4장
The Breaking Point
December 2003 marked the beginning of Scott's transformation. To escape New York's chaotic New Year's Eve scene, he and Brantly rented a beach compound in Uruguay with friends. Before leaving, Scott spent Christmas with his parents, attending their church service where-unlike previous years when he merely went through the motions-he genuinely prayed for help with his mysterious numbness. His father gave him a book called "The Pursuit of God" by A.W. Tozer.
In Uruguay, what began as a peaceful retreat quickly devolved into another wild party scene. Filming everything with his new Sony camera, Scott captured the emptiness behind the facade of fun. One morning, seeking solitude, he read his father's book and was struck by Tozer's words about numbness being the result of defective faith. Scott realized his pursuit of material things had left him empty, remembering how he once cared about helping others as a child.
Back in New York in 2004, Scott struggled to change his lifestyle while still working as a club promoter. His physical numbness gradually faded as he began listening to Christian sermons on his iPod. Searching for spiritual community, Scott attended various churches but found them aesthetically disappointing compared to his high-end nightlife world.
The turning point came when Scott met Brant Cryder, a former DJ he knew from Lotus who had found faith during a Promise Keepers event. Scott connected deeply with Brant's story of transformation from partying and drug use to faith, though he wondered why he hadn't experienced the same dramatic spiritual awakening himself.
Despite being inspired, Scott continued struggling with old habits-occasional cocaine, cigarettes, and feeling like a hypocrite in his relationship. His breaking point finally came after a dangerous confrontation with an aggressive bouncer who threatened him with a gun. Terrified, Scott fled New York in a rented Mustang. During his road trip through the Northeast, he listened to Bible passages and felt called to "tithe a year of his life"-giving 10% of the decade he'd wasted.
At an internet cafe in Maine, Scott applied to humanitarian organizations, then met Brant for a hike where they prayed together. After three weeks on the road, Scott told his relieved parents he was leaving nightlife to serve the poor for a year-a decision that would ultimately change not just his life but millions of others.
5장
Finding Purpose on the Mercy Ship
Despite Scott's determination to volunteer, humanitarian organizations repeatedly rejected him. Undeterred, he liquidated his possessions-selling DVDs, electronics, and office supplies to fund his transition. With his father, he symbolically destroyed his porn collection, making a silent vow to never look at such material again.
Finally, Mercy Ships called with an opening for a volunteer photographer position on their hospital ship heading to West Africa. Despite concerns about his nightclub background, they invited him to Germany to visit the ship. After a frank conversation about the strict rules and difficult living conditions, they offered him the job.
On November 5th, the Mercy Ships vessel Anastasis arrived at the Port of Cotonou in Benin. As the ship's photographer, Scott watched from the deck as a welcoming committee greeted them on the dock. Though excited to finally begin photographing patients, Scott recognized the significant work ahead in a country with only four doctors per 100,000 people and an average life expectancy of 51 years.
Three days after docking, Scott headed to his first screening day assignment at Les Halles des Arts stadium. Arriving at 6 a.m. in hospital scrubs, he was shocked to find thousands of people waiting in line-many with dramatic facial deformities, tumors, and wounds. Inside the sweltering stadium, Dr. Gary Parker, the chief medical officer, reminded volunteers to "focus on the hope" and provide compassionate care to each individual.
Scott photographed patients including fourteen-year-old Alfred with a volleyball-sized benign tumor, and witnessed the heartbreaking case of Serafin, a boy with a similar but malignant tumor who could not be helped. The experience was overwhelming, but Scott focused on documenting Alfred's journey-from his pre-surgery state weighing only 44 pounds and slowly starving due to his tumor, through the grueling surgery performed by Dr. Gary Parker, to his remarkable recovery.
Life aboard the Mercy Ship created accelerated relationships, with Scott sharing a tiny cabin with Tony and Danny, two clean-cut Christian boys initially skeptical of his designer clothes and messy habits. Despite their differences, they bonded, with Scott buying a motorcycle and taking Danny exploring Benin on days off.
Though initially focused solely on photography, Scott gradually sought deeper purpose. After consulting Dr. Gary, who advised him to focus on what he could do rather than being overwhelmed by need, Scott began emptying his wallet for beggars and joining medical teams at remote clinics. He visited a leprosy clinic multiple times and eventually accompanied Lafe to a water project in Bomi County.
Watching a young girl drink from a filthy, mosquito-infested pond with muddy green water transformed Scott's understanding of water poverty and ignited his determination to help build more wells. As his Mercy Ships tour ended in June 2005, Scott committed to another eight-month service period and began planning a photo exhibition to support their work-the first step toward what would become charity: water.
6장
Birth of a Movement
Returning to New York in June 2005, Scott organized a multimedia exhibition benefiting Mercy Ships. The Metropolitan Pavilion donated a beautiful 7,000-square-foot gallery space worth $50,000, and Scott secured free lodging in a Meatpacking District loft. With help from Mercy Ships staff, Scott designed an immersive exhibition called "mercy." that guided visitors through his experience.
