He’s Spent 20 Years Trying to Change The World | Scott Harrison

Jonathan sits down with Scott Harrison, charity: water founder, for a wide-ranging reflection on his 20-year mission to bring clean water to everyone on earth. Scott revisits the original spark, the scale of the problem, the storytelling strategy that helped build the movement, and the personal tension of leading a global nonprofit while raising a family. We discuss the long game of solving a problem that is both massive and solvable, why generosity is often unlocked through story rather than statistics, and how Scott thinks about balance, legacy, and “the work with no end.” Key topics: Scott looks back on the early days of charity: water and the energy of the original nightclub fundraiser that launched the organizationThe scale of the mission has grown to more than $1 billion mobilized, 216,000 projects across 29 countries, and about 700 million people still without clean waterStorytelling, not statistics, is the core tool charity: eater uses to overcome apathy and make distant suffering feel personalThe Rachel Beckwith story shows how one child’s birthday campaign became a global movement that ultimately helped more than 100,000 peopleThe conversation digs into the tension between mission and family, especially for leaders whose work could easily consume all their timeScott shares how his kids reflect back the values he hopes to modelThe closing theme is generosity as an endless practice - giving, serving, and sharing rather than accumulating You can find Scott at: Website https://www.charitywater.org/ | Charity Water Instagram https://www.instagram.com/charitywater/ | Scott's Instagram https://www.instagram.com/scottharrison/ | Episode Transcript https://www.goodlifeproject.com/podcast/clean-water-crisis-charity-water-effective-philanthropy-scott-harrison Next week, we're bringing you a best-of episode with Mark Nepo, to talk about why falling down might be the most useful thing that happens to you all year. Be sure to follow Good Life Project wherever you get your podcasts so you don't miss that or any upcoming episodes! Check out our sponsors and resources: Visit Our Sponsor Page https://www.goodlifeproject.com/sponsors/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Jonathan Fields?

  20 years ago, Scott Harrison set out to bring clean water to every person and village in the world who needed it, and along the way, saved millions of lives. It was one of those rare problems that was actually 100% solvable. The technology existed. Even if it took a lifetime, it became the defining mission of his life, leading him to launch Charity Water, the billion-dollar movement that began with a birthday party in New York nightclub and grew into one of the most trusted models in philanthropy in the world. What's happened over those two decades and how it's impacted Scott, his family, and millions of others is where we're headed in today's deeply inspiring, story-driven conversation. We talk about the pivotal moments and insights in his quest to build

• 0:44Jonathan Fields?

  something that changes millions of lives. And Scott also shares how he thinks about the tension between mission and family, what it means to build a life around service instead of accumulation, and why work that has no end may be the right work to choose. This episode is essential listening if you care about doing work that genuinely matters, the power of a clear mission, a story well told, and how all of it changes not just you, but everyone that you touch, including your family, your friends, and those around you along the way. So excited to share this conversation with you. I'm Jonathan Fields, and this is Good Life Project. And we'll jump right in after this short break.

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• 2:31Jonathan Fields?

  This episode is brought to you by Choiceology, an original podcast from Charles Schwab, hosted by Katie Milkman, an award-winning behavioral scientist and author of the bestselling book, How to Change. Choiceology is a show about the psychology and economics behind our decisions. Hear true stories from Nobel laureates, authors, athletes, and everyday people about why we do the things we do. Listen to Choiceology at schwab.com/podcast or wherever you listen. Scott Harrison, so great to have you back in the house. It's been eight years, my friend, way too long.

• 3:07Speaker 04

  I can't wait to be back with you. This is such an honor.

• 3:11Jonathan Fields?

  I know. You and I are longtime New Yorkers who have found ourselves outside of New York and sort of since late pandemic days. I'll take you back in time. When you turned 31, which as we're having this conversation 20 years ago, you throw yourself a birthday party back in one of the clubs in New York City. You raise about 15 grand to provide water for some villages in Uganda. If that guy walks into Charity Water today, the foundation that that very party birthed some 20 years ago, the foundation that you have built over the last two decades, what would he say?

• 3:53Speaker 04

  Well, I hope I would try to hire that guy. Because 20 years on, we need that energy. I'm reading a book at the moment called From Barbarians to Bureaucrats.

• 4:05Jonathan Fields?

  Ah, nice.

