On 7 July 2012, I saw Scott Harrison (founder of charity: water) speak in Portland at a conference for people who want to change the world. My heart went out for the nearly one billion people without access to clean water. I discovered that charity: water is making a powerful and meaningful impact.

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

I'm turning 40 years old and instead of asking for gifts, I'm going to write a book in 24 hours and give the proceeds to charity: water.

How?
We're going to interview twelve everyday superheroes, capturing the stories of people who are living unconventional lives, working to change the world, and are incredibly fun. Then, we'll edit the audio down to the best bits and assemble them into an audio book. From there, we'll transcribe the edited interview and drop the text into Amazon tools for self-publishing. That will give us an e-book and a print-ready book. And as if that isn't crazy enough, we're going to webcast the entire thing so people can learn about self-publishing and take part in all of the fun.

Why is this important?
Millions of people 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.