Humankind Water: Your Child Can Help Save Lives

We recently sat down with internationally known speaker TJ Foltz of Humankind Water. Scroll down to learn about his organization's mission and how its exciting relationship with Gifts 'N Things will allow your child to help save the lives of other children through the donation of clean water. 

What makes Humankind Water's mission unique?

There are other organizations that give to the crisis, and we respect them. For example, the water "Ethos", sold in Starbucks gives a nickel from every bottle to the crisis and we applaud their efforts. But we give 100% of our net profits to fund wells and filtration systems in the hardest hit areas of the world. The only other organization we've heard that gives 100% of their net profits is "Newman's Own" (the late Paul Newman's charity), and they've given millions. We're not there yet, but that's something we aspire to achieve."

Why is clean water so important?
Clean water is THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT philanthropic effort there is right now, in my opinion, for two reasons. First, how bad the situation is and second, how relatively easy it is to correct it. Few Americans realize this, but the combined deadly effects of bad water in drinking and sanitation makes it the number one killer of children in the world every day. 5000 kids will die TODAY for no other reason than they lack clean water. 

Second, the fix is relatively simple. No miracle drug to discover here, no race for the cure. God bless all those scientists and doctors looking for the cures for as yet incurable diseases, but the truth is you introduce clean water where there is none, and you reduce infant mortality to almost nothing, almost overnight. Of course food is important...it's critical. Of course vaccines and mosquito nets are all crucial. But if you have all those things in place and kids are drinking filthy contaminated water, it won't matter. That's why - just my opinion - but I'm forever saying, "Water is the lowest hanging fruit on philanthropy's tree."

Why should elementary students, parents, and faculty be excited about Humankind Water's relationship with Gifts 'N Things?
Before now, there were two motivating factors to doing fund raisers with Gifts N' Things. The first, let's face it...COOL PRIZES! I know I got fired up about that stuff when I was a kid! Second, I know a ton of kids and certainly their parents...really do care a lot about raising that critical money for their own school need. Whether it's a great, fun, educational trip, or to resurface the gym floor, the money you make is great for your school and it's important to take pride in that. 

Those two factors really ought to be enough. But now it takes a huge extra leap forward. Now, in addition to cool prizes (and good for the school) we just might save the lives of THOUSANDS of children in really needy situations. Imagine. For every student that participates, even if you only sell ONE item, Gifts N' Things will contribute [enough money to supply] clean drinking water for one child for a YEAR! That's amazing!


Closing remarks
One of the unique things about Humankind Water is that because we give away all this money for wells and filters, we have never ever spent a penny (yet) on traditional advertising. Never bought a billboard. Never took out a magazine ad. Never bought a tv commercial. Products today just are not successful without that stuff. But we ...somehow...have to be. And that's why we are dependent upon YOU to tell the story. Share it. Tell other schools. Do presentations. Like us on Facebook and go to the website. 

Above all, make sure you thank the great people at Gifts N' Things. I mean, look at the back cover of the catalog. That's a primo spot to sell some other item. It's costing them money to NOT put another yummy candy or crunchy cookie there. Thank you to Gifts N' Things and every other organization going out of their way to help Humankind Water be successful, because they know that our success actually means kids lives saved. Humankind Water LOVES Gifts N' Things!