Straight Talk on Averages

This post was originally published on splash.org in 2012

At Splash, we get asked all the time about averages…

• Average cost to clean water?
• Average cost of intervention / per child?
• On average, how bad is the water these kids would otherwise drink?

But at Splash, we don’t believe in averages. We think discussions of “average” are misleading. If you ask the Splash staff, they’ll tell you we serve no “average” kids. We have neither “average” staff members nor “average” donors.

If you think about it, Splash cleans water in schools: If one school has 1,000 kids and another school has 500, then the cost/child at the second school is 2x the cost/child of the first. But in both cases it is a bargain!!! Yet if we only talk in averages, one could assume our intervention is “more costly” and “less efficient” in a school of 500 kids. (Are you going to tell those 500 kids they can’t have clean water? I’m sure not!) This is why averages are misleading. The good news is that we can clean water for 500 kids at an incredible price-point. Still better news is that we can clean water for 1,000 at the same cost!

We do realize, however, that giving you ballpark figures might help you conceptualize just how much you can do with so little:

• Average cost of Splash intervention, per site: $7,500 (all in) for 10-years
• Average cost per year, per site: $750
• Average number of kids served, per intervention: Between 375 and 750 kids, depending on the context
• Average cost per year, per child: Between $2/year and $1/year (!)
• Average water quality pre-intervention: Contaminated, unsafe for consumption (we would never let our children drink it)
• Average water quality post-intervention: Pure, safe for consumption (we would gladly let our children drink it)

If you like averages, now you have them. These ones are good and true.

But if you want to make a difference — by ensuring clean water for individual, precious kids — I would invite you to Do More.

On average, your gift of:

• $1,000 could pay for one year of clean water + hygiene education for an entire school.
• $500 could buy a water storage tank so the kids always have access to water, even when the city water is turned off.
• $200 could provide bubblers (drinking fountains) and taps for a water station so kids can drink the water any time their hearts desire!
• $150 could provide 5 years of spare parts to make sure the water is clean, safe, and reliable.
• $100 could provide hygiene training for kids so they can learn about hand washing (and germ transmission) at critical times

At Splash, we pursue excellence with a vengeance. We don’t just clean water for kids — we clean it to a level of quality we would drink ourselves. And we do — drink it ourselves, that is. A Splash staff member is always the first to take a drink when a new water system is inaugurated.

We aspire to be well above average: in quality, transparency, accountability, execution, integrity and also fun. Because, at the end of the day, an “average” kid will like the clean water, but they’ll love it if we make the experience fantastic, too!