“Whoever gives only a cup of cold water…” (Mt. 10:42)
Those of us “at a certain age” may still carry a built-in, hard-to-shake distrust of corporations and millionaire Hollywood actors. The tale of Water.org may help us shake both moldy assumptions.
An actor like Matt Damon could luxuriate in his wealth, probably enjoying multiple homes and private jets, right? Wrong. Twenty years ago, as he surveyed the developing world, he concluded that the lack of clean water undergirded severe poverty. It meant disease at worst, and at best, millions of families spending more than 15% of their income on water, girls who should be in school or women who could run small businesses instead collectively spending 200 million hours a day hauling buckets. He partnered with Gary White, an engineer and problem-solver who, traveling in Honduras, observed “how many above-ground graves there were, and how small most of them were.” Young children were dying from water-related diseases.
Then in India he met a woman who was paying a loan shark $125 in interest to buy a toilet. “What if?” he thought, “we lend this woman and millions like her the money for a toilet or water tap, they repay it gradually and own it in the end?” Minor miracles: microfinance institutions started lending for water connections and toilets, families repaid the loans at 98% within 2 years, White partnered with Damon and 90 million people on four continents have been helped.
Problem solved? Not quite. Two billion, or 1 in 4 people still live without access to clean water. Here’s where we come in. This summer, corporations– the Gap, Starbucks, Amazon, Ecolab and others still joining—are partnering with Water.org to educate people about the global water crisis and take meaningful action to help solve it. Learn more about this effort at https://getblue.water.org.
With each purchase from its Get Blue Collection spanning children through adult sizes, Gap will donate $5 to Water.org. Trust me—I have the t-shirt, my grandkids sport the jeans and sweatshirts, and the tiny bear wearing the slogan is highly coveted in our family. (Full disclosure: their dad is the CFO of water.org.)
From June 16 through July 7, 2026, Starbucks will donate $0.25 to Water.org for every purchase of an Iced Blue Coconut Matcha or a Blue Coconut Refresher.
Tell Alexa, “donate to water.org,” and Amazon will make a one-time donation of $5 in your name.
“Ecolab will commit $1 million through the Ecolab Foundation, with $500K delivered immediately and $500K delivered upon helping its customers achieve 255 billion gallons of water savings through the use of its products this year.”
Ever take it for granted that water flows from your faucet, or a hot shower streams forth at the turn of a dial? Next time you’re sipping that icy glass, think of the two billion people who still don’t have it.
Kathy Coffey 