Michael Birch Saves CharityWater

A story about how Scott Harrison, founder of Charity Water, received an unexpected $1 million investment from Michael Birch (founder of Bebo) when the organization was nearly out of money.

"Scott had 6 weeks of runway left in the bank. He wrote letters to Mark Zuckerberg, Tom from MySpace, and Michael Birch from Bebo, pitching them on adding a charity birthday donation feature to their platforms. He got no reply from Facebook or MySpace, but a month later Michael Birch responded.

Michael had just sold Bebo for $850 million and said while he couldn't implement the feature, he'd meet with Scott for an hour in New York. During the meeting, Scott gave his pitch, but Michael, being a reserved British guy, didn't show much emotion. Scott left feeling defeated, thinking it was his last Hail Mary before the organization would end.

But the next day, Michael sent an email saying 'Hey Scott, loved our chat. Send me your wire instructions, I'll send you $1 million. Use it however you wish, keep rocking.'

That $1 million kept them going for another year. Since then, they've raised hundreds of millions of dollars for charity. Michael got them connected with other wealthy tech people who liked their 100% model of accountability and transparency. That's how Charity Water became one of the biggest privately backed charities."