Constraint Breeds Creativity with Christa Stelzmuller, CTO at charity: water

This week, your host, Matt Barnes, sat down with Christa Stelzmuller, Chief Technology Officer at charity: water. Together, they explore the challenges and opportunities surrounding technology implementation in the nonprofit sector.

About charity: water

Founded in 2006, charity: water is on a mission to bring clean water to the people in developing countries living without it. Relying on private donor funds to cover operating costs, they have a 100% model, allowing all public donations to fund clean water.

Technology in the Nonprofit Sector

charity: water has a very similar technology infrastructure to a startup, even though they have been operating for 18 years. Their current focus is long-term technology solutions, and they are exploring the capabilities of innovations to support this.

They currently use AI across various functions to improve their operations, like content creation and finance analysis. However, they do so carefully due to potential privacy and accuracy issues. It proves fruitful, allowing them to be more efficient and creative, but its implementation does require a shift in mindset, even for the CTO.

"Most folks are embracing [AI]. I think there's trepidation, certainly around data privacy because we take data privacy super seriously, and so making sure that we're not going too far too fast in this space without the right protections in place.”

charity: water often builds its own sustainable technology solutions rather than relying on outsourcing. This is typically done in areas where solutions do not yet exist, like sensors for wells to ensure long-term functionality.

As the sector grows, they look at solutions already on the market, opting for a hybrid approach when possible. There are usually high transaction costs associated with third-party solutions, which would not work for their 100% model.

"A variable cost model doesn't really work as well in our context. And so a lot of these models that are built on transaction fees don't work out as well as they could."

Want more on nonprofit technology?

Listen to this episode of the Nonprofit Connect podcast to hear the rest of Christa’s insights!