One tee gives one person access to clean water for 25 years. ThirstTees is a philanthropic clothing line that is working to make a dramatic impact on the water crisis. Every 19 seconds a child dies from a water related illness. This is something that we could not accept. We have partnered with a non-profit called Thirst Relief International that builds wells and biosand filters throughout Africa, India and South America. We work to create amazing products through our personal brand as well as collaborations with other organizations to help raise funds for water projects all over the world.

Problem

Nearly 1 billion people live without clean water. Every 19 seconds a child dies from a water related illness. Disease from unsafe drinking water kills more people then all forms of violence combined, including war. The ripple effect that is caused by lack of water spreads much further than we see. When people are forced to spend hours a day collecting water, they are not spending this time in school, taking care of their family, or earning an income. Water is where it starts. Our world has made incredible leaps forward in our capabilities, but in our progress, we have left too many people behind. Why should one group of people have so much, when another group can't meet their basic needs? Does one person deserve more than another because of where they are born? There are solutions to provide people with access to clean water but the problem is creating funding to build the wells and filters. When a non-profit has to rely on donations to fund all of their projects, they are spending far to much of their time collecting money and not enough of their time actually focusing on the need. We wanted to do what we do best by creating great products so that our non-profit partner can focus on what they do best by building wells and water purifiers for people in need.

Solution

One tee gives one person access to clean water for 25 years. We have three different approaches to creating our products. The first is a stand alone clothing line with the ThirstTees brand. The second is to create collaborations with bands/artists to release a cobranded tee to their audience. The third approach is to do collaborations with Universities to release a cobranded tee that is designed by a student. A group of students will also run a marketing campaign on campus to create awareness and promote sales.

Exemple

Every item that we sell provides one person with access to clean water for 25 years. We donate a portion of each item sold to Thirst Relief International who then uses the funds to build wells and biosand filters in different parts of Africa, India and South America. We donate approximately 50% of our profits to Thirst Relief. We calculate the donation by taking the total cost of a biosand filter or well and dividing that by the number of people it will serve. This allows us to show the impact on an individual basis.