00:10:46] Whether it's sewage

[00:10:48] And the sea, whether it's bio systems within rivers

[00:10:51] So my thinking right

[00:10:52] If this is happening in the southeast of England

[00:10:55] And suddenly we're now starting to worry about droughts

[00:10:57] We're starting to worry about floods

[00:10:59] We're starting to worry about the quality of water

[00:11:01] Goodness me what might be happening

[00:11:03] Where there's not anything like the infrastructure

[00:11:06] And the money

[00:11:07] How big a problem do we still have

[00:11:09] To ensure that everybody

[00:11:11] Has access to clean water

[00:11:14] We're only starting now

[00:11:16] Like you said, you actually think about water

[00:11:18] As a resource

[00:11:20] As not just something that is there

[00:11:22] And free flowing

[00:11:24] And actually really starting to think of the value

[00:11:27] That it has

[00:11:28] In the country where we work

[00:11:30] That is well known

[00:11:32] And so we're working in 22 countries right now

[00:11:35] That's not where all of the issues are

[00:11:37] Globally there's 733 million people

[00:11:40] So it's about 1 in 10 people

[00:11:42] Who don't have access to water

[00:11:44] And when you think about something that the tems

[00:11:48] That's where they will be getting water

[00:11:51] So if I didn't have the taps here and everything else

[00:11:54] I actually live by close to the tems

[00:11:56] I would walk there

[00:11:58] I would take my Jerry can

[00:11:59] And I would be getting that water

[00:12:01] And that's what I would be bringing home for my family

[00:12:03] To drink to wash

[00:12:05] Where we're working lots of the sources

[00:12:07] They're getting from they are contaminated

[00:12:09] By human waste

[00:12:10] Also animals will share the water points

[00:12:13] So the problem is the 733 million

[00:12:16] When charity will start that was a billion

[00:12:19] It's a really positive piece of it

[00:12:21] It seems huge

[00:12:22] It is huge

[00:12:23] It's a massive problem

[00:12:25] But we're making progress

[00:12:26] And we can make progress

[00:12:28] We know how to do it

[00:12:29] So I always look at this issue

[00:12:31] And it's one of

[00:12:32] The few problems in the world

[00:12:34] That I think first of all

[00:12:36] We can all agree on

[00:12:38] So we can look at it and say

[00:12:40] But the extremes of anyone

[00:12:42] Everyone still agrees

[00:12:43] That every human should have access to clean

[00:12:45] And say drinking water

[00:12:46] So it's great that it can unite people

[00:12:48] And we know how to fix it

[00:12:50] So we can really rally people as my hope

[00:12:53] So it's a huge problem

[00:12:54] We do know how to fix it

[00:12:56] And we can

[00:12:57] The added

[00:12:59] Complication to any of that

[00:13:01] Just is climate change

[00:13:02] Climate change is actually all about water

[00:13:06] It's a flat, it's too much

[00:13:08] It's too little

[00:13:09] And obviously when there's a drought

[00:13:12] What we need to ensure is that any infrastructure

[00:13:14] Come with stand that

[00:13:16] And it isn't contributing towards it

[00:13:18] It's not the communities and villages

[00:13:20] We're working in how in getting access to water

[00:13:22] That's going to be a water table

[00:13:24] So they're not driving it

[00:13:25] They need to have, but we do need to drill deep enough

[00:13:27] To ensure that they have access to it

[00:13:29] And then the other side of it

[00:13:30] Is during times of large

[00:13:33] You also need to be extremely aware of the infrastructure

[00:13:35] Water

[00:13:36] Because it ever comes and taminated

[00:13:38] If you don't

[00:13:39] There's so many different ways of looking at it

[00:13:41] Thinking about it

[00:13:42] And then we'll start to realise

[00:13:44] The value of water like we said

[00:13:46] But also the complexities

[00:13:47] And the robustness of the systems that you need to fix it

[00:13:50] We can

[00:13:51] And we will make progress

[00:13:52] And actually it's something that we know

[00:13:53] We always say we want to bring clean water

[00:13:55] To every person on the planet within our lifetime

