via contributemedia.com

CGG has long been a fan of charity: water. This not-for-profit knows what’s up in a big way with their amazing PSAs, killer fundraisers, and accessible ways to make clean drinking water a universal right. So of course we were thrilled to open up our recent copy of People’s Hottest Bachelor issue and find a full page on the brains behind the organization, Scott Harrison. We caught up with Scott to find out how he had come to grace the same pages as Mario Lopez, George Clooney, and Gerry Butler. 

It turns out that Scott was in Ethiopia at the time when he got the phonecall from this office. He thought it was “a little embarrassing” to be named one of People’s Hottest Bachelors, and was “terrified of it ending up cheesy.” But Scott knows better than anyone how to use the mainstream media to get his cause out in an important way.

Scott was raised in a very Christian home, taking care of his invalid mother. So when he moved to New York at age 18, it was natural that he rebelled. He found himself living on the beach in Uruguay and party promoting in New York. It was when he turned 28 that he realized “I was the most selfish and arrogant person I knew.” It was at this point that Scott realized that he hadn’t done anything for anyone other than himself. He was selling escapism. And then he had the opportunity to volunteer with a medical organization in Liberia, and his whole life turned around. “I came back to my faith,” he says.

Scott founded charity: water, which brings simple solutions to enormous problems. One in every six people don’t have access to clean drinking water, but freshwater wells, rainwater catchments, and sand filters can tackle the problem.

How did Scott’s party promoting background help him to launch a charity? “Clients are generous,” he says. “They want to reach outside themselves and help.” And who wouldn’t want to help when it costs only $5000 to build a well in Africa? And he knew directly who to target. The average New Yorker doesn’t blink at spending $16 for a cocktail or a bottle of water at a hotel minibar. For each charity: water  $20 bottle of water sold, the campaign gives a person in the developing world clean water for 20 years.

Today charity: water is a growing not-for-profit with a gigantic mission of helping millions of people. And the best part is that it couldn’t be easier to get involved. Kids across the nation are selling lemonade, even tapping people on the street to gather donations. Scott recommends hosting a screening of Danny Boyle’s film Millions (where in the end the main character raises money to build a well) to raise awareness. Taking a party past and turning it into a revolutionary goodwill? To us, nothing could be sexier.