Friends and Family -

This year is a special one for me because it's the seventh time I have the chance to celebrate my birthday (without cheating), and I've decided to pledge my 28th birthday to charity: water. This year, if you were thinking of showing me some form of love through a birthday gift, I would really, REALLY appreciate it if you could redirect it through a donation to charity: water instead! And if you weren't actually thinking of getting me anything, I would like to appeal to you that my birthday only comes around once in 4 years. :) My goal of $2,800 is a symbolic multiple of my age this year, and I'm pledging an initial amount of about 35% towards this figure and hope you can help to make up the rest!

Most of us take clean water and the access to it for granted. I believe that it is a basic human right. But 663 million people in the world live without clean water - that's nearly 1 in 10 people worldwide and more than twice the entire US population. Every DAY, about 1,400 children die from diseases caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation. But it doesn’t have to be that way. And that's why I'm so grateful for charity: water and the work they are doing.

charity: water is operationally funded entirely by private donors, foundations, sponsors and corporate partners. As such, 100% of donations by the public go toward clean water projects, which is awesome. In 2014, charity: water sent over $28.7m to the field to fund over 3,900 clean water projects in 12 developing countries. Since it started in 2006, charity: water has funded more than 16,000 projects and brought clean water to more than 5 million people! What is really cool too is that we'll be able to see exactly which projects we funded once they've been fully completed, typically in about 21 months.

I love the founder, Scott's story and you can read it here to catch the vision behind all of this: http://www.charitywater.org/about/scotts_story.php

Thank you so much in advance for your generosity!

"The generous soul will be made rich, and he who waters will also be watered himself." Proverbs 11:25