How many times have you been in a bar busting for the loo or running home from the bus stop to get there in time?

I'm sure it's something we've all experienced: but when you put it into perspective, waiting for 2 or 3 people before you or having to run up the stairs and turn on the light, really isn't that bad.

Sadly, there are 2.5 billion people in the world don't have access to any loo – bet you didn't know that.
That's why our client WaterAid is raising awareness of this devastating fact and want people who do have loos (I'd say that's all of us) to take action and help WaterAid tackle and combat sanitation in some of the world's poorest countries.

World Toilet Day is today - Wednesday 19th November - download your posters and spread the word.

Lisa Munden

Posted by Whitewater Team at 11:06 AM | Permalink

Animal Protection campaigners BUAV have appointed Whitewater following a two-way pitch to handle all donor acquisition and development.

The first piece of work - a dual cash/campaigning ask will be mailed in November. This follows a full data and communications audit carried out by Whitewater, the outputs of which clearly illustrated key strategic recommendations to increase the value of the database.

Michelle Thew, BUAV's Chief Executive said, "We have great faith that Whitewater will help us carry our fundraising forward. Their fresh creative approach and strategic knowledge impressed us and we are eagerly awaiting the results of our first campaign together."

Niamh Neville, Account Director at Whitewater, said, "We're delighted to work on this interesting cause which presents lots of creative challenges, but we love a challenge."

Posted by Whitewater Team at 09:29 AM | Permalink

I've been told by our new MD that the most requently given piece of feedback given to him about our website is: 'It's great... but I wanted to find out how Whitewater got its name?!'

Well, as the longest-standing member of staff (more years than I care to remember) and daughter of one of the founders I am uniquely placed to respond.

The answer to the question is... well, it depends who you ask.

According to Sarah Hamilton Fairley (Whitewater's founder, first MD and now Chief Exec of charity Starthere), the name came from a promise she made to herself on an ill-advised rafting expedition in Nepal. Swept off the raft and hurtling downriver, preoccupied with the purifying tablets she felt she should be swallowing to compensate for the vast amounts of river water being ingested as her fellow rafters bobbed by, she swore that, should she come out of the ordeal alive, her brand new company would be named Whitewater.

But if you ask Richard Crofton (co-founder of Whitewater, also now at StartHere), the story is quite different. His version includes a hike up Mont Richard in the French Pyrenees, where he was greeted at the summit by a breath-taking view including glacier, snow, cloud, and spray from a waterfall casting rainbows. The ensemble of different forms of 'white water' were his inspiration for the name of the fledgling company.

Both stories are true and both inspired the naming of the company. Perhaps the most remarkable thing is that two such different stories resulted in the founders (neither of whom lack the courage of their convictions) being able to actually agree upon the name.

Whether Whitewater says to you, 'excitement, danger, thrills' or 'beauty, nature, peace', there's a story behind the name to fit.

Anna Bell

Posted by Whitewater Team at 02:08 PM | Permalink

If fundraisers are looking for extraordinary inspiration, we should look no further than the Obama '08 campaign.

Obama's campaign has raised a truly staggering $600 million and counting, blitzing all previous records. In two years! And what's more, 90% of this has come from individual donors with the average donation around $86.

According to the LA Times, Obama's campaign 'built a cash juggernaut using the Internet'. But of course it's not just the technology wot did it. As John Baguely points out, Obama's inspirational leadership is the foundation.

It strikes me that Obama's fundraising reminds us that donating money is not an alternative to campaigning. It is campaigning. And it has put power back into the hands of ordinary Americans. So it's democratising as well.

Those donations have funded the kind of advertising blitzes which previously only big-money Republicans could deliver. Obama's campaign (win or lose) is an extraordinary case study in fundraising, led, as John Baguely says, by the most extraordinary fundraiser of them all, Senator Obama himself.

Image courtesy of Joe Crimmings Photography

Steve Andrews

Posted by Whitewater Team at 02:25 PM | Permalink