A Special Birthday Wish

This week I’ll turn 50. When I was much younger — in my early 40s — it seemed 50 was a long, long way off. Now that it’s here, I’ve decided to do something significant to me and invite as many of you along for the ride as possible.

This year I’m giving my birthday to charity: water.

My goal is to raise $5000 to support one water project for 250 Bayaka living in the Central African Republic. They are an African Pygmy tribe, one of the last hunter-gatherer societies in the world desperately in need of clean drinking water.

In answer to your question: Why? I have a few reasons.

First: The Charity: water message has stuck with me since last year when I learned about their birthday campaign. As I’ve brushed my teeth or rinsed the dishes each day while clean water easily pours into my sink I’m haunted by these startling statistics:

• Almost a billion people on the planet don’t have access to clean drinking water.
• Unsafe water and a lack of basic sanitation cause 80% of all disease and kill more people than all forms of violence, including war.

Second: This campaign, the website support, and the overall online fundraising effort all year long by Charity: water is the best I’ve ever seen. Whether you make a contribution or not, visit their website. Look around. Touch it. Feel the emotion. See the colors and the smiles and dirty water. And then think about whether or not your website can be as compelling.

Third: I work with literally hundreds of social profit organizations each year and financially support many of them. Deciding who to give my birthday to was causing me sleepless nights. So, I’ve chosen an organization that is not a client. Whew! That feels better. Now there is no worry about anyone feeling left out.

Background story:
When Charity: water founder Scott Harrison turned 31, he asked everyone he knew to come to a party and bring money for clean water instead of gifts. He raised more than $15,000 and they used the money to give water to people living in a refugee camp in Uganda. In 2007 they held the campaign again, but asked others born in September to join in as well. They gave up birthday gifts and together raised $150,000 to bring clean water to hospitals and schools in Kenya. A year later, 900 people joined the movement, and almost $1 million was raised through birthdays.

This year, they’re doing it again — but bigger. And I’m joining in. Please celebrate my 50th birthday by making a $50 contribution to Charity: water on my special birthday page.