May 18th is my 27th birthday and instead of receiving gifts or money, I would love for you to donate $27 (or more!) toward providing people with clean water. I have been so blessed with family, friends, opportunities, and have never wanted when it comes to food or water. I don't NEED anything for my birthday and would rather take the money I would get from family and friends and put it toward something bigger than me. It is more important for people to have clean water than it is for me to have a nice dinner, buy new shoes, or blow it on vinyl records.

Many of us have no idea what it's like to be thirsty. We have plenty of water to drink -- even the water in our toilets is clean!

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. But it doesn’t have to be that way. There are simple solutions like drilled wells, spring protections and BioSand filters that help provide clean water to communities around the world.

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.