Social water entrepreneur at Flinders event
Daniel Flynn's company has brought drinking water to 60,000 people in 11 countries.
Daniel Flynn, the 24-year-old who brings drinking water to some of the neediest people on the planet through his Thankyou movement, will speak at the New Venture Institute at Flinders University Entrepreneurs in Conversation event next Wednesday, March 26.
Thankyou Group (previously Thankyou Water) is a social enterprise that sells bottled water in Australia and uses the profits to fund safe water projects in developing nations.
Daniel founded the company at just 19 years old, building up a team of like-minded young people who raised $250,000 to get the business off the ground.
Back in 2008, they worked out that Australians spent $600 million a year on bottled water – which seemed ludicrous when Australians can get water from the tap for free and 900 million people worldwide didn’t have access to safe water.
They came up with the idea of joining the two extremes together to make a difference by creating a bottled water company for the sole purpose of funding safe water projects in developing nations.
Their business model has helped over 60,000 people in 11 countries by bringing wells, bio-sand water filters, water tanks, water pans and gravity-fed water solutions to communities in South America, Africa and Asia.
More than 2,000 retailers in Australia stock their products, and for every bottle of water they sell, at least one month’s worth of water is provided to someone in need. In 2013 The Thankyou Group won the prestigious Social Enterprise of the Year award recognising its contribution to demonstrable positive social outcomes.
There are up to 20,000 social enterprises operating in every industry in Australia. The field is innovative, mature and sustainable, with 60 per cent of enterprises recently surveyed operating for at least 10 years.
The New Venture Institute has been working closely with Flinders University’s Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences to bring Daniel to the event, which will be held from 5.30pm until 8pm in room 1, level 1 at Flinders University, Victoria Square.
You can book tickets for the event here.