[00:13:58] And we should be able to do that

[00:13:59] Something we can do

[00:14:01] And wouldn't that be amazing

[00:14:03] It surely would

[00:14:04] And you know if we don't get this water situation right

[00:14:07] The consequences are enormous

[00:14:10] Clean water and sanitation has a zone

[00:14:12] We have our own sustainable development goal

[00:14:14] Number six

[00:14:15] Clean water and sanitation pool

[00:14:17] But actually it impacts eight

[00:14:20] Gold

[00:14:21] So if you look at access to clean water

[00:14:24] It impacts, although it impacts poverty

[00:14:28] Inpats education

[00:14:29] Inpats gender actually and the list really goes on

[00:14:32] And it's because it's just such a fundamental need

[00:14:34] And then with women and girls

[00:14:36] The issue is that when at home

[00:14:38] No family don't have clean water

[00:14:40] The majority of the time

[00:14:42] The people having to go and collect water

[00:14:44] Usually from a dirty source

[00:14:46] And having to walk in orbit

[00:14:47] We know long distance

[00:14:49] It's the women and girls

[00:14:51] You know we've met women

[00:14:52] I've traveled some of these communities

[00:14:54] And an easier peer and a vendor

[00:14:55] And talk to them about what this is like

[00:14:58] It's really hard work

[00:15:00] So often if you think you've got quite a thin flip of sun

[00:15:03] So they're then taking usually a gerry can

[00:15:07] Or some other kind of vessel

[00:15:09] A trend to lead to gerry can that you would use to collect petal

[00:15:11] Normally

[00:15:12] And then they're walking

[00:15:14] On

[00:15:15] Not properly designed past

[00:15:17] So you know it's a very uneven

[00:15:18] Very uncomfortable

[00:15:20] Can be very dusty and bright

[00:15:22] And sees and very muddy in other seasons

[00:15:24] In quite a few other distances

[00:15:26] Then bending down this back

[00:15:28] Breaking work to collect the water

[00:15:29] Whether it's from a

[00:15:31] An open source pond

[00:15:33] Or sometimes you're actually digging down

[00:15:35] There are wells but very extremely old wells

[00:15:37] When people are pulling water up

[00:15:38] And it's actually really dangerous

[00:15:40] Because they're not protected and people can fall in

[00:15:42] Collecting that water

[00:15:43] And then taking a home again

[00:15:45] And it's really heavy

[00:15:47] And the piece that I didn't say with this

[00:15:48] Is they usually have a queue

[00:15:50] Even to access these things

[00:15:51] They spend a huge amount of time waiting

[00:15:53] And they just get the water

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[00:18:12] Brilliant. Thank you. Take care.

[00:18:15] Speak soon.

[00:18:19] And again, they want to fill it up

[00:18:20] Walk back home again.

[00:18:21] Let's multiple times a day

[00:18:23] It's on the hand of your dreams

[00:18:24] So it is about the health and everything else

[00:18:28] It's also about the time and the opportunity

[00:18:30] Because there is a way in what we find

[00:18:33] And we have amazing examples of women in communities

[00:18:36] Where we bring clean water

[00:18:38] And you talk to them about what's life like now

[00:18:41] And the first thing I think there's a woman called Helen

[00:18:44] Our team at Helen and they said,

[00:18:46] What, Helen? She's living in the underworld

[00:18:48] What's life like now? What's the biggest difference?

[00:18:50] Then she said,

[00:18:51] Unbeatable.

[00:18:53] Because Helen, you are beautiful. Yeah, but what's that?

[00:18:56] It was interesting. No. I'm beautiful

[00:18:58] Because she could wash and she could wash herself

[00:19:01] And her clothes and what she was saying before

[00:19:03] She wouldn't wash herself and her clothes

[00:19:05] Because she prioritised her family and her children

[00:19:07] So water was so precious. She never got to that

[00:19:09] So that was the first thing

[00:19:10] So there's just a level of basic dignity within that

[00:19:13] And then you talk to women and say,

[00:19:16] Well, what do you do now with your time?

[00:19:18] What's different? How are you doing it?