• 4:06Speaker 04

  Trying to make sure, you know, as we turn 20, you know, that same sense of possibility and inspiration and, you know, craziness, in a way, remains a value of the organization. If he walked in today, I don't think he would recognize it. I don't think that guy ever knew what an organization looked like, behaved like, was structured like. I mean, that guy was a kid who threw a party to nightclub because he wanted to build a well and, you know, wasn't sure what any of it or how to do any of those things. So I'd hope he'd

• 4:49Speaker 04

  be pretty impressed and think it was pretty cool that that, you know, that one well in Uganda has turned into, you know, over a billion dollars and 216,000 projects in 29 countries. And, you know, certainly more of a going concern now than than a nightclub party where people threw $20 in. But I think the whole organization now, you know, would hopefully be infected by that enthusiasm and idealism, maybe.

• 5:22Jonathan Fields?

  Yeah. Idealism is an interesting word, right? 20 years, over a billion dollars, some 21 million people with clean water, probably a lot more than that, actually, as we have this conversation. Over a million people have contributed in various different ways. When I first sat down with you years back, one of the things that really caught me and stayed with me is this notion. You basically said, when I first realized that this was a problem, one of the things that you realized at the same time was, this is one of those rare problems where it is deep, it is vast, it's global, and it is 100% solvable.

• 6:00Speaker 04

  Solvable, yeah.

• 6:01Jonathan Fields?

  And I was struck by that, and it stayed with me. So you've been at this for 20 years now, for two decades of your life. It has been your central devotion. Where are we with that?

• 6:11Speaker 04

  I mean, I probably feature that line and that idea more now than ever before in a world of seemingly unsolvable problems. I feel like the world has gotten more complicated in many ways. A global pandemic, wars, you know, these, some of these major diseases, which now, as we get older, our parents succumb to. My mom was a big part of my story, you know, lived her whole life kind of battling a compromised immune system from a carbon monoxide leak, and then eventually died of pancreatic cancer in a couple of months

• 6:54Speaker 04

  from diagnosis to death. And doctors had no idea how to solve that problem. You know, I have a family member with Parkinson's. They have no idea how to solve that problem. My best friend's dad just passed away from ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease. No idea how to solve that problem. So it seems like we are faced with many intractable problems. But yet, as you said, we know how to give every human being on planet Earth clean water. There's not a single human alive where we're scratching our heads, saying, they're beyond hope. It's so simple. It's so basic. And a lot of different things work in a lot of

• 7:33Speaker 04

  different environments. So there's no one-size-fits-all solution. But you can always get clean water to people 100% of the time, for 100% of the planet. And I think, you know, what is, I don't think anger is the right word, but maybe, you know, what has perplexed me at this moment in time, 20 years later, is that we've really done so little to solve this problem. You know, a billion dollars is a fraction of what I imagined we would have mobilized by now for an issue as basic to humans as water. You know, the fact that,

• 8:16Speaker 04

  you know, we can record this podcast, and while we're comfortably sitting here with our lights and our microphones, there are 700 million humans right now that are drinking dirty water is kind of mind-blowing.

• 8:32Speaker 04

  It's like we have the cure and we've had it for many, many years, but we have not decided to implement the cure. But yet we'll spend tens of billions, hundreds of billions of dollars looking for other cures, which we may or may not find, and specifically cures for health. But we can't deliver the most basic need for human health to 10% of the planet. So that keeps me going because I believe it's possible and it's really as simple as mobilizing the resources and mobilizing the will. And the challenge is, nobody's experienced this problem.

• 9:11Speaker 04

  I bet nobody listening has ever had to poison themselves with dirty water, drink from a brown viscous river, or a contaminated pond, walk eight hours to a faraway water source, and then haul 40 pounds of dirty water back home. It's a problem that we just don't interact with. So it's tough to get people to want to solve a problem they have no experience with.

• 9:44Jonathan Fields?

  So when somebody says, okay, I get that, I acknowledge that, it's hard. And I would love to see if there's somewhere in your heart left for you to find a little bit more for somebody on the other side of the world who you will never meet. How do you do that?

• 10:02Speaker 04

  I mean, you do it through storytelling. You do it by telling stories that connect people, not by statistics, not by percentages, not by 90-page white papers on the state of the global water crisis. You do it by telling stories of real people. And I think that's what has helped us build the movement of Charity Water now to include a couple million donors around the world who have actually resisted that apathy that is so easy to embrace with any of these paralyzing global issues that don't affect us, and has moved people to say, yeah, I can do something.

