Opinion: Ex-Promoter Uses Marketing and Online Savvy to Build Charity

In an article in the New York Times, columnist Nicholas D. Kristof praises Scott Harrison, who has used new-media tools such as Google Earth and Twitter to quickly expand his nonprofit organization “charity:water,” saying his work should serve as a model for nonprofit groups.

Mr. Harrison, a 33-year-old ex-nightclub promoter who abandoned a luxurious, drug-fueled New York lifestyle five years ago to devote himself to nonprofit work, founding charity:water in 2006.

Since then the group has raised $10-million from 50,000 donors to provide clean water to poor people in Africa and Asia, pioneering the use of online tools to raise money, promote campaigns, and help donors track the progress of projects they have supported.

See an article from The Chronicle’s archive about Mr. Harrison’s work.

(Free registration is required to view this article.)