Twitter campaign tries to keep Detroit water flowing

Sometimes a conversation on social media can have a big impact. A July 17 Twitter exchange between two women sparked the creation of a website to combat one of Detroit's biggest issues: delinquent water bill payments.

Tiffani Bell (@tiffani) and Kristy Tillman (@KristyT), who have never met in person, created the Detroit Water Project, a website that matches potential donors with the water department account information of needy Detroit citizens.

Detroit's water department has come under much scrutiny the past few weeks after they launched a campaign to shut off water for residents who were two months or more behind on their payments. When news of the department's campaign spread, protests and outside pressure led the department to announce a 15-day grace period before the cut-offs continued.

Tillman said that she and Bell wanted a way to help residents as quickly as possible but were not satisfied with the typical crowdfunding models, like Kickstarter or GoFundMe, which can take longer to produce results. A couple days after the initial social media conversation, they had a website online.

"Generally with crowdfunding, people have to wait until the entire fund is raised," she said in an email Friday. "We also wanted to ensure our donations went directly to the residents, and that was not a guarantee through any of the campaigns we saw going on at the time."

Detroit residents who have overdue water balances can submit their information to the Detroit Water Project website, which then matches that information with a donor. Donors have the option to pay as little or as much as they want, and the donation occurs directly through the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department website. The website does not share names with donors or recipients.

As of Friday, Tillman said, more than 3,000 donors have pledged, and more than 300 needy Detroiters have reached out to the website for help. Tillman said that the tremendous impact has been better than expected, and it wouldn't be possible without Twitter.

"There's really no telling if we would have been connected if it weren't for social media," Tillman said.