Despite working tirelessly to secure donations of supplies, food, auction items and publicity worth over $50,000, the exhibition's opening coincided with Hurricane Katrina, initially drawing few visitors. Through persistent outreach, Scott ultimately attracted 400 people to the closing gala, raising $96,000 on a $30,000 investment, all directed to patient surgeries.
On September 7, 2006, the day after his thirty-first birthday, Scott launched charity: water at Tenjune, a trendy Meatpacking District nightclub. Leveraging his promoter skills, Scott called in favors to secure the venue for free, convinced a liquor sponsor to provide an open bar for the first hour, and decorated the walls with powerful photos from Uganda. Celebrities like Mark Ruffalo, Joaquin Phoenix, and Lauren Bush attended. Each of the 700 guests donated at least $20 to enter, with some giving more-they raised $15,000 in a single night, officially launching their operation.
Two weeks later, charity: water launched a ten-day exhibition across five parks, starting in Union Square. They built eye-catching displays featuring aquariums of scummy green water collected from local ponds to show New Yorkers what people without clean water must drink. The exhibition proved wildly successful-over 1,500 people attended the first day, generating $3,000 in sales (enough for one well rehabilitation), and 2,000 attended the second day, bringing in $5,600 (enough for a new hand-dug well).
During the Union Square exhibition, Scott met Viktoria "Vik" Alexeeva, a shy but dedicated volunteer who offered her graphic design skills. The 23-year-old junior motion graphics artist began volunteering nights and weekends, creating everything from invitations to tax receipts while teaching herself new skills like video editing and coding to meet charity: water's growing needs.
In late October, Scott traveled to Ethiopia for twelve days to scout potential well sites. He photographed children digging in sand for water, women walking miles with contaminated jugs, and visited a health clinic where half the patients suffered from waterborne diseases. Upon returning home in November, Scott received news that charity: water's first six wells in Uganda had been completed. When he emailed photos and videos to his birthday party donors showing the impact of their $20 contributions, the response was overwhelming-people were excited to give again, proving that charitable giving could be both fun and impactful.
7장
The Three Pillars of Trust
From the beginning, Scott's vision for charity: water was clear: reinvent charity, make giving joyful, and return donors to love through generosity. But he faced widespread skepticism about charities, with one in three Americans lacking confidence in them. Corporate scandals and charity fraud were rampant, making it perhaps the worst time to ask people for trust.
To overcome this, Scott established three foundational pillars. First, the 100 percent model-every public dollar would fund water projects, with a separate account for overhead. Despite warnings from lawyers and early supporters that this approach was unsustainable without billions in backing, Scott remained committed.
Second, they promised proof, tagging each donation to specific projects and providing photos, GPS coordinates, and sometimes videos upon completion. They pioneered using Google Earth to map water points, creating unprecedented transparency in the nonprofit sector.
Third, they created inspiring branding that avoided guilt and shame tactics common in charity advertising. Like Nike and Apple, charity: water would empower and inspire rather than manipulate through guilt.
This approach attracted dedicated team members like Lani Fortier, who abandoned her medical school plans to join the fledgling charity, and Vik, who continued volunteering despite contracting malaria during a field visit. Their commitment was tested when Vik faced a $40,000 hospital bill-an amount exceeding her annual salary-with charity: water having only $141 in their overhead account. Miraculously, her former employer had forgotten to cancel her health insurance and covered the entire bill.
As charity: water grew, Scott faced the challenge of funding their operational costs while maintaining the 100% model. By March 2008, despite raising nearly $3 million for water projects, their operating account was nearly empty. With only $2,000 received of the $250,000 pledged by board members for overhead costs, Scott faced the painful possibility of shutting down with $881,000 sitting untouched in their water account.
Friends suggested borrowing from the water account with an IOU, but Scott saw this as a black-and-white integrity issue. Taking even a penny from that account would betray donor trust and topple their most important organizational pillar.
Salvation came unexpectedly through Michael Birch, co-founder of Bebo, who had recently sold his company to AOL for $850 million. Despite initially stating "I don't really trust charities," Michael was impressed by Scott's commitment to transparency and wired $1 million to charity: water, giving them thirteen months of runway and the mental space to focus on their mission.
To solve their overhead funding challenges long-term, Scott created "The Well"-a program for donors who would commit to three-year pledges specifically covering charity: water's administrative costs. Despite initial skepticism that major donors would pay for mundane expenses like employee health care rather than getting their names on projects, The Well grew to 129 individuals and families giving between $60,000 and $1 million annually. This selfless giving enabled every public donation to go directly to water projects.
8장
Innovation and Growth
In 2009, Scott and Vik developed mycharity: water, a social fundraising platform that democratized giving. Working initially at Michael and Xochi Birch's kitchen table in San Francisco, they created a system where anyone could build fundraising campaigns. The platform launched in September 2009 and within months, tens of thousands of people had created campaigns, raising $1.2 million in the first four months and $13 million within a year and a half.
