Guiding Principles and Business Practices

1) We are driven by what works, and great ideas can come from anywhere

Safe drinking water projects helping rural communities in developing nations are fragmented by nature.  Eradicating the crisis occurs one village at a time.  The good news, however, is that we can see what works and measure the impact in a relatively short time.  We say “$30 gives one person a lifetime of safe drinking water”.  That is an average…sometimes it’s more, sometimes it’s less.  But the important point is that we can measure our success.  And we do.

Another joy of our network is that great ideas can come from anywhere.  We’ve had suggestions about improving rainwater catchment systems made by a small NGO in Africa be adopted by other NGO’s around the world.  New approaches to dealing with drought-stricken areas in the south of India have been shared with groups working in the north.  Showcasing the work of larger water NGO’s enables less established groups to immediately adopt proven methods, saving time and money while bringing more sustainable safe drinking water to people in need.  We want to share these great practices broadly, as we all are in the same fight against the global safe drinking water crisis.

2) We must be prepared to shift to achieve our mission, just as water shifts to reach its destination

This is how we run Blue Planet Network.  We started in 2002, with the name of Blue Planet Run, with a focus on raising awareness of the global safe drinking water crisis.  Our Blue Planet Run 2007 global relay, http:/blueplanetnetwork.org/run, was the largest event focused on the crisis.  Many people found out about the safe drinking water crisis for the first time and became passionate advocates for our cause.

Along the way of putting on the event, however, we learned that an even greater unsolved issue was how to scale to manage the hundreds of thousands of projects needed to bring safe drinking water to all who needed it.  Out of this realization was born our online network, which now stands at 60+ members working in 22 countries.  Our consumer community also was looking for ways to contribute beyond the events we organized.

We made the decision that we needed to shift our focus to this network as our greatest contribution, and build tools and programs so that our passionate consumer community could take on awareness and fund raising more independently.  We also decided to let our members use our network to manage all of their projects, not just the ones we funded, if we really wanted to build up open access to water project data.   We also opened the network to other funders to enable them to increase their funding of water projects based on delivering pre-vetted project proposals and handling much of the management and analytics for them.

Both our network and our grassroots efforts are more successful as a result.  We look forward to what our network and community tell us next and where that leads us.

3) Collaboration Is Critical To Success

No matter how passionate or deep-pocketed, no one organization or agency will solve the global safe drinking water on its own.  The staff of Blue Planet Network does not hold all the world’s water knowledge.  What we have built that we believe is a valuable contribution to the fight is our network.  It is a platform that enables collaboration between any group or individual interested in solving the water crisis: funders, implementers, analysts, governments, businesses, the general public.  Collaboration leads to better programs, more sustainable solutions, fewer mistakes.

The power of the Internet and the constantly improving number of applications have transformed the potential for global collaboration to bring safe drinking water to communities no matter how remote.  The Internet alone, though, cannot solve the crisis. without an equally powerful “human network” of knowledge, passion and persistence.

Our goal is to enable collaboration on our network, make it as easy and useful as possible, and then stand back and watch the magic happen.  And it does all the time!

3) Transparency -> Accountability -> Trust

One of the most important principles of Blue Planet Network is transparency. We share all the data and discussions surrounding the water and sanitation projects on our network because we believe that only by sharing actual raw data and results will we all have the opportunity to improve our practices and ensure that the best techniques and programs win out over sub-optimal approaches. One size does not fit all in the water and sanitation sector. Sharing detailed data and analytics from a project’s proposal through its implementation is the best way to understand why a certain approach was selected and whether it lived up to its promise.

This focus on transparency also drives how we operate Blue Planet Network, the organization.  We are a member of Guidestar, www.guidestar.org, and believe it is a great way for the general public to learn about the strength and impact of a nonprofit. 

We applaud Guidestar for enabling non-profits of all sizes to share not only their financials, but their missions, programs and impact as well.  While we are proud of our 12.7% operating overhead ratio, this does not tell the whole story.  The worth of a nonprofit, in our opinion, is not how little they spend on overhead, but on how effective they are in their work.  Our network is built around showing this impact in full detail, mistakes as well as successes.  We welcome the public to delve into our projects and learn about our highly capable members and their work.

Blue Planet Network, as an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer, complies with all applicable federal and state laws regarding nondiscrimination and affirmative action. Blue Planet Network is committed to a policy of equal opportunity for all persons and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, disability, religion, height, weight, or veteran status in employment, educational programs and activities, and admissions. Inquiries or complaints may be addressed to the CEO, Blue Planet Network, P.O. Box 3059, Redwood City, CA 94064-3059. Telephone: 415-762-4340