• 10:44Speaker 04

  I can help one person, or one family, or one community, or 100 communities. And it's really the stories of the people just like us, who were born in a very different circumstance, that don't have that most basic need met. But yet, I mean, many of these communities are living about 100 feet on top of the resource that could change their lives. But they don't have that $10,000, they don't have the drilling rigs, the equipment, the hydrogeologists, they don't have the knowledge to actually access that aquifer of clean water that's trapped in the rock.

• 11:28Speaker 04

  And one of the stories that hit me the most, I've gotten to travel now to 72 countries, and I've been to Africa 55 times, so I've gotten to see a lot of things around the world. And I was in Ethiopia, and this is a place where we've worked for very many years, it's a huge need, and there's also just a huge amount of progress that's being made. And our partners were drilling a well. And when you drill a well in a community, it's a party. Hundreds of people come out, they circle this million-dollar machine that is spinning

• 12:10Speaker 04

  and grinding and turning this drill bit into the earth. There's about nine locals that will run one of these rig packages, they're all Ethiopians, so it's kind of cool to see this community celebrating people that look like them, heroes. And about 90% of the time, they're successful, and on this village, they were successful, they find the clean water, and then they begin flushing it. So this giant stream of clean water from beneath the earth starts shooting up into the sky. And people are clapping, and they're cheering, and the women are dancing, and fathers are picking up their daughters and swinging them around.

• 12:54Speaker 04

  And it's a moment where everybody realizes nothing will ever be the same again. Clean water has been struck. And in one of these villages, there was an older woman off to the side, and she was not a part of this party. She was weeping as she watched all this going on. And one of our drilling partners came up to her and said, like, I don't think you got the memo. Like, this is a happy day. Why are you off here all verklempt and sad? And she said, because I just realized that my entire life, it was right beneath my feet. And all the children that died in this village, all the walking to these faraway sources,

• 13:39Speaker 04

  all the attacks by animals and hyenas, and all of the sadness and suffering, didn't need to happen, because it was about 100 feet underneath the village. And that's really, I think, kept me going, knowing that whatever the solution is, whether it's rainwater harvesting, or a solar-powered pipe system, or a bio sand filter, or drilling a well, you have people waiting right now, and unnecessarily suffering, and we have the problem. And it's just up to us to solve it, to bring that solution.

• 14:19Jonathan Fields?

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• 16:35Speaker 01

  With no fees or minimums on checking accounts, it's no wonder the Capital One Bank guy is so passionate about banking with Capital One. If he were here, he wouldn't just tell you about no fees or minimums. He'd also talk about how most Capital One cafes are open seven days a week to assist with your banking needs. Yep, even on weekends, it's pretty much all he talks about, in a good way. What's in your wallet? Terms apply. See CapitalOne.com slash bank. Capital One, N A, Member FDIC.

• 17:08Jonathan Fields?

  I mean, it occurs to me, really, you're, so you're simultaneously drilling two wells, right? One, you're using physical equipment to access water and bring it to people in need. And the other, using the mechanism of story to open people's hearts and their generosity to help make this all possible. Sometimes both heavy lifts, but the elation on the other side, you know, when you strike water, or when you strike generosity.

• 17:37Speaker 04

  Yeah, I might have told this story the last time I was on, back in 2018, but, you know, one of the kind of organizations' most famous stories, I think, that would illustrate that is of this little nine-year-old girl named Rachel Beckwith, and she lived in Seattle. She'd heard me speak. At the time, we were asking people to donate their birthdays, and instead of accepting gifts, or throwing themselves a party to celebrate their birthday, they would, they would donate their birthdays for clean water. And kind of the sticky marketing message was, you'd ask for your age in dollars. So if you were turning nine, you'd say, could I please have a $9 donation? And if you were turning 89, you would ask for $89. Well,

• 18:21Speaker 04

  this little girl, Rachel was, she was eight, she was turning nine, heard me speak, you know, couldn't believe that children were drinking dirty water a world away. And she canceled her birthday party, and she refuses to accept any gifts. And she set a $300 goal. And she didn't quite get there, Jonathan, she raised $220. And she told her mom, you know, I feel like a failure, I'm gonna try harder next year. I didn't reach my goal. And then sadly, right after her birthday, she was killed in a terrible car crash. It was a 21-car pileup on the interstate. Her mom was driving, she was in the backseat,

• 19:03Speaker 04

  and she was the only fatality, as this tractor trailer just took out her car and her life. And the family reached out to us and said, we'd love to reopen this campaign that was $80 short. And story of, the story of this little girl, who had considered people drinking dirty water more important than what we'd expect every nine-year-old girl would want, the stuffies, or the party, or the celebration. It just traveled around the world, and I think it was 59,000 strangers gave $9 or more in her honor. And she wound up going