For his thirty-second birthday, Scott launched "Born in September," asking everyone with September birthdays to donate their special day to provide clean water. Ninety-four people gave up their birthdays, including seven-year-old Max who raised $22,000 and eighty-nine-year-old Nona who asked for $89 donations. The campaign raised $159,000 in less than four weeks.
One of the most powerful stories came from nine-year-old Rachel Beckwith, who created a mycharity: water campaign for her birthday but fell short of her $300 goal. After Rachel died in a tragic car accident, her campaign was reopened and exploded, eventually closing with 31,997 donations totaling $1,265,823. Her selfless spirit inspired people worldwide to contribute to clean water projects.
By 2011, charity: water had turned five years old and received recognition from President Obama at the National Prayer Breakfast, who called their work "the kind of faith that moves mountains." Despite media portraying them as disrupting philanthropy, Scott and his team were still figuring things out as they went along.
Their growth wasn't without challenges. A lawsuit from a corporate donor over problematic wells in Kenya consumed them for months. Scott spent nights in cold sweats worrying about their reputation, while team members spent hundreds of hours collecting documents. Throughout this ordeal, Scott lost his creative spark and passion, traveling more frequently to escape the office tension.
The lawsuit was eventually resolved through court-ordered mediation, with charity: water agreeing to pay $1 million directly to International Medical Corps to provide clean water to those in need. As they left the courthouse, the mediator's words stayed with Scott: "You guys are doing good work. Just keep going."
9장
Sustainability and Scale
As charity: water grew, Scott became increasingly concerned about sustainability-both of their funding model and the water projects themselves. After witnessing failed drilling attempts and broken wells, he refused to accept the water sector's standard that 40% of wells in sub-Saharan Africa were broken at any given time. "Sixty percent functionality might be good enough for everybody else, but it's just not good enough for us," he told Vik.
This commitment led to a game-changing $5 million Google Impact Award to develop technology for monitoring water project functionality. They installed 3,000 sensors on Ethiopian wells, raising functionality from 60% to 90%, with mechanics dispatched immediately when wells broke down. These innovations required overcoming incredible technical challenges, even fixing Ethiopia's entire mobile roaming system to make their sensors work.
By 2014, charity: water had a banner year, raising $43.4 million and giving one million people clean water. But in 2015, everything went wrong. The stock market tanked, major donors couldn't give, and for the first time, they shrank instead of growing. Their fundraising leader pointed out their dangerous dependency on just five donors who had contributed almost half their previous year's funds.
To solve their funding stability issues, Scott proposed a monthly giving program called "The Spring" where 100% of donations would directly help people in need, while donors received exclusive content showing the impact of their contributions. Despite pushback about the $50,000 cost of their launch video, it became their most successful content ever, garnering 2.5 million views. Today, The Spring has grown to over 20,000 members from 94 countries giving an average of $30 monthly, providing stability for water programs worldwide.
10장
The Power of Connection
For their tenth anniversary charity: ball gala, Scott wanted to create a deeper connection between donors and recipients. They developed the "Someone Like You" concept-personally connecting each of their 400 gala guests with an individual from Adi Etot, a village in northwestern Ethiopia without clean water. For two weeks, their team lived in the village, conducting interviews and capturing photos and videos of residents from ages four to ninety.
Back in New York, they meticulously matched each villager with a gala guest based on specific commonalities-from pregnancy to profession to marriage longevity. To make the experience even more powerful, Scott proposed a risky live drilling broadcast during the gala itself, allowing guests to witness clean water arriving in real time.
Despite technical challenges with satellite equipment in a remote location, the live connection worked. Guests watched as water shot thirty feet into the air in Ethiopia, bringing joyous celebration to the villagers. The room erupted in cheers and tears as donors witnessed the immediate impact of their giving. In fifteen minutes, they raised $3.1 million total, enough to bring clean water to 100,000 people in 300 villages worldwide.
Throughout his journey, Scott was driven by powerful stories from the field. One that particularly affected him was that of Letikiros Hailu, a thirteen-year-old Ethiopian girl who had hanged herself after spilling water she'd spent hours collecting. The injustice of her story renewed Scott's conviction about the urgency of their work-the water crisis is real, happening now, and claiming young lives.
Ten years after charity: water's first project, Scott visited the well they built in Bobi, Uganda. Though dented from a decade of use and roughly 50 million pumps, it still provided clean water to the village. Children under ten had never known life without clean water.
Like the villagers who describe their lives as "before the water" and "after the water," Scott's own life has been transformed. He's learned that no one is beyond redemption, that painful moments often define us, and that meaningful work has no end. Despite bringing clean water to 8.5 million people through 28,000 projects, he remains committed to solving this problem in his lifetime-one project, one person at a time.
