Friends near and far: As some of you know my birthday is coming up very soon and instead of engaging in another night of lost memories, I've decided to put my time, energy and money to a better use.

Charity Water is a non-profit dedicated to providing access to clean water to ~700m people that live without it. Your donation to charity: water will go directly to water project costs as operation costs are covered by wealthy private donors.

Even a donation of $30 can help one person get access to clean water and my goal of $1500 aims to provide 33 people with access to clean and sustainable water. (If you itemize your taxes you can even deduct them from your taxes!)

As an added incentive, under the surveillance of my wonderful roommates, for every $100 donated I will abstain from drinking any type of alcoholic beverage for a week. If I do end-up partaking in drinks, I will personally donate $20 for every standard drink I take.

Thanks all!

Disclaimer: (added at the $800 mark) Personal contributions do not count towards length of sober period. Public holidays and associated weekends excluded from abstention period. Standard drink up for definition by Zorigoo Tugsbayar

Below find the official charity: water statement:
"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.

I started this fundraising campaign to help charity: water build these types of projects around the world, and I'm looking for anyone who can help me.

Please donate to my campaign -- anything you can give is a huge help.

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."