[00:19:20] Nobody is wasting that time

[00:19:22] And women who have set up restaurants, hairdressers

[00:19:26] They're making pots out of play and throw the market

[00:19:28] They're making bricks. They're physically building things

[00:19:31] I mean, the time that they then get back in their day

[00:19:34] Is invested back into their families back in cello and communities

[00:19:37] And in it's a building business which brings all the wealth

[00:19:40] There's like communities. So it's the first step

[00:19:43] Out of poverty. It really is

[00:19:46] And it's women and girls who are affected by that

[00:19:48] But predominantly because otherwise they're held back

[00:19:52] But I like about what you're doing and so many others

[00:19:54] Now there's this kind of simplicity

[00:19:56] To help this, this and this and this

[00:19:59] It's not going to be confused or distracted

[00:20:01] Yeah, yeah, yeah

[00:20:02] And then it's something you have to

[00:20:04] Often have this conversations with people

[00:20:06] Because as well as you're talking to a community

[00:20:08] And especially if we go with the communities

[00:20:10] Some of these communities

[00:20:12] They're looked at this. Okay, but now the school

[00:20:14] Because we do bring things to schools

[00:20:16] But I think the school doesn't have enough books

[00:20:20] So now we need to live or

[00:20:22] Or they've agreed we've got this community

[00:20:24] Clean water. Now can we talk about

[00:20:28] And I one thing I didn't talk about, which I'm a clean water

[00:20:31] And women is that when you don't have access to clean water

[00:20:35] That drives increased levels of domestic violence

[00:20:39] So it's a really complicated piece

[00:20:42] That I haven't fully understood until I sat down with a

[00:20:44] with the community and we actually went, we visited with some donors really were all

[00:20:49] up always you know on my road we traveled about hours and hours to access and these communities

[00:20:53] and chape with them and we separated out them and in the women's so I and some other women's

[00:20:57] both with the women the community and the men's that somewhere else the men's that were

[00:21:00] chairs by the way the women's that were around but never mind that's what we did

[00:21:04] so we all sat there with this great chat and what came out was then having clean water

[00:21:12] they know one woman who's super hand up and said that the water has changed for me as my husband

[00:21:16] doesn't beat me anymore and the women all nodded and it was very much a fact and it's because she

[00:21:20] wasn't how to Keith the water she wasn't how to spend as much time he didn't

[00:21:25] wasn't wondering where she was the cooking have been done everything else so it relieved

[00:21:29] that I said I'm not a tension in the home now my I hear that I look at these women and their children

[00:21:36] and everything else and I think I'm really glad that Lea Water has meant has relieved some of that

[00:21:42] domestic violence but I really want to do more how do we talk about this what's the

[00:21:46] cultural change that needs to happen here what's the domestic violence interventions

[00:21:50] sort of but we're then I have to remember and be really clear that's not my job that's not our

[00:21:56] job we speak that local partners about like what things are there we hope they're doing something

[00:22:01] but if we get distracted by things that really again they get you in the garden and really

[00:22:06] want to do something about it but if we get distracted then we won't go onto the next community

[00:22:11] bring them forward and really some of it that for someone else to come and do the other

[00:22:14] piece and so it's really hard suddenly you're then a domestic violence charity suddenly when

[00:22:19] you walk you tend to like you know and then it does become unworkable you know and then there's

[00:22:24] the risk of the sort of one culture trying to save another culture you know rather yeah that's not my job

[00:22:29] yeah always possible which is the consultancy around which has done some work with a charity in Ghana

[00:22:36] and a similar sort of thing you know that the real challenge is that young women are not going

[00:22:40] to school and they are at risk in in their homes because they are not at school all sorts of

[00:22:46] reasons falling out of opportunity what the charity I've working with was working with

[00:22:52] Trident Build libraries it was trying to it was trying to work and that's important and none of this

[00:22:55] was quite working until they cotton down to the thing the one thing that they could do simply

[00:23:00] and at scale was to supply sanitary products and there were cultural reasons behind that there

[00:23:05] were hygiene reasons it was safe to reason and they just was not a culture of free access to sanitary

[00:23:11] products and their education they focused on that one thing and thousand thousand thousand of

[00:23:16] girls are now free-ladable to go to school all of the time now it's changing the way science and

[00:23:22] health and reproduction and biology is taught within the schools as different understandings about

[00:23:26] a home. Mad isn't it you know we take that for such a granted what's that one thing?

[00:23:32] How do you find that one thing and it's not a bad impulse to want to do more as a good impulse

[00:23:40] but in a business context that's not that you can't do that and actually as a charity it's very

[00:23:45] similar you have what's your what you're doing and what are you doing really well and how do you

[00:23:51] do more of that rather than than getting distracted by the public next. And I think it's a

[00:23:56] really interesting time at the moment you know you go the example of the body shopping and outlier

[00:23:59] but we're in this sort of creative tussle to win what's the purpose of business at the moment

[00:24:06] and I think it's both exciting and frustrating when we think about the huge power for change that

[00:24:13] businesses can can have with their access to skills talent resources capital but also you know

[00:24:20] we are in tough economic times so the impulse just to drive shareholder value which has been

[00:24:27] the model tends to take over so I'm interested that your charity you know it's got a lot of

[00:24:32] people that come from a business background in it the model you said is quite different because that's

[00:24:36] sort of governance and transparency first so where you know and you've talked about how that

[00:24:41] works in terms of communicating transparency but I'm interested in how does it work in other ways

