Hey folks!

If you're reading this, that means you've made it to my fundraising page, and are thinking about helping me out! If you're not quite sold, here's a little more information on why charity: water is a solid choice for my birthday gift.

I have the amazing luck of being born in a wonderful country, surrounded by fantastic people like you. I'm healthy, safe, and have the opportunity for great education.

But many people around the world don’t have that luxury. Every day, about 1,400 children die from diseases caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation. Thousands more are unable to work or attend school because of their struggle to meet basic needs.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

When you donate to charity: water, you are not only giving people safe access to water, but creating opportunities for them to improve their lives exponentially. Each dollar you donate is YEARS of time for children to go to school, mothers to stop being water maids, and fathers to stop losing their children.

There are simple solutions like drilled wells, spring protections and BioSand filters that help provide clean water to communities around the world. My goal is $300.00, which is enough money to provide 10 people with clean water for life. That's TEN people that will forever be changed by your generous contribution.

100% of the money will be used to build clean water projects, and when they’re complete, charity: water will send us photos and GPS coordinates so we can see the exact community we helped. That means you get to personally see the change YOU brought about. That's pretty awesome.

So if you're sold, donate! If you still want to give a traditional birthday gift, I can't exactly stop you. But know that there is no better gift than knowing something so small can have such great, amazing change for someone else. That's better than any cool shirt, book, or video game you could buy for me.

Fundraising will go from 11/24 to 12/31 on this site (due to the fact fundraisers cannot extent between business quarters), but I will still accept money in the six days leading up to my birthday, and donate it myself.

I hope you'll consider charity: water for my birthday this year, or any day of the year.

Thanks for your support,

Jonathan Arens