• 19:46Speaker 04

  from $220 of impact to over 1.2 million. And what I wouldn't have known the last time I was on, if I told that story, was that she inspired so many other people to follow her lead and donate their birthday, that they raised millions more. So this little girl, you know, who wanted to help a couple people, wound up helping well over 100,000 humans. You know, five Madison Square Gardens where we're from, full of clean water, because she got it, and she opened up her heart, and she tapped into that. You know, there's something about the innocence of a child, I think, that sometimes makes us consider

• 20:29Speaker 04

  our way of life and our values. And, you know, just, she never got to live to see that impact. But I remember, on the one-year anniversary of her death, I got to take her mom and her grandparents, village to village, in Ethiopia. And they got to meet the children who had clean water, because of their child and their grandchild. They got to meet other mothers and other grandmothers, who watched their whole communities transformed. And it was just, it was one of the most powerful things, getting to see two things happen at once. The legacy of a child inspire 60,000 strangers towards generosity, and then

• 21:12Speaker 04

  to actually see the 100,000 people who got clean water as a result.

• 21:18Jonathan Fields?

  You know, I hear that story, and I hear so many of the other stories that I've heard you share over the years, and I see the impact that you're doing, and my jaw drops. It's astonishing. And in the right moment, in the right way, people can be incredibly generous. There's something that awakens in them. Never, never, of course, wanting to invite any kind of tragedy as a motivation, but that's led to an incredible amount of impact. At the same time, and tell me if I'm, if I'm getting these numbers right or wrong, I believe I've heard you say that, like, of the 100% that we talked about eight years ago, and that you sort of like said, this is, this is 100% solvable, I would like

• 21:59Jonathan Fields?

  to 100% solve this. You're probably somewhere over, over two decades now, somewhere around 3% to 5% into that.

• 22:06Speaker 04

  No, you're very, you're very close. Yeah, of the available problem, we've done about 1/35.

• 22:12Jonathan Fields?

  Yeah. So how do you, how do you keep working on something that you care so deeply about, when the honest scorecard says, on any given day, that you've barely started? And you're, you're turning 51. At this pace, the likelihood of you finishing this in your lifetime is, is slim to none. So how do you stay in it?

• 22:41Speaker 04

  Well, I don't know that I agree with that. Let me talk a bit about progress. So when I started 20 years ago, there were a billion people drinking dirty water, and there were 6 billion people living in the world, which is astonishing. So 1 in 6. I remember these shirts we printed, like, one glass of dirty water, five clean. Okay, now we've got, you know, almost 8 billion people in the world, but we're down to 700 million people drinking dirty water. So we went from 1 in 6 to 1 in 10, 1 in 11. Now, the pace of progress is far too slow. And as we play this out, you know, we think we're about 60 years from solving the problem. So to your point, Jonathan, I probably will

• 23:23Speaker 04

  not live to 111. So I will give you that. But 60 years feels, you know, within reach for a trajectory change, or a moment that could change, you know, tipping point moment that could change that trajectory. What animates me 20 years later, is knowing that we are working on a solvable problem, down to the last human being on earth. I can't overstate that. Like, if you knew that whatever you were doing, like, 100% of people need your product to live, right? It's like, and you feel, you feel unanimously, unequivocally

• 24:05Speaker 04

  good about delivering your product to the entire world, to 8 billion humans, right? So I feel that way. You know, I've gotten to make a lot of speeches over the last years, and, you know, do a bunch of podcasts. You know, no one has pulled me aside at the end of a speech, or at the end of a podcast, and said, hey, Scott, I think you're wasting your time. Let them drink bad water. Like, why? You know, right? So it's kind of this universal, inarguable, common good. And we know how to solve it. And we have, you know, I call it a 60-year-ish timeline of solving it, if all things are equal, and

• 24:44Speaker 04

  we just keep kind of plodding along. And there really is that sense, that we, because we have showed up for 20 years, and we have never compromised our integrity, and we've tried to be unbelievable stewards of the money that we have been trusted, that you never know. You know, someone can walk in the office and make a billion-dollar commitment.

• 25:08Jonathan Fields?

  Yeah. Over that 20-year window, I mean, nobody does anything at scale for two decades, and has it always go well. Were there moments where you showed up one day, and you're just like, you considered walking away or shutting it down?

