All of my birthdays have always been about stuff. Stuff I don't want, stuff I definitely don't need. And to be honest, I hardly even remember what I got last year.

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

I'm turning 30 years old, and instead of asking for gifts, I'm asking for $30 or more from everyone I know. It's not going to me, though. All of it is going to build freshwater projects for people in developing nations. My goal is to get 100 people to donate, which would give 30 families access to clean water

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 walk hours each day to get dirty water to give to their families.

Because of charity: water's unique model, 100% of all donations go directly to direct water projects costs, and each donation is "proved" and tracked to the village it helped when projects are complete.