It’s My Charity Birthday and I’ll Donate if I Want to

Well it might be hard for those of you who know me well to believe what I am about to do… I am going to donate my birthday. Yes I said it. And I mean it. Kind of.

Having just be to the World Domination Summit and seen one of the main speakers Scott Harrison speak about the charity he created to help bring clean water to Africa I got inspired to contribute, in my own small way. And one of the great initiatives that Charity Water has come up with is the “donate your birthday” campaign. Which I LOVE, because I love my birthday and I love celebrating life and I love contributing and doing good. So imagine – a way to do all of those things at once. And imagine celebrating my life, by providing the means to have life giving water brought to people in need in Africa. What could be better?

Except, and yes you guessed it, we are talking about my birthday.

A couple of snags there… one is that it is just around the corner, so hard to do any really substantial fundraising, apart from put out the word (this blog is obviously part of that, and putting it out to social media, etc – so do feel free to pass this on if you are inspired, the more the merrier) and trust in the generosity of the human spirit (that’s you). Ok, well I can work with that.

But the real challenge is – GIVE UP MY BIRTHDAY!?!?!? The words “over my dead body” come to mind. I mean I can’t give up my birthday – it’s my birthday, the one day of the year where I give myself full freedom of self-absorbed self-expression. I get to be the centre of attention all day long. It really is all about me on my birthday. Really.

So how to reconcile this discrepancy. Well Charity Water is not actually asking me to give up my birthday, as in not have it, or not celebrate it. They are just asking that I beseech my friends and family that instead of giving me gifts for my birthday – you know all the token presents that really aren’t things I need but people give me because they want me to know they were thinking of me, or the $5 cards that will be recycled in a few weeks anyway – that they give the amount they would have spent on a present or card for me to charity water instead.

Simple right?

And that works for me. It has never been about the presents for me, just the presence of your company. The acknowledgements, the feeling special, the having a fuss made over me – that is what I want. So I don’t need to go without that! In fact if you donate to Charity Water, and I see the numbers rise, and I know you gave for me, in my name – well that is the very sort of thing that makes me feel special, and fussed over and loved up… so let the games begin, I am officially declaring it SIGNY BIRTHDAY SEASON.

To help me celebrate being alive – please go to my birthday site and donate for my birthday!!

I thank you, and Africa thanks you.

P.S. Some of what I love about this organization is that 100% of public donates goes to the actual cause – hello, yay!!! And further to that you will get to see EXACTLY where your money has gone and what difference it is making – they track it and you can check in on it. Doesn’t it make your heart feel good!?!? So make your heart feel good and donate now!