Mira Showers has become a brand partner of charity: water as part of its ongoing community-centred approach to charity engagement. Every year, Mira associates choose a charity to support. This year, the decision was made to fundraise for two – charity: water, working on a global scale; and continuing for a second year to support Cancer Research UK at a ‘local’ level. Mira is one of the first UK businesses to partner with charity: water in this way.
In 2016-2017, Mira was able to donate £92,000 to CRUK. This year, fundraising will be undertaken for both charities in parallel – with both separate and shared activities being staged.
charity: water is a non-profit organization bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing countries. 663 million people in the world live without clean and safe drinking water, and charity: water specialises in funding sustainable projects – such as freshwater wells, rainwater catchments and biosand filters – to provide direct, local solutions, especially to those in isolated rural areas.
One of the unique facets of charity: water is its ‘100% model’, where 100% of public donations go directly to the field to fund clean water projects. charity: water achieves this through a dedicated group of private donors, known as The Well, who fund all overhead costs, staff salaries and so on. Any funds received from the public are then kept completely separate from management accounts, and are dedicated in their entirety to the charity’s field work.
This 100% model is not the only innovation pioneered by charity: water, which seeks to develop new, sustainable techniques for delivering local, low-cost solutions to providing clean and safe drinking water.
Another example of charity: water’s innovative approach is its water sensors.
Through a partnership with Google, charity: water developed and installed sensors which detect when one of its wells breaks: an average well is pumped 5,000,000 times per year, so failures are inevitable. When the sensor detects something is wrong, it alerts a local team of mechanics, also funded and trained by charity: water, to undertake the repairs necessary to get the well back online as soon as possible.
Kohler Mira’s managing director, Liz Hazeldene, said, “charity: water is a natural partner for Mira. Our business is based on the functional and enjoyable use of water – showering – and so it’s right we remember that for many, even safe water to drink is a scarce luxury.
Such a fantastic aspiration to make clean water available to everyone inevitably resonates powerfully within Mira, and we look forward to working with, and supporting, charity: water”.
“Clean water improves the health of communities, allows young girls to spend more time at school and enables women to start businesses. We are proud to partner with Mira Showers to transform lives and bring clean water to communities in need”, said Bilal Zaidi, charity: water Director of Brand Partnerships.
To find out more about charity: water, and how you could help, visit: www.charitywateruk.org.