[00:24:47] in terms of that mission driven discipline the sort of financial discipline I guess the

[00:24:55] the ability to market a product even if that product is not trying to you know sell to the rich actually

[00:25:03] it's trying to enable empowerment in other ways but also what are some of the challenges you know

[00:25:10] is there space for the innovation and risk taking that corporates will put money into you know

[00:25:17] that was charities get frowned upon a little bit you know talking to a little bit about what

[00:25:22] you've learned with your background in that space it's extremely freeing because if I'm fundraising

[00:25:28] I know I'm not fundraising for my salary right so if I'm asking someone to do a fundraiser we'll

[00:25:33] run a challenge or anything else and that's not to say when people are and I have done in the

[00:25:38] past that's a bad thing it's just different and it's freeing and it makes it more comfortable

[00:25:44] the difficulty is that it's really hard to scale we have and we have done for the beginning

[00:25:50] these two different bank impacts you know when I'm speaking Germanist of public I'm fundraising

[00:25:55] into that clean water bank so I'm saying if you give to me 100% of the money and I'm going to

[00:26:00] show you and that's fantastic but I could get to a point why haven't you know you're raising millions

[00:26:06] there but if you've got nothing in the other side of it I can't spend it you need to be really good

[00:26:11] programmatic people who understand and do all the due diligence thinking on your local partners

[00:26:17] we don't ever dictate what the solution should be we want the local partners to tell us that but

[00:26:21] you need people who can definitely understand that and also pay a roll and help them match up

[00:26:26] those partners so you're doing pipe systems brilliantly you should speak to a partner here who's

[00:26:30] trying to learn about it and real experts who've come from working for governments and in

[00:26:35] academia and everything else are amazing on that side on the programmatic side that's what you

[00:26:39] want people who really look at that and understand it and then you also want people on the fundraising

[00:26:45] in the marketing side who know how to reach the most people possible with the race like so it's done

[00:26:51] efficiently so you need all of that and you do and innovation is one of our values we really want to be

[00:26:56] able to innovate the nice thing is because our 100% model we have the freedom to do that without

[00:27:02] explaining to people who go into the water and having to justify and say oh well actually it's

[00:27:07] good we spent the money on on innovating and fundraising on marketing over here because that one

[00:27:11] pound is generated for more pounds which is the truth and I think that's the important thing

[00:27:15] is people should know if you're money you know going to a charity in the data line of the

[00:27:18] support which most of them the money that's going into the running of the charity should be seen as

[00:27:24] an investment in the opportunity to sale at charity not a separate but because we don't have that

[00:27:29] it's not distracting can get on with it and we have these about 130 families who fund our

[00:27:34] operations and we talk to them with liking investors in many of the countries who work

[00:27:40] team water projects they delivered some things not quite right or they were done well in the first

[00:27:45] days but not something's gone wrong and they're not working for us that's just not okay remember

[00:27:49] again we're pinning them on our maps so we can't have these not working so we've developed these

[00:27:54] sensors but this is a whole new piece of kit it needed to have battery life for about 10 years

[00:28:00] and it's obviously been waterproof it needed to work in extremely hot temperatures

[00:28:05] it needs to be able to transmit data accurately to the cloud and and all these other things

[00:28:10] so it required an awful lot of our de-instances require I think so for something like that we've

[00:28:16] got a grant from Google to say we we have this idea we know it's needed can you help us so they

[00:28:21] gave us an initial grant we've got to a certain point and now we're speaking some more other

[00:28:26] donors and again we're saying would you give to us so that we can scale the sound so we can

[00:28:31] pilot it here with a pilot it there but the main thing is again everyone knows the money is going

[00:28:36] it's going into this very specific project and we'll share with them what's the progress where

[00:28:41] are we now now it's okay now we've rolled out to a new country now we're trying out and other

[00:28:46] people's water points now so it's all about but us just keeping it and reporting

[00:28:52] back to people and telling them everything really care and we do ask our auditors we pay

[00:28:57] additional fee to our auditors to order it out 100% model which obviously they don't have to

[00:29:01] do because try to start to do it but we pay them an additional fee to look at it you know I'm

[00:29:06] need to update our technology we need to you know be in a space where things work yeah

[00:29:12] you guys have done a really great job in talking about the work that you do but I can also see

[00:29:17] this quite a lot there about you know how charities can work your model known about you know

[00:29:23] what sort of conversation do you think we should be having around charity governments and

[00:29:27] funding models it's looking at it is the investment piece and things people about if they want

[00:29:33] them maximum impact what does that look like there's been some news just this morning about the NHS

