Charity: Water - Ethiopian Fundraiser Dinner

Clean water! We all need it, but many people in developing nations don't get enough of it. Unclean water causes numerous diseases and malnutrition. But we can help!

A friend, Emily, and I recently formed 'Chicago 4 Water,' a campaign to raise money through the well-established fundraising organization, Charity: Water. Charity: Water has build thousands of clean water projects (such as pipe systems and water wells) in 17 developing countries internationally.

Chicago 4 Water's plan is to hold informal fundraising events that give people chances to hang out, enjoy themselves and learn about the importance of clean water for good health. Wednesday marked the night of 'Dine for Water,' our modest first effort at fundraising.

Emily and I'd been talking together about holding a simple fundraising dinner in cooperation with a local Ethiopian restaurant – for a while. But when we finally decided to make it happen, we had to set everything up very quickly.

Just three nights before the dinner, I wrote out our campaign objective for our website, created a dinner invitation and started mentioning it to everyone I saw; and with just 24 hours before we planned the event to happen, Emily's contact at the restaurant finally got in touch with her to confirm that they could work with us so that we would earn a percentage of every diner's food and drink bill. [Phew.]

Happily, after that initial logistical flurry, the dinner was all aromatic coffee, honey wine, pungent bread and delicious savory Ethiopian meats and salads. Sweet and easy. Our event drew a cool 15–17 jovial people. Folks complimented the foods, mingled and smiled, asked us more about Charity: Water. Thanks to Emily working with the restaurant, we earned the cause about $170. For a modest first effort at raising money for clean water, this went down 'well.'


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What's next? Through Charity: Water's website, we have about three more weeks to raise as much money as we can before our funds will be combined with other campaign funds to build a clean water project somewhere in the developing world.

A few direct website donations by private individuals brought our total funds raised to above our initial $500 goal in just four days. Now, we're raising our goal! With the help of some passionate folks at this first dinner, we hope our next fundraising event is an even greater success.

To read more about our cause, or to donate, visit:
http://mycharitywater.org/Chicago4Water


{Thanks for reading!}