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You may have spied the latest issue of Esquire on newsstands sporting a smiling Matt Damon. The Oscar-winner has a new movie called The Informant! out — but Esquire’s exposé doesn’t dabble long on Hollywood, choosing instead to focus on Damon’s charity work; particularly with bringing clean water to people living in third world countries. As he states in the article, it’s exactly as he would like it.

One aspect of the article that’s revealing is how Damon’s first clean water charity that he founded, H20 Africa, was scrapped in favor of merging with activist Gary White of WaterPartners. Back in July, the two announced a new effort called Water.org that would combine both charities and leverage Damon’s star-power to help make a difference. H20 Africa had run its course as a charity that actually only funneled money to other charities — limiting how well Damon could keep tabs on how the money was being used. According to the article, there were also warnings that the charity’s chairman “might have been in it more to give himself access to Damon than to give children access to water.”

Damon’s decision to merge H20 Africa under the guidance of a guy like Gary White gives you some great insight into just how committed the actor is to making a difference. As a result, Water.org’s chief community manager anticipates that this coming year’s Web donations will increase fourfold. Revenue is expected to triple from $5.5 million in 2008 to $15.5 million in 2011. That’s small change to some other big-time non-profits out there, but if Damon and White have shown anything, it’s that effectively run charities can make a huge difference with small amounts. Having a celebrity fully vested and passionate about the cause helps too.

Check out the full article here.

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