[00:29:41] computer systems being so bad that's just a real example of when you don't invest in a

[00:29:46] system the waste that then that then happens and it's the same with charity sectors and I think

[00:29:53] we do have to talk about if you and then this I always you know is always that thing as if you give

[00:29:58] me a pound I know you want it to go to so for example there's a homeless charity you want me to

[00:30:05] feed somebody or help them receive shelter or something else I could just do that I could buy a

[00:30:14] whatever meal of power could buy you know but some sort of food item or I could take that one

[00:30:19] pound and I could invest it in whether it's marketing on your software or something else but no

[00:30:25] that was going to generate five more pounds and with that five more pounds I can take four pounds

[00:30:31] and put it back into buying the food in the next pound generate another five pounds and if we start

[00:30:35] looking at it and we always looked at in that space then we were but the issue is it's so hard to get people's

[00:30:43] attention anyway and to have a nuanced conversation and that's what this requires is you get through all these

[00:30:51] different conversations and then you know is it food as a shelter as it long term is it mental health support

[00:30:56] is it whatever it is and so I think the thing is there's so much like we're talking about when you

[00:31:00] want to do good or have impact you get distracted there's that piece as well and I don't know

[00:31:06] how we as organisations I do think it starts an institutional level in terms of the government,

[00:31:13] the charity commission the other umbrella type of organisations and the corporate if they start

[00:31:19] to talk in a positive way and they start to understand I think would really help us to shift things

[00:31:24] but at the moment it's individual charities you know and I work with a whole load of

[00:31:29] progress and the majority of them they love our 100% model because they can report back how to

[00:31:35] again on their own impact in terms of generating remortage. Fantastic like one them to do that

[00:31:41] but they're not paying for us for the computer that's being used to do this or the software or anything

[00:31:48] are the media have a big role as well don't they I mean yes oh yeah yeah

[00:31:53] and then I spoke to third sex or press you know third sex and news and I said how do I talk about

[00:31:59] some the innovation stuff had where you get and I was told by a journalist you worked in it that

[00:32:04] unless it's you know the thing that they get most attention towards a scandal so even within our own

[00:32:10] industry press they're not that interested in a good news story unless it's sensational in some

[00:32:17] way really they want something that showed it so even we should be on our side if I don't really

[00:32:23] frustrating I like you should be the ones we're trying to help us do this but you even your stories

[00:32:28] you're looking for the rogue board member who's you know had a conflict of interest you're

[00:32:34] looking for a kids company style scenario and we all know that you know that now people are

[00:32:39] flicked on that and that was managed very poorly and that's the issue is even with ourselves we're doing

[00:32:45] world water days quite a big deal and I know you're doing a lot of work around that you know how

[00:32:50] can people if they've been listening to this what they can follow on you work think I need to not

[00:32:54] take water for granted I need to think it's I didn't realise you know yes it's a great

[00:32:59] there's it's gone from a billion to 700 million but there's still 7 million yeah yeah yeah what can I

[00:33:04] do work people start even if it's something small go shout you up to the sign up for our news letter

[00:33:12] give and I always said you give whatever you can I'm beauty in the hundred percent

[00:33:16] of you know we're going to square with a spend it so do give and and I always said you can give

[00:33:20] you just a small amount every month sign up to give a small amount every month for an even one

[00:33:25] of big donations because it gives an organization predictability so do that we have we call it

[00:33:30] the spring everybody who gives every single month and we we try and share with them like kind of

[00:33:35] in the positive bit we try to share good news all the time with them so what's the good news

[00:33:39] has happened because you're doing this and you've been in this movement so I would say and

[00:33:43] I would also say if any reason for me water isn't the thing I think it should be because it

[00:33:48] impacts so many other areas and it's mine obviously but by the thing you know and I think

[00:33:52] obviously for the children of course there'll have to be a thing they do care about and it gives

[00:33:56] to that and I think it is important that as much as everything else the minute to give what you can

[00:34:02] I think everybody should be lovely I've been a pleasure to talk to you thank you very much

[00:34:08] and I've had a lot of me for being in the possibility club this week thanks a lot to many

[00:34:12] great people thank you for listening to the possibility club practical bravery

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[00:34:26] notes for all the details of today's guest stuff we talked about stuff that's of interest new

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[00:35:03] always possible dot code at UK we'll be back in a couple of weeks with a new special guest

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[00:35:13] the possibility club is an always possible podcast the interview was Richard Freeman for always

[00:35:18] possible and the producer and editor was me Chris Thorpe Tracy for low-fi arts have a good week

[00:35:27] always possible dot code at UK