The idea that something like WaterCredit really works is what drew Damon, a quality he says many Americans find attractive.
"It was a place where I felt I could potentially have a really big impact on improving people's lives," he said. "There's a lot of low-hanging fruit out there."
Water.org's model is to work with outside organizations, from the corporate foundations of PepsiCo Inc. and Caterpillar Inc. to local NGOs to commercial lending institutions to the outfitter CamelBak Products LLC, the maker of the Water.org bottle. From the sale of every bottle, $10 goes to Water.org.
New Ventures
The program is also committed to trying new ideas. Its New Ventures Fund, started to raise capital to test solutions, has $4 million so far toward a $10 million goal. Contributors include Michael Birch, creator of the social network Bebo, which he sold to AOL Inc. One of the fund's projects is a program in Haiti to offer information on clean-water sources through mobile phones.
There is a necessary element of risk in such ventures, Damon said.
"Harvard Business Review just put out an article about this that actually broke it down," he said. "You want 70 percent to be your core business, 20 percent to be adjacencies to that and 10 percent to be highest risk. Funnily enough, they say it pays off exactly inverse to that."
White said that for him there was a necessary "emotional connection" to Water.org's work.
Emotional Connection
"I think people shouldn't be afraid to be led by their hearts, but they have to bring their heads along," White said. "It's OK to say, this is an emotional connection for me but how can I do it catalytically? How can I do it smarter? How can I make sure that my philanthropy is invested in a way that's going to have a bigger impact?"