Charity:Water's Million-Dollar Save

A story about how Michael Birch saved charity:water from bankruptcy with a surprise $1M donation.

"About a year and a half in, the 100% model was working and we'd raised a few million dollars. But in the other bank account, it was a lot harder to raise overhead. We had a moment where we had $887,000 ready to go out to build water projects, and we were about to miss payroll in the overhead bank account.

The advice I was getting from people was to borrow from that $887,000 - they said I could pay it back later. I remember thinking if we borrow even one penny, we've compromised our integrity. There's a crack at the foundation and I don't want to work here anymore. So I started calling lawyers to wind down the charity 18 months in.

Around this time, Michael Birch shows up and says he wants to stop by the office for an hour. I took him through a presentation on my laptop and was honest about how hard it was to raise money for overhead. I remember thinking he just didn't like me - he was British, wasn't smiling, not a lot of warmth or encouragement.

But two days later, he emails me at midnight and says 'Hey, I really enjoyed meeting you. I just wired a million dollars into your overhead account.' I remember logging on to the bank and saw it - 1,0. It was 13 months of overhead funding. He just said 'Keep rocking, you just need more time.'

That was $750 million ago. Today we have 131 entrepreneurs and families that pay all the overhead, and we have never been close to the line since."