UNICEF sold free tap water a dollar to fund clean water

The Tap Project began in New York City in 2007, an idea from ad man David Droga's agency Droga5, and launched on World Water Day.

The mechanic is tiny and universal: you order tap water anyway, so the restaurant invites you to hand over $1 for it, which UNICEF turns into 40 days of clean water for a child.

It sidesteps the usual fundraising traps of being too expensive or too vague, because the ask is one dollar at the moment of an act you are already doing, and the result is concrete.

In two years it spread worldwide, earned Droga5 a Titanium Lion at Cannes 2007 and raised millions of dollars' worth of clean water for children.

Charge a dollar for the water that costs nothing

Attaching the ask to a free act that already happens removes friction.

A one-dollar ask is psychologically trivial, so uptake is high.

A concrete result of 40 days of water makes the gift legible.

It reached global scale through pro-bono agencies in many markets.

The easiest donation is the one attached to a thing people already consume. When you cannot find new money, redirect a dollar already being spent and let the donor decide where it lands.

The initial effort earned UNICEF over $5 million, about 1.7 million days of clean water, and won Droga5 a Titanium Lion at Cannes 2007. It spread through pro-bono agencies to dozens of markets and turned the tap-water-is-a-gift idea into a durable fundraising model.