Run For Water
Fundraising & stewardship campaigns (email, social, landing page copy)
Reservoir is the monthly giving program of B.C.-based water charity Run for Water. Reservoir donors receive a number of perks for their ongoing support – including special, just-for-them updates about people in Ethiopian communities who have received water because of the donor’s support. Below are some of those stewardship stories, plus social media samples from a World Water Day campaign for which I came up with a creative concept and wrote all content.
This collaboration was and is close to my heart, as my master’s research was about how water-related non-profits use storytelling to support their fundraising and brand-building efforts.
P.S. I was also responsible for naming Run for Water’s monthly giving program.
Stewardship Email: Tsego’s Story
This is Tsego. She’s 10. Bold and bright, she stands out from the other kids in her village. She’s got a distinctive look; most days, she wears a bright blue track suit, and a blue headscarf tied around her head. And then there’s the jelly shoes.
Tsego couldn’t be prouder of her shoes. They’re new — and important — because Tsego is responsible for collecting enough water for herself, her parents and her three younger siblings.
That means daily treks to the nearest water supply, which is nearly two hours away, down a steep, rocky hill. Of course, that means the return trip is uphill, and Tsego has to take it on with a jerry can tied to her back. Full, the jerry can weighs more than half what Tsego herself does.
The journey is dangerous at the best of times, but it’s particularly treacherous during the rainy season, when the hillside floods. Tsego has watched members of her community fall and hurt themselves. Most of us couldn’t imagine sending our young children out — alone — in conditions half as bad as this, but Tsego’s parents, subsistence farmers, have no choice. They need water, and this is the only way for them to get it.
Tsego used to make the trip barefoot. Though her new shoes are flimsy and clearly no match for the conditions she faces, Tsego says they have made the trip easier. Even better? When she doesn’t have to make the trip at all.
That will soon be a reality, thanks to donors like you.
Within a few months, Tsego will have clean water just 100 metres from her hut. Better still, she says, is the new school that we at Run for Water are building with our friends at imagine1day. Tsego has never had a real school before, and because she won’t have to trek for water, she’ll have more time to attend — and to study and read.
Tsego is most excited about the library — about the opportunity to take out books. Getting to bring home a book — something she’s never done before — is the most exciting of all. Even better than her jelly shoes.
Thanks for being a member of our Reservoir community, and changing lives like Tsego’s.
Bring water to even more kids like Tsego. Share her story with your friends and encourage them to become Reservoir members too.
Stewardship Email: Demekech’s Story
This month, we want to introduce you to Demekech.
As the months pass and you continue to receive just-for-you Reservoir updates, you'll notice a pattern begins to emerge: water is never just water.
Water means improved health, education, and, for people like Demekech, it means earning a living to support her family.
Demekech is a mother to three young kids, and the wife of a farmer. They live in Yella, high up on a mountain where it's too cold for malarial mosquitoes to thrive. Early each morning, Demekech's husband sets out for his farm, which is down in a valley, a two-hour walk away.
Thanks to donors like you, in 2015 Yella received a new gravity-fed water system. Run for Water's team worked with members of the Yella community to tap a spring that's even higher up the mountain, which flows down through pipes and feeds a reservoir that's on the hill just above Demekech's home.
The reservoir provides water to everyone in Yella via an intricate network of pipes and taps. But Demekech's enviable location gives her special access.
Because the spring is always flowing, the reservoir fills quickly and excess water runs off and into the ground. Smart and resourceful, Demekech saw an opportunity. She dug holes to capture the run-off. The little irrigation system she built allowed her to start a garden – a lush little world high in the mountains. She sells her produce – herbs, cabbages, bananas, limes and avocadoes – in her little store in Yella. Demekech is beloved in the community, and her store is well-frequented by her friends and neighbours. The extra income she earns in her store has allowed Demekech to buy essentials, as well as little treats for her family.
Like we said, water is never just water. Thanks to water, Demekech is a proud, successful entrepreneur – made possible by people like you.
Thank you – for Demekech, for the other people in Yella, and for the people in Sasiga whose lives will be changed by your Reservoir contributions.
