Charity Effectiveness Report: Our Most Successful Quarter Ever

Charity effectiveness is an important measure when choosing where to give. Is your donation making a lasting impact? Does the non-profit organization provide a scalable model to reach more people more effectively? These are questions you should consider before you donate.

Our Most Effective Quarter in 40 Years

The first quarter of 2017 has been an historic one at Lifewater. With 72 new water points and more than 20,000 people served, it is the biggest impact we have ever had in our 40 years of service.

Every quarter, publicly-traded companies share their earnings reports with key investors and stakeholders. We believe Lifewater should be held to this same standard of transparency. Below, you’ll see some of our accomplishments and challenges from the first quarter of 2017 that influence the measure of our charity effectiveness.

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Charity Effectiveness Measured by Lives Changed

Right now, we have 82,000 vulnerable children and families that are actively participating in our Vision of a Healthy Village program. House by house, we walk alongside families as they start to make small health changes. Small changes result in large health improvements.

Water Project Expansion

Lifewater completed 72 village water projects in the first quarter of 2017. Each project includes a functioning local community water committee that shares in the cost and maintenance of these water sources. You can see before/after photos of our most recent village water projects on our current water projects page.

Spiritual Impact

As a Christian non-profit, we don’t just measure our charity effectiveness in terms of people served with safe water, sanitation and hygiene. We also look at the spiritual impact in the communities we serve. Through our partnership with CityTeam International, we trained and deployed 24 local disciple makers to conduct discovery Bible studies in our targeted program region.

Challenges

Along with our successes, there have been a number of challenges in the first quarter of 2017. Lifewater is committed to serving in hard-to-reach places where the most vulnerable live; it is a commitment that comes with hurdles.

Ethiopia Groundwater: The groundwater situation in Bensa, Ethiopia is more complex and challenging than originally anticipated. We are putting together a plan to provide safe and sustainable water but it will be much more expensive than we first thought.

Cambodia Staffing: We have had a difficult time recruiting qualified and committed staff to serve in remote regions of Cambodia. Most qualified candidates do not feel called to serve in hardship posts among the most vulnerable.

These statistics are more than just figures. Each number represents someone who is loved, cherished, and made in the image of our God. We simply have the privilege to walk alongside each person in their journey toward life in its fullness (John 10:10). We have big plans for the years ahead. Together, we will work faithfully to serve more people, more effectively.

Lifewater belongs to the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, which sets the standards for how we handle our money. Learn more about our commitment to transparency and effectiveness on our Financials page.