charity: water was taking donations by check and phone. The founders had rough ideas and mocks for something new: a site where anyone could give up their birthday, or run any kind of campaign, to fund clean water projects. Michael and Xochi Birch backed the build, and Michael hacked together the first prototype himself.

I led engineering as a contractor while the founders drove product, and helped shape the UX along the way. With one junior developer, I took it from that prototype and the founders’ mocks to a launched platform, including the virality mechanics and the scale readiness it needed, because it was launching straight into their September Campaign media push.

Scott Harrison tells this build’s story in his book Thirst: the kitchen-table prototype, then a paid engineer working full time for six months on a brand-new platform. That engineer was me.

It raised $500,000 from 2,000 donors in its first two months, funding 100 water projects and bringing clean water to 25,000 people. In its first two years, over 10,000 fundraisers raised more than $11 million on the platform. Social fundraising is everywhere now; this was the site that proved the model, and charity: water’s peer-to-peer fundraising has since passed $100 million in donations.

The mycharity: water homepage on October 20, 2009 showing $502,758 raised

October 20, 2009, seven weeks after launch: the live counter passes $500,000, with 100 water projects funded.

The platform even kept a lane for the old world: donors who still wanted to mail a check got a memo code so their gift counted toward the right campaign.

The donate by check screen with a memo code

Bridging the check era into social fundraising.

In the press

We were spending more than 50 percent of our time on the mycharity: water platform. It was our bread and butter, the thing that made us a charity for everyone.
Scott Harrison, founder of charity: water, in his book Thirst
The mycharity: water website... was the source of 70% of charity: water's fundraising last year.
Fundraising & Philanthropy magazine, 2011
mycharitywater.org has raised over $37 million.
Paull Young, Director of Digital, charity: water, in 2014, five years after launch
Check out their excellent mycharity platform to start fundraising your own project now.
Mashable, 2010

Coverage