• 25:24Speaker 04

  I mean, there were a lot of moments. I think our business model is unique, and also existentially difficult. For people not familiar with Charity Water, from day one, we opened up a separate bank account to pay for all of the staff salaries, for the overhead, for the flights, for the office rent, you know, anything that wasn't kind of directly going into the construction of a lifesaving water project. And, I mean, that posed challenges.

• 25:58Speaker 04

  And continues to pose challenges. I just came out of a three hour budget meeting. You know, we don't have the funding to do the things that we wish we could do. And in some ways are constrained by that model. Yet it's also led so many people to donate and tell us that it's the first donation they've made because they know 100% is going directly to help people. And because we bifurcated all of the overhead and all of the public donations, we were able to build out unbelievably cool tracking technology that would track every single donation down to the village and show people who was helped. So if, you know, somebody

• 26:40Speaker 04

  gave $6.12 of lemonade stand money, we could show the little girl or the little boy where the $6.12 went and make that gift real for them and to restore their faith in giving. So I think that's been kind of, you know, in some ways, the blessing and the curse harder to grow because you have to raise all of that growth capital separately. And the way we do it is there's about 150 families who show up in that bank account and their donations go to pay for the 100 and some staff and the flights and, you know, and then millions of people in the other bank account have been able to give in that purest way possible, whether they give a dollar or a million dollars, knowing that 100% goes to help people get

• 27:25Speaker 04

  water and then is all tracked. So, yeah, I think that has just posed a lot of extra challenges along the way.

• 27:36Jonathan Fields?

  You know, for those who don't know your fuller story, you spent about a decade in New York City as a nightclub promoter. One of the holiest, most honest, sincere careers that you could ever have. For those who don't know, this is the world.

• 27:50Speaker 04

  Just put an un and an in between all those adjectives and you've got it.

• 27:54Jonathan Fields?

  Yeah, there was, there was a moment in New York City, like in the 90s especially, where like you can make a metric ton of money and basically get thrown everything you ever wanted, like the most hedonistic way that you could possibly live. And it was, it was good until it wasn't. You, you did that for about a decade and then sort of had a moment of, a moment of reckoning and, and started a bit of a redemption tour. And, but you've used the, the whole time in Charity Water, I think this was so apparent, especially in the early days when nobody else was doing this. You use your nightclub promoter skills, your ability to tell a story that everybody wants to be invited into, to build Charity Water. 20 years down the road, what, what part of that guy from the clubs is still running this, this joint?

• 28:38Speaker 04

  I mean, I, I think a lot of them. Look, I mean, when you promote nightclubs and I, and I promoted 40 different nightclubs over 10 years in New York City from 18 to 28, you are trying to convince people that yours is the place to be, right? Get past your velvet rope into your club where you have the best DJs and the best room in the city. Spend a whole lot of money on overpriced alcohol, right? $25 cocktails, $1,000 bottles of champagne. And if you do all of this, your life has profound meaning. Well, maybe you leave with a pretty boy or a pretty girl at the end of the night, right? So that's

• 29:21Speaker 04

  kind of the story that you just keep telling in different ways and variations on a theme for 10 years at 40 different venues, getting people to come and to move and to spend their money. And, you know, I, I think what I realized at 28 was I'm, I'm telling the wrong story. This, this does not give life profound meaning. Running around, getting drunk, doing drugs, you know, smoking cigarettes and going home at six in the morning. Yeah, this is not the life plan that I should probably be promoting. And in, in many ways, for the last 20 years, I have, I have been super promoting just a very different story, a story of generosity

• 30:06Speaker 04

  and care and compassion and clean water. And just sort of maybe promoting a simple idea that, you know, I'm, I'm creating or together, we're co-creating a world where every human has clean water to drink and everyone is invited to the party, right? Nine-year-old girls are invited to the party and 89-year-olds and billionaires and, you know, people who own a single car wash and a single mom with three jobs. Like everyone is invited to this party where we're creating the world that we want to live in, where humans have the most basic need for life met. And everybody has access to this thing that, again, so many of us were just born into a world of, so many of us just take

• 30:51Speaker 04

  for granted. So it's, it's, it's really just using the same skill now for 30 years, but really changing the direction that skill is aimed in and, and certainly changing the story.

• 31:06Jonathan Fields?

  And we'll be right back after a word from our sponsors.

• 31:11Jonathan Fields?

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• 31:53Jonathan Fields?

