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"Social responsibility is no longer just an option for businesses, brands are learning. From TOMS shoes which fund the giving of shoes for people in need, to Warby Parker, which provides glasses to people in need for every pair sold, buying where your buck goes further (globally) is appealing. \ncharity: water is a little different, as it is a proper non-profit, rather than a charity-driven business. But similarly to both TOMS and Warby Parker, the organization is focused on building awareness rather than executing on charity work, instead partnering with organizations in each of the countries it works to complete on-the-ground work. \nSee also: 7 Fantastic Calendar Apps To Keep You on Schedule\nMeanwhile, charity: water has built a following of passionate supporters, not on good will alone \u2014 the organization is very focused on design, the same way as Apple or Nike. It is one of the most-followed charities on both Twitter and Instagram. And this isn't just about \"slacktivism\" \u2014 having already inspired users to care about its cause, charity: water's latest innovation has more to do with documenting the impact donors are already making. \nMashable spoke with Paull Young about the organization's digital strategy. From providing a great customer experience to constantly innovating, it's safe to say brands can learn a few tricks to inspire their own customer bases. \nQ&amp;A With Paull Young, Director of Digital, charity: water\nThe Internet is often seen as a place for virtual exchanges \u2014 how does charity: water translate good will into tangible results?\nThere's really three important pillars for us in digital. The first one is about inspiring people, the second is about providing a platform for people to make a huge impact and the third is about providing reporting to show them their impact. The first thing we always talk about is how can we inspire people. We want to inspire people to spend time and energy and even money to help get clean water to people who live in very different environments around the world. We do that through great content \u2014 you'll see some of the videos on our website \u2014 we're the most-followed charity on Twitter and we were one of the first twenty brands ever on Instagram.\n\nThe second piece is about giving a platform \u2014 for us that's our website, my.charitywater.org, where anyone can start a fundraiser of any type and know that 100%, every cent of every donation raised on that platform, will directly fund clean water. It's a very simple platform where people can take action and have a really tangible impact on the world.\nThe third piece is reporting. Once they fundraise, how do we give people an amazing customer experience and how do we help them see their impact and let them know they've made a change in the world? We do that through what we call Dollars to Projects reporting where every dollar that's donated on our fundraising website, we give every donor and every fundraiser detailed online reports with photos, GPS coordinates and other information.\n\nHow does sustainability play a part in charity: water's work?\nThe biggest breakthrough that's come for us on sustainability is through digital \u2014 so at the end of last year, Google announced us as a recipient of one of their Google global impact awards and made a $5 million dollar grant to charity: water to help us design, develop and then install water sensors on all our water points. So we have this really deep partnership with Google where we are developing remote sensors and what that means is currently 8,000 water points that charity: water has funded to date. \nOur vision is that eventually nearly all of our water points will have these low cost remote sensors on them. What that will enable us to do is report in near real time, whether water is pumping today. So this is a huge breakthrough for us through the sector, even for transparency in the charitable sector overall.\nWe're still in the design and development stages but with Google's assistance, eventually we're going to be able to share not only with our partners, but know that all of our water points are working in real time.\nWe also are inclined to share that information with donors so if someone chooses to donate or fundraise with charity: water, not only will they see their impact when the project is built, but know for years that the water is still pumping and that's very important to us.\nAnd what might cause the water to stop pumping?\nThere can be a range of reasons, it's hard to get things happening in the developing world, our partners work in some of the most remote and difficult regions on the planet. All of our partners have maintenance programs, they have staff who go out there and fix wells, but they really range the full gamut. In some of our partners they're training women to fix wells and then giving them jobs. In other communities we'll build a water committee in the community where a group of villagers will take responsibility for the water point and get funds from the community, so they have a bank account to pay for maintenance over time. \nWhat the remote sensors will do is let us know really quick the day that the water stops pumping. It's a whole new level of sustainability and accountability.\nYou're most known for celebrities and others donating their birthdays to raise money instead of receiving gifts \u2014 it's certainly a novel concept, but will it lose flavor over time?\nI think we're always going to be looking for new ways \u2014 innovation is a value of charity: water. We always want to be doing things differently, one of the fundamental reasons we exist is to reinvent charity. So while we're very focused on finding online fundraisers and giving every fundraiser and donor an amazing experience, we want it to be more fun giving up a birthday for charity: water than getting gifts, and I think that we're really close to achieving that. At the same time we're always innovating. \nWe're always working with interactive partners in different ways, to get people excited about clean drinking water, but our belief is that by helping people see their impact, by giving them reporting and a better customer experience than they are used to from non-profits, we think that not only will make our fundraisers become repeat fundraisers, but that the donors will then become fundraisers. That's why we focus so much on trying to provide an amazing donor experience.\n \nSeptember Campaign: India Preview from charity: water on Vimeo.\nImage: charity: water"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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