community water solutions

So, clearly I have a thing for water.  I mean, the human body is made up of about 70% water, so it comes as no surprise.  But there are lots and lots of people in the world who do not have access to safe, clean drinking water.  It seems amazing that in this day and age that would still be an issue, and yet.

I'd like to introduce you to another great organization providing safe, clean water to people in the developing world.  Community Water Solutions is a non-for-profit social enterprise that partners with rural communities in developing countries to establish sustainable water treatment businesses.  It's a small organization run by a couple of people like you and me.  I actually met them last year at a Christmas party and was so inspired to hear about the work they are doing in Ghana that I am still trying to find ways to support their work.

CWS relies on grants and donations in order to provide each village with the capital needed to start their business, and you can help by making a donation.  Every year, CWS also has volunteers who travel to Ghana to set up water businesses.  You can support these volunteers by making a donation to support the CWS fellows.

You can also make a donation to CWS through Globalgiving.org, but let me tell you a little about Globalgiving before you sign up there.  It is a very cool site where you can select any number of small projects around the globe to support.  Globalgiving is like a virtual marketplace for aid.  They are a registered 501(c)3 organization, and for their services they receive a nominal 15% fulfillment fee.  That means that, normally, less than 100% of your donation is going to your chosen charity.  Now, you can choose to make an incremental contribution at checkout to cover this fee and ensure that 100% of their donation goes to your project. In the end, an average of 90% of all funds donated getting to the grassroots project(s) selected, so that's good...I just wanted you to be aware.

If you like Globalgiving, they also have gift cards available that you can purchase as a gift for someone else to choose their own project to support.  This is cool and I like.