  Apple Card is issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA Salt Lake City Branch. Terms and more at applecard.com. Good Life Project is sponsored by Whatnot. So I love buying books and for some reason, I especially love buying used books. I just had so much fun literally minutes ago. I picked up the entire Hunger Games trilogy of books for only $11 and also got this beautiful thank you from the seller and a welcome from all the others in the chat. Whatnot is the largest dedicated live shopping platform from beauty to luxury fashion, even cookies, and you almost never pay full price. Plus, what really gets me is the other side of the screen. On Whatnot, anyone can sell, whether your business is big or small or

• 32:35Jonathan Fields?

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• 33:02Speaker 01

  With no fees or minimums on checking accounts, it's no wonder the Capital One Bank guy is so passionate about banking with Capital One. If he were here, he wouldn't just tell you about no fees or minimums. He'd also talk about how most Capital One cafes are open seven days a week to assist with your banking needs. Yep. Even on weekends, it's pretty much all he talks about, in a good way. What's in your wallet? Terms apply. See capitalone.com/bank. Capital One, N A, Member FDIC.

• 33:36Jonathan Fields?

  Talking about changing and stories, just on a personal level, you're a very different human being than you were 20 years ago. You're in a very, a different position in your life than eight years ago when we had a conversation. If we zoom the lens out, bigger picture, while you've been building Charity Water, you've gotten married, became a dad to four kids, left New York. At the same time where you are still deeply involved and running, centering in no small way, 3%, 3% to 4% into this 100% mission that consumes

• 34:15Jonathan Fields?

  a lot of you, your waking hours, your bandwidth. How is it, when you're so committed to something that you feel is so deeply important, how has it been trying to do right by your foundation, which could easily consume all of your days, do right by the millions of people who you want to stay alive, when you know you could make a difference, which could also consume 200% of your day, and at the same time, do right by your family and your wife and your kids all at once?

• 34:45Speaker 04

  I mean, Jonathan, that is the tension to manage, the tension of all tensions to manage. And I think I'm very, very fortunate. I read a book when I first started Charity Water about a very famous international charity founder. And he went on to create a multi-billion dollar work. And he was a force of nature, flying around the world to disaster zones, to earthquakes, you know, to famines and just with this larger-than-life personality, meeting needs and building this organization. And one day, his daughter committed suicide

• 35:27Speaker 04

  and in her note, I said something to the effect of, my dad might have been there for millions of other kids, but he was never there for me. And I just remember thinking, I think that's the wrong choice. I'm pretty sure that's the wrong choice. And I don't want to ever make that choice. So I think there are, there are moments of balance where I feel like I am serving the organization and the mission and serving my family and both are getting served really well. And then there are moments of imbalance where I could be over-serving the family and feel like I'm letting down the organization by

• 36:12Speaker 04

  not getting on the planes the way that I used to. There are also moments where I'm working too hard and I'm not home. And, you know, I get home after five nights on the road and I'm home for eight hours and then I leave on another plane for something and I'm not serving the, the family so well. So I think I'm so aware of, of trying to do both things as well as I can, maybe not at deficit, but it's a tension to manage because, you know, every plane I don't get on and spend that time with my family, being a husband and a father, there are lives at the other end of that, that, that could be

• 36:54Speaker 04

  compromised with clean water. But, you know, if I am on all those planes and I'm chasing, you know, all these donor meetings and making all the speeches, there's a family at home that is, is being sacrificed for that. So it's, it, there's no easy answer to that, except I think knowing that this is always a tension and trying to manage it and then getting feedback, you know, on, on how you're doing.

• 37:19Jonathan Fields?

  When you think about, about that family of yours.

• 37:26Jonathan Fields?

  And you are, you are the storyteller. This has been, this has been your cheat code for like, pretty much your entire adult life. What's the story that you want your vocation to tell your kids?

• 37:40Speaker 04

  Well, it's pretty cool. I was, I actually just came out two days ago from the wilderness of Utah. I do a trip every year with one of my kids off grid. So kind of four days, no phone, camping. And this trip was the first one I led. So I brought eight other fathers with eight of their sons. So there were nine dads, nine sons, kind of from 10 to 17. And we had some really intentional time around the campfires where we tried to speak life into our kids and what we saw in them. And then they got to talk about us as well. And my son went last. So I remember thinking like, what if he doesn't even want to go? You know, the other eight kids went and, and he kind of said two things.

• 38:25Speaker 04

  He said, you know, what I love most about my dad is he sees problems in the world and he tries to fix them. And that he always has time for me.

