Water and sanitation projects are a time-consuming business. But taking the time to do the job right pays off. We want to make sure that a community is getting the maximum benefit of their charity: water project. Our partners engage with the community for upwards of a year to ensure they have a sense of ownership in a project. Field teams spend months building skills and community buy-in, shifting local standards to adopt new behaviors and practices. 

We fund programs in some of the most challenging areas in the world. These countries are susceptible to natural disasters (floods, hurricanes, etc.), political unrest, a severe lack of resources and they’re often disproportionately impacted by global economic shifts. Even when our partners plan to a tee, these factors inevitably have a bearing on the timeline of our work. 

Our partners also implement dozens of projects at a time. One project might take less than 18 months to complete, but our partners implement large numbers of projects in one area for the sake of efficiency.

Finally, we require detailed data about each project so we can report back to you, the donor. Collecting final photos, GPS coordinates and other details from all our projects adds extra time into the process.

We allow 18 months because we don't consider a project "complete" until we know that all of its components are in place and working for the best of the community.

Learn more about what goes into a charity: water project here > 

Watch a video about the challenges our partners in Central African Republic have to overcome here >