Why this KC social entrepreneur pivoted from drilling wells with Matt Damon to tapping micro-loans for water projects

Identifying unmet needs is just as critical for social entrepreneurs as their counterparts at more traditional for-profit ventures, said Gary White, explaining how Water.org needed to find its missing piece to truly tap the non-profit’s potential.

Gary White, co-founder of Water.org, speaks to a group of student entrepreneurs at the UMKC Bloch School during the university’s First Tuesdays entrepreneurship speaker series; photo by Taylor Wilmore, Startland News

“Go after those unique insights at the intersection of a great social gain and a market,” said White, offering advice to student entrepreneurs at the UMKC Bloch School earlier this month. “If you have a genuine insight, and it is a big problem to be solved, and you stick with it, I’m reasonably sure you’re going to make money.”

The nonprofit leaders spoke during the university’s First Tuesdays entrepreneurship speaker series. The next session is planned for 4 p.m. March 5 at Bloch Executive Hall, Room 218, featuring Dan Savino senior vice president of SelectQuote, who boasts more than 15 years of professional experience in IT and AI.

White co-founded Water.org in 2009 alongside Oscar-winning screenwriter, actor and producer Matt Damon to help tackle the global water crisis by financing people living in poverty to be able to access the safe water and plumbing they need to survive and thrive.

“What you’re investing in is people’s lives, productivity, their health, and their education,” said White, the Kansas City-based co-author of “The Worth of Water.” “It is core to human existence to be able to have a safe, sustainable, secure supply of water in order to be able to build on top of that.”

But even with resources and a partner like Damon, drilling into the best solution to address that challenge didn’t come immediately for water.org.

Mission-driven

Damon was inspired to join the fight against water scarcity after scouting locations in the Sahara Desert and throughout Africa for a movie he was producing about long-distance runners. He’d traveled the world as a child, but the experience in 2006 came at the crossroads of revelation and resources to make change.

“When you do something like that, you realize how big our water crisis really is,” said White.

Damon met White, then an engineer from Kansas City who had gained an international reputation as a water and sanitation expert, in 2008 during an annual Clinton Global Initiative meeting in New York. Together, the two realized the global impact they could achieve by pooling their expertise and experience — creating Water.org in 2009.

“It’s been said that your life should be about the intersection of the world’s greatest meaning and your greatest passion, and for me, that became social justice, ground water and sanitation,” said White, who noted how growing up in Kansas City and attending Archbishop O’Hara High School, a catholic school that valued philanthropy, instilled his drive for social justice.

For young entrepreneurs, being mission-driven is essential for effectively communicating the purpose of an enterprise, growing its team and gaining support, whether for-profit or non-profit. 

“It all comes down to the mission. If you have a mission that you can articulate that there’s always obviously a financial reward around.”

Gary White, co-founder of Water.org, speaks to a group of student entrepreneurs at the UMKC Bloch School during the university’s First Tuesdays entrepreneurship speaker series; photo by Taylor Wilmore, Startland News

Student entrepreneurs participate in a Q&A with Gary White, co-founder of Water.org, at the UMKC Bloch School during the university’s First Tuesdays entrepreneurship speaker series; photo by Taylor Wilmore, Startland News

Redirect the approach

Initially, Water.org was established with a specific goal: to drill wells.

White soon recognized, however, the limitations of that direct approach in tackling such a vast issue. The realization prompted him to reevaluate his strategy as a social entrepreneur.

Matt Damon and Gary White in a Water.org promotional photo

“What if instead of seeing this as a charity problem to be solved, instead we looked at it as a market to be served,” he said. “How can we get access to affordable finance to women living in poverty, so that they can escape this water trap that they have?”

Responding to the need for a more sustainable approach, Water.org ventured into providing loans to NGOs or non-governmental organizations. This approach faced setbacks as White found it difficult to transform NGOs into financial institutions.

“They don’t have the same skills and they don’t have the financial acumen. That’s when we reset and said, ‘What if we look at the infrastructure that’s already out?’” he said.

Water.org now utilizes philanthropic funds to mitigate lending risks for water and sanitation projects, collaborating with microfinance institutions through WaterEquity to expand their reach.

“WaterEquity is the world’s first asset manager solely focused on water and sanitation finance for those in poverty,” said White. Investors fund WaterEquity, which then offers capital to global financial partners. 

Through its WaterCredit initiative, it brings small loans to those who need access to affordable financing and expert resources to make household water and toilet solutions a reality, benefitting more than 63 million lives so far.

“If we had stayed with the direction of actually building wells, It would have taken us over 400 years to reach the same number of people that we’ve reached in a few years,” White said.