• 38:35Speaker 04

  So, I mean, in that moment, three days ago in the Utah wilderness, like, you know, it seems like maybe that's enough balance, or at least for this 11 year old boy, dad's trying to do two things that are really often at odds. Fixing a massive problem in the world and always having time for him. And at least recognizing that. So that felt pretty good.

• 39:00Jonathan Fields?

  Yeah. I mean, as, as a parent, we're always trying to, you know, to model to our kids how we hope they might think about living in the world, right? And it's, we all know that it doesn't matter what you say, they're just looking at how you behave.

• 39:12Speaker 04

  Yeah. And the family story, maybe to more directly answer your question, I think is, hey, we've been blessed. And, you know, we have, I mean, we've been blessed in so many ways. I mean, I was born in a middle-class family in Philadelphia and I had clean water my whole life. My kids are born into a world where all four of them are going to have clean water their whole life and a roof over the head if they want it and food and, you know, how, so I think, so then therefore, you know, what should we do with that, with that blessing? And I think it's just, how do we use what we've been given? How do we use our time? How do we use the talents we've been given and then later develop? How do we use our money in the service of others?

• 39:56Speaker 04

  And that's going to look different at different points in life. They don't need to get into a humanitarian profession, profession to make me proud, but they need, they do need to be givers. They need to, they need to be generous to make me proud. So I think generosity is such a core value of our family. I mean, I've now personally been able to give a million dollars of our own family money over 20 years to Charity Water. Through writing a book in the advance and through just donating our own cash every single year. There's just a sense of, you know, I can't ask anyone to do something I'm not willing to do. And, and I can't ask anyone else to make sacrifices unless I'm willing to make those same sacrifices.

• 40:41Speaker 04

  So I know that they see that as well. And, you know, I, I want our family kind of motto to just be like, the hairs are just so generous. You know, we're always trying to pick up the check. We're always trying to help a friend in need, you know, and we don't need the credit either. You know, we like doing it silently. We like paying that bill because somebody, you know, was really hard up and them not knowing it was us that paid that bill.

• 41:05Jonathan Fields?

  Yeah. It's, it's an interesting point also there's, I remember years ago being exposed to what was described as Rambam's ladder, my mom, my mom, that is, sort of like has this really, the levels of giving. And, and the highest level, from what I recall, was when the recipient has no idea that you gave. And that always stuck with me, you know, but oftentimes if there isn't some promise of recognition on the other side of giving, people don't want to give.

• 41:37Speaker 04

  And I'm just pragmatic about that. So, you know, I mean, there's, there's people who put their names on buildings and make big gifts. And there's people who, who, who don't and will give in that way. It's funny, trying to, during our galas, very early, we used to do galas in New York City at the Met and other places. And very early I realized I needed to design the giving moments for those two kinds of people. So I would have an iPad connected to a giant screen and you could give and see your name. Or you could give and it would be anonymous. And absolutely no judgment, you know?

• 42:18Speaker 04

  And I would say a lot of people who give to show their name could inspire others to follow their lead. And then there's other people who are like, man, if I ever had to put my name on a screen, you would get $0. So I wanted them also to get that, the pleasure, the benefit of giving in that kind of secret way. So I'm not out really, you know, preaching a philosophy, except that the giving is the most important thing. You know, people find their own way with that, right? Kind of people find their own experience and, yeah, I was, I was actually one of the dads on this trip. Very successful venture capitalists in Silicon Valley. And they're, they're Christians, so they tithe on gross.

• 42:59Speaker 04

  So 10% of whatever comes into the family, they give to church and charity. But when he got married 26 years ago, he said, in addition to that, we're going to start adding an extra percentage of whatever we make of gross. And every year it's going to grow. So this year it's 26%. So they're giving away 10% plus 26%. Next year it'll be 27%, next year it'll be 28%. And I kind of love, like, everybody finds their own way. I heard of an author once, again, kind of a faith-based community, and he wound up reverse tithe. He said, I'll keep 10% and give away 90%.

• 43:39Speaker 04

  We have another family who's donated well over $10 million over the last 15 years to Charity Water. And they've capped their income, I believe, at 170 grand. And they just won't live on more than 170 grand a year and just believe that all the surplus of kind of meeting those needs should go to end suffering in the world. So I've gotten to interact with so many interesting people who even, you know, get me to think about how generous I am. And, you know, how we should be living our life. And I think it's fun watching people find their own ways. And honestly, 26% feels better than 25%. And 25% feels better than 15%.

• 44:20Speaker 04

  So if you ask them along that journey, every year, it's not like, oh, wow, we have less money to keep. We have less money to spend and go buy expensive things. It's like, we have more money to give. We have more money to do good.

