The Diary of a CEOHow I Raised $700 Million: Charity: Water Founder: Scott Harrison | E153
CHAPTERS
- 2:00 – 10:40
A Childhood Marked By Invisible Illness And Caregiving
Harrison describes his mother’s collapse from carbon monoxide poisoning, her lifelong extreme chemical sensitivity, and how the family adapted their home so she could survive. As an only child, he became an essential caregiver, which gave him responsibility and work ethic but also an unusual, touch-deprived and isolated upbringing.
- 10:40 – 18:00
Dark Side, Anger, And An Obsession With Fun
Harrison reflects on his ‘dark side’ as anger and discontent, which he now channels into fighting injustice. Deprived of a typical childhood, he overcompensates with fun for his kids and later in life, while also learning that too much fun can undermine discipline and work ethic.
- 18:00 – 24:00
From Band Dreams To Top-Tier Nightlife Promoter
After a failed attempt to manage a rock band, Harrison realizes promoters make the real money. He apprentices under a promoter and quickly rises to the top tier of New York’s nightlife scene by curating ‘fun’ and transgression, a stark contrast to his strict Christian upbringing.
- 24:00 – 42:00
A Decade Of Hedonism And The Emptiness Beneath It
Harrison details his extreme lifestyle: heavy smoking, drugs, casual sex, gambling and pornography, all pursued with an ‘all-in’ mentality. Health scares and an increasingly stark contrast between his nights and the normal lives of others lead to a growing sense of sadness, emptiness, and moral bankruptcy.
- 42:00 – 51:00
Crisis, Spiritual Reckoning, And The Decision For A 180° Turn
Facing frightening symptoms and existential dread, Harrison turns back to the Bible and a book on purity and righteousness. He recognizes that small lifestyle tweaks won’t be enough; he needs a wholesale inversion of his values and behavior, but initially has no idea how to do that.
- 51:00 – 59:00
Escape From New York And A Call To Serve
After the bouncer incident, Harrison drives north with a Bible, Scotch, and cigarettes, then retreats to the French Pyrenees. The further he gets from New York, the more he feels he never needs to return. He decides to ‘tithe’ a year of his life to humanitarian work and applies to major NGOs, all of which reject him—until Mercy Ships calls.
- 59:00 – 1:06:00
Mercy Ships: Cutting Off The Old Life On A Hospital Vessel
Harrison convinces Mercy Ships to accept him as a volunteer photojournalist, leaning on his NYU communications degree and email list. On the eve of boarding, he intentionally binges his vices one last time and then quits them all at once, stepping onto a 522-foot hospital ship bound for West Africa and a radically new environment.
- 1:06:00 – 1:16:00
Witnessing Extreme Suffering And Surgical Miracles
Arriving in Benin and then Liberia, Harrison covers a massive triage event where over 5,000 people vie for 1,500 surgical slots, some having walked a month. Overwhelmed by cases like a boy suffocating behind a volleyball-sized tumor, he initially falls apart until a doctor tells him to ‘focus on the hope.’ He then documents transformations and shares them with his former nightclub audience.
- 1:16:00 – 1:25:00
Discovering The Water Crisis As Root Cause
On his second year with Mercy Ships in post-war Liberia, Harrison leaves the ship to understand daily life and is shocked by the filthy water sources people rely on. He learns that half the population drinks contaminated water and that half the country’s disease burden is water-related. Surgeon Gary Parker challenges him to devote his life to clean water, framing it as the greatest kind of ‘doctoring.’
- 1:25:00 – 1:30:00
Prototype Impact: Using Storytelling To Fund Surgeries
Between Mercy Ships tours, Harrison returns to New York with his photos and tests whether his promotional skills can raise money for good. A donated Chelsea gallery show of 108 images moves even jaded nightlife contacts, raising around $100,000 for surgeries and showing him the power of visual storytelling and transparent impact.
- 1:30:00 – 1:38:00
Founding charity: water And Inventing The 100% Model
Returning from Africa at 30 with no savings and sleeping on a friend’s closet floor, Harrison decides to tackle the water crisis by launching charity: water. Noting widespread distrust of charities, he designs a dual-bank-account model separating public donations (100% to water projects) from overhead funded by a private circle of entrepreneurs, and he uses his birthday as the first fundraising experiment.
- 1:38:00 – 1:44:00
Near-Bankruptcy, Unshakeable Integrity, And A Million-Dollar Lifeline
In charity: water’s second year, the 100% model is wildly popular with the public, but overhead funding lags. With nearly $1M in the water account and no payroll funds, advisors urge him to ‘borrow’ against project money. He refuses, ready to shut down rather than break the model—until entrepreneur Michael Birch unexpectedly wires $1M into the overhead account.
- 1:44:00 – 1:53:00
Scale, Velocity, And A Philosophy Of Service
Harrison shares current impact numbers—15 million people served, operating in 29 countries, helping ~2 million people per year—and frames the work as just beginning compared to 771 million still without clean water. He rejects the notion of balanced work/life but describes seasons of intense travel followed by child-focused periods, and articulates service and generosity as the core of a fulfilled life.
- 1:53:00
How To Participate: Monthly Giving And Building A Culture Of Generosity
In closing, Harrison outlines practical ways listeners can support charity: water, especially through The Spring, its monthly giving community, and The Well, the circle of entrepreneurs funding overhead. He emphasizes that even small, recurring amounts can reliably fund water for individuals and communities, and that the organization remains obsessive about transparency and impact storytelling.
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