The UNICEF Tap Project was a national campaign that helped children in poor countries get access to safe, clean water. The campaign ended during World Water Week, which celebrated the United Nations' World Water Day on March 30.

This campaign included restaurants, customers, students, and volunteers, as well as support from businesses, communities, celebrities, and government groups. During World Water Week, restaurants in the United States asked customers to donate $1 or more for the tap water they usually receive for free. At the same time, UNICEF Tap Project volunteers helped by organizing local fundraising events and activities.

Today, nearly 990 million people around the world do not have access to safe drinking water. Each day, 4,100 children die from diseases linked to water. The UNICEF Tap Project supported UNICEF's work to achieve the Millennium Development Goals – Goal 7 – which aimed to halve'16 flats, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic Producted.

The project was ended by UNICEF USA in March 2016.

History

The UNICEF Tap Project was started in 2007 by an advertising company in New York City named Droga5. It was launched on May 2001, which was World Water Day. The idea was to ask people to give $1 or more for the tap water they usually get for free. The money would help give clean water to poor children. Each $1 helps a child have clean water for 15 to days. At first, the campaign only happened on World Water Day. Later, it focused on World Water Week.

The first Tap Project in New York City had support from thousands of people at more than 300 restaurants. This helped raise about $100,000. Since 2007, the UNICEF Tap Project has collected almost $2.5 million to help children get clean water and better hygiene.

Destination of funds

The money collected during the UNICEF Tap Project campaign supports programs that focus on water, hygiene, and sanitation. This funding helps children in countries such as Belize, Guatemala, the Central African Republic, Ivory Coast, Haiti, Iraq, Togo, and Vietnam gain access to clean water. Some of these programs include drilling wells, installing water pumps, building latrines in poor communities, and teaching important hygiene skills to school children and their families. The campaign also supports projects like rainwater harvesting and the use of affordable water filters.

National sponsors

Since 2007, the UNICEF Tap Project has had many sponsors who have worked with the campaign. In 2010, Giorgio Armani started a campaign called "Acqua for Life." This campaign used his men's fragrance called "Acqua di Giò" to raise awareness and money for the Tap Project. In 2011, Armani added a women's fragrance called "Acqua di Gioia" to the campaign. Giorgio Armani gives $1 for every bottle of these two fragrances sold during March. The campaign includes sales in all 50 U.S. states, Puerto Rico, and Washington D.C.

Turner Broadcasting System has supported the Tap Project for four years in a row. This organization helps the UNICEF Tap Project Volunteer Program by giving money to find and train volunteers, as well as providing free advertising to spread awareness about the campaign.

Droga5 is an advertising company that started in 2006. It began working with UNICEF in 2007 to help the Tap Project. Droga5 makes promotional materials to support the campaign, sharing information about the project through different media before and during World Water Week. This event raises awareness about UNICEF's work to provide clean water to children in need.

eBay joined the UNICEF Tap Project in 2009 to help give children clean and safe water. The company started a campaign called "GivingWorks," where customers and sellers can choose to donate a part of their profits from eBay. People can also give money when buying items listed as supporting the cause.

The UNICEF Tap Project also gets help from companies like MediaVest USA, American Express, Zagat Survey, OpenTable, SeamlessWeb, and Yelp, Inc. These companies offer free advertising and media attention to the campaign.

In 2011, UNICEF started a campaign called "Celebrity Tap" to raise more money. This campaign involved filling fancy bottles with water from celebrities' homes. For every $5 donated through the Tap Project website, people could enter a chance to win a case of the celebrity tap water.

The money from "Celebrity Tap" was used to provide clean water to children worldwide. Some celebrities who helped were Selena Gomez, Taylor Swift, Robin Williams, Dwight Howard, Rihanna, and Adrian Grenier. These celebrities also volunteered for commercials and ads to promote the Tap Project.

In 2014, UNICEF launched a new campaign that asked people to go without their cell phones for a time. Users visited the Tap Project website on their phones and tried not to touch their devices for as long as possible. For every 15 minutes they went without their phones, UNICEF's sponsors donated money equal to one day of clean water for children in need.

The campaign had over 2.6 million users who spent an average of more than an hour on the site. This effort raised $1.6 million from a total of over 250 million minutes people went without using their phones.

Achievements

Since it began in 2007, the UNICEF Tap Project has become well-known because many groups have honored it with awards. In June 2007, the Tap Project received the Titanium Lion award at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival in France for using new and creative ideas.

In 2008, the Tap Project was given a Gold award by The Advertising Club of New York’s International ANDY Awards for its work in public service. It also received a Silver award for Integrated Branding. That same year, Jay Aldous, who was the former Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, shared the Non-profit Marketer of the Year award with others at the American Marketing Association and the American Marketing Association Foundation.

• Top Chef Masters – Marcus Samuelsson won, and the UNICEF Tap Project was the charity that received the prize money
• Dr. Phil
• The Ellen DeGeneres Show
• The Rachael Ray Show
• The Martha Stewart Show