The Worth of Water by Gary White & Matt Damon
Author:Gary White & Matt Damon [White, Gary & Damon, Matt]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2022-03-29T00:00:00+00:00
When Gary and I started working together, we adopted a rule that Ben Affleck once established for our screenwriting sessions: âJudge me on how good my good ideas are, not how bad my bad ideas are.â So as Gary and I were sitting in the back of a jeep in India, I felt free to suggest what I thought might be a very bad idea: âIf these MFIs canât get affordable capital,â I said, âwhy canât we just raise it for them?â
When I was growing up, my dad, Kent Damon, was a stockbrokerâso when it came to finance, I knew, as they say, just enough to be dangerous. It seemed to me that there was an enormous pool of money out there that we ought to be able to tap into. The amount of money that institutions across the world donate to development assistance each year is about $161 billion.[2] Which is a lot. Except that the amount of capital sitting in global markets is about $250 trillion.[3] Thatâs a lot more. It is, in fact, over 1,500 times more. Nonprofits arenât in the habit of thinking about that kind of money, because itâs investment capitalâmoney that is supposed to generate a financial return. The money that people (as well as corporate philanthropies) donated to Water.org had no such expectation attached. The whole idea of philanthropic giving is that itâs, well, giving. You give it away to help improve peopleâs lives and never expect to get it back. But why couldnât we ask people and organizations to contribute differently to our work? What about asking some of them not to give the money away, but to invest it, and to get a modest return on that investment?
Gary was aware that some other organizations had started doing the same thingâfunding their work with investment capital. He didnât know if weâd be able to pull that off, but he didnât see any reason why we couldnât. Neither did I. As I told Gary, I was confident there were investors whoâd accept some risk and lower returns for the guarantee of improving peopleâs lives. I mean, Iâd do it. Which, I realized, might actually be a start. So I said: âIf we can make this work, Iâll be the first to invest.â
On one of the last nights of the trip, we hosted a dinner in Bangalore with some leaders of Indian MFIs. Gary asked them: âIf we could get you capital at half the price youâre paying for it now, how many people could you reach?â
One of the officials said, âTwice as many.â
Gary asked, âHow soon could you start?â
This answer came quickly, too. âTomorrow.â
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