Charity Global, Inc. (charity: water)

What does Charity Global, Inc. do?

It raises donations and grants them to local partner organizations that build and maintain clean water systems in developing countries. It also monitors project performance, verifies results with GPS and photos, and reports proof to donors. It does not drill wells or build systems with its own staff.

Is Charity Global, Inc. publicly traded?

No. It is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and cannot issue stock. It is funded entirely by donations and grants.

Who founded charity: water?

Scott Harrison, a former New York City nightclub promoter, founded the organization in September 2006 after two years volunteering as a photojournalist on a hospital ship in Liberia. He serves as CEO today.

Where is charity: water headquartered?

The organization is headquartered in Franklin, Tennessee, near Nashville. It also maintains offices in New York City and Hagerstown, Maryland.

Who owns charity: water?

No one. As a nonprofit, Charity Global, Inc. has no shareholders and cannot be owned or acquired. It is governed by an independent board of directors.

How much does charity: water raise each year?

In fiscal year 2025, ended September 30, 2025, the organization raised more than $90 million. Public donations fund water projects, while private Well donors cover operating costs.

Scott Harrison founded the organization in September 2006 in New York City. Before that he spent ten years promoting nightclubs, then left to volunteer aboard a hospital ship off Liberia as a photojournalist. Seeing patients sickened by contaminated water convinced him that clean water was the lever that made other aid work possible, and he launched charity: water with a birthday fundraiser that asked for donations instead of gifts.

The September campaign became an annual fixture. Early supporters included the tech community in New York, and the organization's use of GPS tracking and photo proof set it apart in a sector where donors rarely saw where money went. Within its first decade it raised well over $100 million in public donations and funded tens of thousands of projects.

The organization incorporated as Charity Global, Inc., a New York nonprofit, and built its early office in Manhattan's Tribeca neighborhood. In 2021 Harrison and his family moved to Franklin, Tennessee, part of the Nashville metro area, and operations gradually split between Tennessee and New York. The organization opened the charity: water Experience Lab at The Factory at Franklin, an immersive exhibit on the global water crisis.

Strategic priorities have shifted over time from raw project counts to long-term functionality. Since roughly 2015 the organization has invested in remote sensor technology that monitors whether water points still work, and its fiscal 2025 report committed $4.4 million specifically to sustainability, repairs, and maintenance. That year it funded 22,414 projects across 20 countries for 1.4 million people.

The organization's core mission is environmental and social: expanding access to clean water reduces disease, frees women and girls from water collection labor, and cuts the need to boil water with wood or charcoal. Its sustainability investments include remote monitoring sensors and dedicated maintenance funding to keep systems working after installation.

Ethical governance practices include annual publication of audited financial statements with a clean KPMG opinion, public Form 990 filings, and a Give.org accreditation review showing roughly 77 percent of spending to programs. Independent charity evaluators have periodically questioned the 100 percent marketing claim's framing, though the underlying financial separation is disclosed in audits.

Charity Global has no record of regulatory penalties or legal action. Media scrutiny has focused on two areas: whether the 100 percent model oversimplifies nonprofit cost structures, and a 2019 report that some early-funded water projects had failed within a few years. The organization responded to the latter by expanding monitoring, funding maintenance, and investing in sensor technology to track water point uptime. Current reporting shows both criticisms addressed operationally rather than legally.