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Scott Harrison is the founder and CEO of charity: water, a non-profit that has raised over a billion dollars and funded tens of thousands of water projects to bring safe drinking water to millions. He previously spent a decade as a New York City nightclub promoter before a dramatic career shift led him into humanitarian work.

You can WATCH our conversation on YouTube.

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Key Learnings

Scott started a charity: water with $20 from a birthday party. Then $15,000… Twenty years later: over a billion dollars raised, 21 million people served. He says it should be 10 to 100 times more.

The cure for water already exists. We’re looking for water on Mars while 700 million people drink dirty water on Earth. We solved this hundreds of years ago. We just haven’t implemented it.

25% of the money sitting in American donor-advised funds would give every human on Earth clean water. That’s parked philanthropic capital. Already tax-benefited. Just waiting.

The goal is always 10X what you’re doing. If we raised a million last year, we want ten this year. If we raise $100 million, we should raise a billion. The opportunity is always orders of magnitude larger than the moment.

Show, don’t bullet. Scott shows 210 photos in a 45-minute keynote. No PowerPoint. Single images. A story unfolds frame by frame.

Be early to the technology. First charity on Instagram. First to hit a million Twitter followers. First to use VR. The question is always the same: how does this new thing further the mission?

The 100% model: solve for the cynic.  Public donations go to one bank account that funds only water projects. Overhead is raised separately from entrepreneurs and business leaders. Then track every donation to a specific village.

Don’t be mid. Scott’s 11-year-old daughter says nobody wants to be mid. Excellence is a core value. There’s a lot of mid out there.

Design everything. The fact cover sheet. The PowerPoint. The website. The package. “We’re always dating.” If the message comes in an ugly package, you’re at a disadvantage before you start.

Treat the donor like a Michelin three-star guest. If a restaurant can think that carefully about a meal, you can think that carefully about a donor who can save a million lives.

The Goldman Sachs partner who changed Scott’s paradigm. Before making an eight-figure ask, Scott asked a partner: “How does it feel when people ask for a lot more than you expected?” The expected answer was irritated, offended, put off. The actual answer: “I feel flattered that they think I would be that generous.”

People are generous. The well is there. You just have to drill deep enough. Scott has spent 20 years asking for too little. That might be his next obsession.

People give to people, not causes. A dynamic leader who transfers their enthusiasm gets the donation. The cause doesn’t. Most of the donations Scott and his wife give are to people, not topics they were already passionate about.

Talk 10% of the time. When Scott meets a donor for the first time, he wants to know their whole life story. Their marriage. Their kids. What they wanted to be when they grew up. Be genuinely curious or don’t bother.

Hire for integrity, humility, curiosity, and energy… 16,000 applicants for 36 roles last year. Energy matters most. Someone who can get you fired up about pickleball, Patagonia, or a new running shoe is exactly who you want on the executive team.

The dinner test for hiring: Can you imagine having this person at your home for two hours at dinner? And wanting to keep them for another hour?

Get the whole life story. Scott wants the arc from the beginning to the present in an interview. If someone can’t tell their own story coherently, they probably don’t know themselves yet.

The 11-year-old with the piggy bank. He told his parents he was going to fund a whole village. They told him to set a realistic goal. He went knocking on doors. He came back with $10,000.

Scott’s experience lab in Nashville. A 60-minute immersive tour. A 100-degree room with a treadmill where you carry a 40-pound water vessel. Microscopes that show you parasites. A VR film that ends in celebration. The “give shop,” not the gift shop. 53% of visitors donate. 10,000 visitors. $3.9 million raised in year one.

Scott’s champagne moment: a single billionaire who picks water. The water sector doesn’t have one. Republicans and Democrats agree on it. Atheists and people of faith agree on it. Everyone has to drink.

Reflection Questions

  • What is the 10X version of your current goal? Where are you asking for too little because the smaller ask felt safer?
  • Who in your work or life is the Michelin three-star guest, the customer, donor, or partner who deserves your most thoughtful experience design? 
  • When was the last time you went 10% talking, 90% genuinely curious about someone else’s story? 

More Learning: 

#290: Scott Harrison – Redemption, Compassion, & The Transformative Power Within Us

#680: Scott Galloway – Don’t Follow Your Passion, Follow Your Talent

#682: Will Guidara – Adversity is a Terrible Thing to Waste

Audio Chapters

00:00 The Price of Becoming – Pre-Order Now!

01:18 Welcome Back, Scott Harrison

02:56 From a $20 Bill to Over $1 Billion Raised

04:59 Why the Goal Should Always Be 10X (or 100X)

07:54 Storytelling: How to Get People to Care About a Problem They Don’t Feel

10:30 Being Early to Instagram, Twitter, and VR

16:10 Radical Transparency: The Bank Account That Built Trust

19:51 The Beauty of a Healthy Obsession

21:22 Drilling Deep for the Artesian Wells of Generosity

25:04 What It Feels Like in the Room When Generosity Breaks Through

27:01 “Nobody Wants to Be Mid.”

30:56 Design Everything: We’re Always Dating

32:13 Treat Your Donor Like a Michelin Three-Star Guest

35:39 Selling With Integrity: Talk 10%, Listen 90%

39:15 16,000 Applicants for 36 Jobs: What Scott Looks For

43:12 The Power of Vulnerability in Hiring

45:39 Inside the Nashville Experience Lab

50:34 The Champagne Question: A Billion-Dollar Vision

52:10 The 11-Year-Old Who Raised $10,000 Door-to-Door

54:25 EOPC