One Drop Foundation

One Drop is an international non-profit organization created by Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté, which is focused on water initiatives.

Arts and culture

One Drop uses circus arts, folklore, popular theatre, music, dance and visual arts to raise awareness of water-related issues.

Projects

One Drop has projects in Central America, India and West Africa.

Awards and recognition

One Drop has received the following recognition:

  • "Water for Life" UN-Water Best Water Best Practices Award in the category “Best participatory, communication, awareness-raising and education practices”
  • International Water Association Project Innovation Award in the Development category.

Donations

Guy Laliberté has pledged to donate C$100 million to the organization over 25 years.[1]

In its 2012 Annual Report, One Drop reported raising nearly $52 million over the previous five years. Funds were allocated to programs designed to provide permanent safe water to over 340,000 people.[2]

Poker
Main article: Big One for One Drop

In 2011, Laliberté teamed with Caesars Entertainment, owner of the World Series of Poker (WSOP), to launch a major poker tournament to benefit the organization. The One Drop tournament would be held as a competition within the larger WSOP series of tournaments held each summer in Las Vegas.

The first tournament, known as The Big One for One Drop, was held as part of the 2012 WSOP, and had a record per person buy-in of US$1 million.[3] The WSOP waived its normal 10% rake of the entry fees, and $111,111 of each buy-in went to the Foundation.[3] The 48 seats available in the event were filled, creating a poker record first prize of $18.3 million[4] and a donation to One Drop of $5.33 million. Caesars Interactive Entertainment CEO Mitch Garber, ineligible to play, donated $111,111 while One Drop founder Laliberté donated his entire fifth-place winnings of $1.83 million, for a total donation of $7.28 million from this single tournament game.[4][5]

As part of the initial 2012 event, Caesars announced that One Drop has become an official charity of the WSOP, and it encouraged all players who cashed during any tournament at the 2012 WSOP to donate 1% of their winnings to One Drop.[6] Labelled the "All in for One Drop", the 2013 campaign saw 458 players contribute $0.25 million of their winnings from tournaments held during the 2013 WSOP.[7]

gollark: Yes, they should simply have not done that.
gollark: Technically, my server is capital because you can ??? money with it.
gollark: No, I found THAT one.
gollark: Please tell me. I put it on my desk but now I can't find it.
gollark: Where is the party in opposition that has not been decried as communistic by its opponents?

References
  1. Annual Report 2009, ONE DROP
  2. Annual Report 2012, ONE DROP
  3. "WSOP Announces $1 Million Buy-In Tournament in Conjunction with One Drop" (Press release). World Series of Poker. June 2, 2011. Retrieved April 12, 2012.
  4. Dalla, Nolan (June 30, 2012). "The Biggest One—World's Most Spectacular Poker Extravaganza Starts Sunday". World Series of Poker. Retrieved July 3, 2012.
  5. Dalla, Nolan (July 3, 2012). "Antonio Esfandiari Pulls Off Amazing Trick by Winning One Drop". WSOP.com. Retrieved July 4, 2012.
  6. "One Drop Designated as an Official Charity of WSOP" (Press release). World Series of Poker. May 22, 2012. Retrieved May 25, 2012.
  7. "BIG ONE FOR ONE DROP RAISES OVER $4.6 MILLION FOR CHARITY" (Press release). Caesers Interactive Entertainment. 2014-07-01. Retrieved 2014-09-01.
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