Rethinking hydro-philanthropy : smart money for transformative impact

People without improved water and sanitation services are not helped by bad programming, simplistic giving and a focus on short‐ term results that counts beneficiaries immediately after implementation. Philanthropists can make a dramatic non‐financial contribution to people without safe water and hygienic sanitation by simply asking harder questions about how sustainability will be programmed for and measured, demanding long‐term results and requiring NGOs, and other development agencies to be held accountable over time as a condition before they invest in an NGO’s initiative. This means that monitoring will actually happen instead of being neglected by NGOs, and results over time will matter more than annual beneficiaries of new services. The NGO sector will respond to this because NGOs are filled with tremendously smart and dedicated professionals who are currently responding to the philanthropic market. More investment in water and sanitation interventions without dramatically different results and metrics should no longer be accepted. If philanthropists and NGOs spoke frankly and honestly about what needs to change to alter the dysfunctional philanthropic market and unsustainable programming that currently exists, in a way that focuses on smart investments and accountability for sustainable outcomes, then we really can eliminate water and sanitation poverty worldwide and truly transform lives forever. And that would be a great story indeed! [authors abstract]