• 44:36Jonathan Fields?

  I love that take. It really, it's just, you know, the end of the day, the net impact is the net impact. Whether you're recognized for it on the giving side or not, the end of the day, like the generosity is there and, and it's there to do good work in the world. And also like circling back to the earlier part of the question, like if you can model that for those around you. And also create just an environment where it's like, you know what? Maybe raising kids and you want them to be generous kids. Whatever it is that makes you feel good, like anonymous, recognized, not whatever, that's good. But just set aside a piece of your heart, a piece of your allowance, a piece of your lemonade stand money, whatever it may be.

• 45:16Jonathan Fields?

  And, and just earmark it for something bigger than yourself. I think it's a, it's, it's, it's a good and inclusive and forgiving way to sort of like tee it up. It feels like a good place for us to come full circle. I asked you this question eight years ago and I actually went back and, because I wanted to see how you answered. And the way I always end these conversations is in this container of Good Life Project. If I offer up the phrase to live a good life, what comes up? I want to tell you, which I usually don't do.

• 45:48Speaker 04

  Yeah, I want to hear. Good. I'm glad.

• 45:50Jonathan Fields?

  Years ago, when I asked you, you said, you know, somebody sent me a picture that they took of a sign in a bodega. And that sign said, do not be afraid of work that has no end.

• 46:08Speaker 04

  Yeah, I mean, I still love that idea, the idea of, because you have to define the work. So if the work is service, if the work is generosity, if the work is sharing and giving, there's no finish line. I love that. There's no drop the mic moment where you can say, I've done enough. I have given enough. And yeah, so I just, I continue to love that idea of kind of the endless pursuit, the be not afraid of that endless work, but make sure, because we all know people who are working to accumulate. That also has no

• 46:50Speaker 04

  end, because someone always has a better house and a better car and a better boat and a better plane if you get there. Right? The work with no end in wealth and accumulation. I was doing some research on Rockefeller recently, and he was interviewed in 1906, and he was asked, how much is enough? And you know what he said? Just a little more. Right. So I think, you know, we all know people kind of pursuing just a little more in resources. And I think just a little more giving, just a little more sharing, just a little more service is the work I'd hope my whole family, you know, would continue to embrace. And so many people in the Charity Water community have embraced. So I don't

• 47:35Speaker 04

  know that I have a different answer for you, Jonathan. I still like that answer.

• 47:39Jonathan Fields?

  It sounds like it's pretty solid. It's sustained for eight years, and maybe it'll keep sustaining beyond that. So let's talk about some of the big ahas and actionable takeaways from this conversation. One thing I keep turning to is really, it's how Scott talks about progress. 20 years, over a billion dollars raised, and by his own estimate, they've solved something like 1/35 of the actual problem, somewhere around 3% of it. And he's not discouraged by that. Slow is not the same as stuck. He's making a difference and sees a future where that will accelerate. Then there's the way that he talks about generosity itself, kind of like something in all of us that gets easier to access the

• 48:20Jonathan Fields?

  more we use it. The same reservoir that led a nine-year-old girl's birthday raise over a million dollars in clean water, when it inspired so many others to kick in. And there's the family that he mentioned, who kept their own income at $170,000 a year, giving away everything above that on purpose every year for 15 years. So if there's a place in your week to notice this, it's the next time that you feel that maybe you're moving too slowly on something that matters to you, or that you're doing something that's really hard work, and it's so big, and you're only making a small dent. Even small dents make a difference. And it's the beginning, potentially, of something much bigger. So ask yourself, are

• 49:03Jonathan Fields?

  you really just stuck? Or are you just early in the game? And just keep going. And hey, before you leave, next week, we're bringing you a best of episode with Mark Nepo, to talk about why falling down might be the most useful thing that happens to you all year. Be sure to follow Good Life Project wherever you get your podcasts, so you don't miss that or any upcoming episodes. And do me a quick favor, share this conversation with just one person you know, who you feel like really needs a little bit of inspiration these days. They need to hear what we talked about. And leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts. It helps us get discovered and brings more people into the conversation. This episode of Good Life Project was produced by executive producers Lindsay Fox and me, Jonathan Fields, editing help by Troy Young and Alejandro Ramirez, Chris Carter, crack

• 49:48Jonathan Fields?

  at our theme music. And of course, if you haven't already, please go ahead and follow us wherever you get your podcasts, so you never miss a conversation. Until next time, I'm Jonathan Fields, signing off for Good Life Project.

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