About this time two years ago, something lit a fire in me.
I’d been involved in Never Settle for about a year already, donating here and there and occasionally talking to Jeremy about upcoming projects. When I heard there was a non-profit benefit for one of Never Settle’s partners in my area, I was intrigued. I signed up.
It was a benefit for Splash, a Seattle-based organization dedicated to providing clean water for children around the world. Although I didn’t know a single person in the room, I was welcomed like an old friend, quickly getting ushered from person to person who excitedly told me about what brought them to Splash. I met employees and volunteers from Splash’s project sites — Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia. I was even shown a demonstration of Splash’s sustainable filtration technology, where a crowd of us watched dirty, brown water siphon into a series of filters, and emerge on the other side clean, sparkling, and pure. Avid fans of proof of concept, the Splash staff poured us glasses of that same water, and we toasted.
We took our seats for the fundraising portion of the event as Eric Stowe, Splash’s founder, hopped up to the stage. He told the story of Splash’s humble beginnings, starting with his own curiosity at why an orphanage in China didn’t have clean water, but the McDonald’s down the street did.
As Eric continued to speak in frank detail about the number of children served per filtration system, and the declining mortality rate that followed each installation, I was in awe of just how tangible Splash’s impact was. And, with their incredible transparency, they were able to tell me exactly how and where my donation would be used.
I was hooked.
Never Settle’s commitment to working with upstanding partners like Splash is what makes me keep coming back to this organization. With Never Settle, I’m not giving to a black hole, or a blanket good cause that disappears with the click of a button. Every donation, every dollar, is proved through Never Settle’s impact reports.
I know we’re all busy making resolutions this time of year. It’s the year we’ll try that new hobby or kick that old habit, all in the name of self-improvement. But what if this year we made a resolution to better someone else’s life instead of our own? Someone who can’t do it themselves? With Never Settle and their array of quality partners, that opportunity is at your fingertips. See the impact for yourself. Together we can help better someone else’s 2015.
Kae Hondorp,
Team Never Settle
[button size=”large” align=”center” full=”true” link=”http://neversettle.org/donate/” bgColor=”rgba(0,125,195,1)”]DONATE TO CLEAN WATER PROJECTS IMPLEMENTED BY SPLASH[/button]
