My 36th birthday is coming up this Friday.  One of my clearest memories as a child is of my father as a 36 year-old. Through my six-year-old eyes, that age stuck in my mind as the age of a real grown-up. Now that I’m turning 36 this Friday, it doesn’t feel exactly the way I expected it would, so I’m hoping to start the year off with a bang. I am donating my birthday to Acumen Fund, where I work (when I’m not blogging). So I’d like your help.

I would love if you could make a gift to Acumen Fund. You can do it through Facebook Causes, or directly on Acumen Fund’s website.  You can say it’s for my birthday or just give in some increment of 36.  So even if you don’t have a lot to give, you could give $3.60.  Or you could give $36 or $360, or….you get the idea.

Why give?  There are a lot of reasons, many of which Seth summed up unbelievably well last week.  For me, I know that two-thirds of the world’s population lives on less than $4 a day – which is about the price of a Starbuck’s coffee.  And I know that these 4 billion people, 4 out of every 6 people on the planet, have as many hopes and dreams and as much potential and dignity as the 2 billion people who are fortunate enough to have been born outside of the clutches of poverty.

More than that, I think for the first time in history we have the tools at our disposal to break the back of poverty, by finding solutions that blend the best of philanthropy and the markets to find answers to the big problems in the world – like maternal mortality and malaria and safe drinking water and sanitation and having a safe place to live.

So help me make my birthday wish come through with a donation.  If nothing else, it’s a nice way to let me know that you’re out there and that you enjoy reading, which means a lot.

I think it’s possible to make a better world, and think part of the reason you read this blog is because you believe that too.  So thank you for reading, and thank you for making my birthday wish come true.