Water4Good was anything but a washout. The fundraising campaign from promotional products industry philantrhropy group PromoCares exceeded its initial goal, raising $150,836 to build water filtration systems for disadvantaged schools and communities in Mexico.

Initially, PromoCares hoped the campaign, which launched on March 22, 2022 (World Water Day), would raise enough money to purchase one to three AquaTower water filtration systems through the Planet Water Foundation. Each filtration system costs $20,000 to build, a figure that also includes community education.

“Every person’s right to clean water, better health and hygiene is not political, not debatable,” Scott Pearson, a PromoCares board member, said when the fundraising campaign launched. “This industry as a whole, we pull many, many resources out of many countries. One of the things we’re driving is if we’re pulling resources out of a country, we feel that the industry should also be putting resources back into a country.”

Top contributors to the Water4Good fundraising campaign included Top 40 supplier Hit Promotional Products (asi/61125), Top 40 supplier S&S Activewear (asi/84358) and Top 40 distributor PromoShop (asi/300446). All donors will be receiving “Water is a Human Right” T-shirts, thanks to the support of industry service provider PromoHunt.

“This gesture is a small token of our appreciation for their generous support and to leverage the power of our industry’s medium,” PromoCares said. “The success of Water4Good is a testament to the power of collaboration and compassion in our industry.”

PromoCares volunteers will be traveling to Mexico today, Nov. 15, to install the first series of water filtration systems. Thanks to the support of S&S Activewear and its brand Tultex, PromoCares is also launching a three-year initiative beginning in 2024 to build a cluster of water filtration systems near Tultex’s Mexico facilities.

The Planet Water Foundation is a nonprofit that was established in 2009 with an aim to bring clean water to the world’s most impoverished communities through the installation of community-based water filtration systems. Clean water is a pressing need around the world: More than 2 billion people lack access to safe drinking water, and roughly 3 billion don’t have access to handwashing facilities with soap. Planet Water’s AquaTowers are gravity-based filtration systems that can operate without the need for external power and provide six safe drinking water access points with integrated liquid soap dispensers for handwashing. The systems produce 1,000 liters of drinking water per hour and are capable of supporting the daily drinking water requirements of up to 1,800 people, according to the nonprofit.

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