This time of year is always super exciting for us because it’s when we make the final tallies for our annual donation. This year, we were able to donate over $2.5 million Australian dollars to our incredible non-profit partners. We’re blown away. Less than 10 years ago, our annual donation was only $2,500. Time really does fly when you’re having fun (and changing the world).
Now we’ve reached an unbelievable milestone – over $10 million Australian dollars (have a play here if you’re not an Aussie) in donations to date. We’re so grateful for our community, the hundreds of thousands of people who put their bums on the line, for making this happen. With this milestone, we’ve really been able to hone in on our vision (and acknowledge that we have a long way to go).
We’re over $10 million towards that goal, but we still have billions to go. Yes, billions. But with a lot of hard work and the support of our amazing community, we’ll get there. We know we’ll get there.
To make our vision a reality, we’ll have to continue scaling our donations and bringing on new, high-impact partner organisations. That’s why we’re so excited to be working with 3 new non-profits in the water, hygiene and sanitation space (along with our old friends, WaterAid, SHOFCO, Lwala, iDE and Sanergy).
Water For People
Water For People has pioneered the “Everyone Forever” approach. That means their goal is to ensure every household, school, and health clinic has access to WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) AND the local government has the capacity to maintain these services. They work with local community members, businesses and governments to bring sustainable services to an area, then they provide the tools and training to maintain these systems for generations to come.
Splash
Splash is all about bringing water, hygiene, sanitation, and menstrual health services to children in the world’s densest cities. Between 2019-2023, Splash is aiming to bring WASH services to 100% of school children in the impact cities where they work in India and Ethiopia. That’s almost 1 million kids in total!
Water & Sanitation for the Urban Poor
WSUP (we say it like “Wassup”) works to prepare cities for the inevitable urbanisation and address the current lack of services in informal settlements. They do this by supporting water, sanitation and hygiene businesses and helping them expand services, advocating for policies that support the most vulnerable and helping local governments build the technical skills for maintaining these services through city growth and climate change.
We’ve already said we’re not stopping until everyone has access to drinkable water and a safe place to use the bathroom. It’s a long term vision, but it has a real impact in the short term too.
Over a year into a global pandemic, access to water and hygiene services is more important than ever. We’re so glad that our support could reach people at their most vulnerable and we hope you realise the difference your support has to people all around the world. Here’s a note from one of our partners after we told them about our donation:
“This couldn't come at a better time for our communities who are battling the deadliest wave we've experienced since the start of the pandemic.”
We started this business because we thought people could change the world by making tiny choices. Small decisions, like where to buy toilet paper, could make a real difference. Little kind acts can add up to have an unbelievable impact. Thank you for proving us right.
Now let’s start working on the next $10 million.