charity: water on the impact of authenticity

At charity: water, storytelling is more than just a tool; it’s the heart of their mission. The pioneering non-profit organization is committed to providing clean and safe water to those in need. Since its inception, charity: water has inspired over 1 million supporters to join its mission, resulting in the provision of clean water to over 18.6 million people worldwide.

We chatted with Cubby Graham, content lead and photographer extraordinaire, to explore the heartfelt approaches that drive charity: water and how tools like Dropmark help them document and share their impactful work.

What is the inspiration behind charity: water and its mission?

Charity: water is a non-profit organization on a mission to bring clean and safe water to people in need. When charity: water first began, over 1 billion people were without access to clean water. We’ve now had more than 1 million supporters join our mission and have helped fund clean water for over 18.6 million people. There are still about 703 million people that don’t have access to clean water, but together we believe we can end the water crisis in our lifetime.

Tell me about the creative process at charity:water. How do you all approach the projects you work on?

Our creative process is deeply rooted in relationships. It all begins with our local partner network, which plays a crucial role in our approach. These partners have developed long-term relationships with the communities where we work, fostering trust and connection over time.

When we start a new project, the first few days are dedicated to getting to know the people in the community. We immerse ourselves in their environment, listen to their stories, and try to understand their context. This initial phase is essential as it helps us build a foundation of trust. We believe meaningful stories can only be documented when we have genuine trust and understanding between us and the community members.

Focusing on relationships first ensures that the stories we tell are authentic and respectful. This approach not only helps us capture the true essence of the community’s experiences but also empowers the people we work with, giving them a voice in how their stories are shared with the world.

Creating deep relationships sets charity: water apart. How do authentic community stories help achieve your goals?

Telling and celebrating authentic stories has been foundational to our brand identity from the very beginning. We work to intentionally cultivate genuine community and connection by sharing individual stories that highlight the life-changing impact of clean water, making our mission tangible and personal.

It’s challenging to grasp that 703 million people lack access to clean water, so instead of overwhelming people with statistics, we focus on sharing individual experiences that connect with people emotionally and inspire action. By building trust-based relationships and empowering communities to share their stories, we connect supporters to the real impact of their contributions.

How does Dropmark fit into your workflow?

Dropmark has played a huge role in creating a centralized place to create collections from all the countries where we work, and empower our team, supporters and partners with access to photographs to help spread the word and support our mission. We visit our local partners a number of times a year, to document and capture stories of the impact that clean water is having on communities around the world. We’ll often return with thousands of photographs and dozens of stories. We love using the Stacks feature to make it simple and easy to locate all of the photographs for a specific story and keep everything organized for our team.

We love the minimal design and beautiful layout of Dropmark. It’s super simple and intuitive for people to use, which is extremely important to us since we’re often sharing links to collections externally, and we’re always thinking about the experience for our supporters.

Lastly, just for fun: What’s the most interesting thing you’ve Dropmarked recently?

One of the most recent things I’ve Dropmarked was a batch of 35mm film photos from a trip to Uganda. Over the past few years, I started to capture more film photographs during our travels as a way to continue to hone my skills and experiment with different storytelling mediums. On this particular trip, we had the opportunity to be there as our local partners were building a new water project, which is always an incredible honor and occasion to witness. This was a still from drilling day where the excitement and anticipation was palpable as people gathered to witness this historical community event - getting access to clean and safe water.

If you’d like to help make more moments like this or these possible, you can learn more at charitywater.org.

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