All of my birthdays have always been about stuff. Stuff I want at the time, or stuff I will later lose. Either that, or my birthdays have been about trying to have something small so it's not about me.

But this year I want to do it differently, because there's no point in playing small when you have a chance to make a big difference.

Most people aren't stoked on getting a year older - but every year is an opportunity to make a difference and we let them slip by.

So this year, I'm giving up my birthday.

I'm turning 25 years old and instead of asking for gifts, I'm asking for donations. It's not going to me, though. All of it is going to build freshwater projects for people in developing countries.

Some will be coming to the birthday dinner where $10 will be donated as part of the $25 dinner cost but if you're not able to attend or overseas I'd still love you to donate if you can - my goal is to raise $2,500.

Almost a billion people in the world are living without clean water -- but how much are they really living? Millions contract deadly diseases from contaminated water. 30,000 people will die this week alone. The lucky ones won't, but still have to walk hours each day to get dirty water for their families.

My birthday wish this year is not for more gifts I don't need; it's to give clean and safe drinking water to some of the billion people living without it. I want to make my birthday matter this year.

The best part: 100% of all donations go directly toward water projects. And about 18 months after this campaign ends, charity: water will show us where and how every dollar we raised ended up helping in the field. We'll see GPS coordinates, photos and more details about the communities we've impacted.

Please join me.