Hey there! My name is Ashley, and I work closely with companies big and small who want to help end the water crisis.
But one of my favorite parts of my job? Leading charity: water’s Running Club, which has raised over $600,000 in six years. And there's a reason it means so much to me.
Back in college, I was a support driver for Ride for Water – a team of students who biked coast to coast every summer to raise funds for charity: water. My job was to keep the bikers alive and fed, fundraise from the road, and cold-call strangers to ask if we could crash on their couches that night. (Yep, I can't believe my parents let me do that either.)
In eight years, our scrappy teams raised more than $400,000. But what’s stayed with me most are the people I met along the way: Holocaust survivors in Oregon who welcomed us into their cabin, a Nebraska family who let us sleep in their treehouse, and even an employee of one of our favorite partners, Humble Bundle, who threw us a backyard send-off party before we reached the Atlantic.
That experience taught me that strangers will show up for what matters. People who had nothing to gain opened their homes, gave what they could, and cheered us on.
On November 2, I’ll get to witness that same spirit of generosity in action as 15 of our runners take on the NYC Marathon — 26.2 miles and a goal to raise $150,000 and bring clean water to over 3,500 people in Malawi. I hope you’ll take a moment to meet them and maybe even donate to their fundraisers.
Every mile matters, and generosity — like clean water — changes everything. And if you dream of running with us in the future, I'd love to hear from you.
Kindly,
