You're thirsty. You go to your kitchen. You turn on the tap. Nothing comes out.

Want to help?

A couple of years ago I was introduced to charity: water.

At the time, and like many of you today I suspect, I existed in a state where I had conditioned myself to block out the vast majority of "worthy causes" I encountered. It was almost as if, in a world with so many problems and privations, it was impossible for me to focus on making a difference to just one thing. Whilst I considered myself "charitable" in many respects I couldn't hide the nagging guilt that I could do more - significantly more. Watching the video that day of people struggling to obtain the most basic commodity of life - clean water - was truly eye-opening.

Together with a number of other people (you know who you are) a fund was created and significant monies were raised. So far so good. But then, many months later, I received an email from charity: water with details of how all that money had been spent. Attached to the message were photographs, and GPS co-ordinates, of a brand new well that was allowing real people on the other side of the world to drink clean water for the first time. At that moment "poverty" ceased to be an abstract concept to me, conveyed only by news bulletins and high school geography lessons, and turned instead into a simple, but powerful, transactional arrangement between the forces of giving and doing good.

In exactly one month's time on 4th October I will turn forty five. The charity: water "birthday campaign" encourages those who wish to participate to donate the numerical value of the birthday in question. As far as I am concerned this can be in pounds, dollars, euros or whatever currency denomination equivalent you are comfortable with.

In return for your generosity I will be donating the entirety of my FY15 Q2 commission (to be established over the next three months)*. And if that isn't an incentive for my Oracle sales colleagues to sell as much as they can I don't know what is!

Thanks for reading and I hope you can help.

JP

4th September, 2014

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* I have decided to make my contribution now rather than wait as originally planned. There are a few reasons for this and I hope my change of heart is acceptable to those people who have already been good enough to donate.

1) You may have noticed that all donations made to charity: water at the moment are being "matched". A fund of $1m has been set aside for this but as each day goes by the opportunity to take advantage of this decreases. At the time of writing the amount left for matching is $370,183. By making my donation now I can be sure that my contribution will be doubled.
2) When I set up my charity: water account a couple of years ago I used my work email address of the time (I don't recommend this). This has now changed and my old address will be decommissioned in the near future. Unfortunately, and after checking with charity: water's support team, it is not possible to change the email address I first associated with my charity: water profile as this is the "primary key" which is used to ensure uniqueness. By donating now, rather than in several months' time, I can ensure that I can link my donation to this campaign and not have to create a new campaign under a fresh profile.
3) I am keen to show "good faith" now by donating early to maintain the momentum of the campaign and encourage future donations.

10th September, 2014