Gifts With An Impact

I love receiving a gift that has an extended reach and makes an impact in our communities. I've noticed this year in particular that more people have been posting gift ideas that benefit charity and was thrilled to see that more folks are looking to extend the impact of their giving.

Many artists and crafters have chosen to partner with charities by allowing a portion of the sale proceeds to benefit the organizations. It's always interesting to me to see which charities they choose. Not only does the charity benefit monetarily, but the additional exposure is tremendously beneficial to them.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that one of my cherished Christmas gifts benefits a worthy cause. My beautiful little Santa figurine created by folk artist, Jim Shore, supports The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation's efforts of preservation, research, and educational programs for the world's largest living history museum in Williamsburg, VA. I'll be delighted to pull out that figurine every year and be reminded of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation's fine efforts.

There are thousands of opportunities to purchase a gift that benefits a charitable organization. I follow a wonderful organization on facebook called Made By Survivors that fights human trafficking and slavery. Their beautiful fair trade jewelry items, handbags and gifts are made by survivors of slavery at shelters around the world, offering them sustainable income, dignity and a bright future.

For a fun and unique shopping experience, check out Breadpig.com. The mission of this clever establishment is to "help make the world suck less by selling you the geeky things you love and giving all the profits to good causes." Carrying t-shirts, books, posters and more, proceeds benefit organizations such as Mercy Corps, SPCA, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Nature Conservancy and smaller literacy, housing and cancer organizations.

Another unique organization is called Baking for Good. They sell "irresistible cookie gifts" that benefit the charity of your choice.

Of course, the World Wildlife Fund has all those cute little stuffed animals that you can adopt and give as gifts. Through Heifer International you can give the gift of chicks, goats, sheep and the like to families in struggling countries. And, St. Jude's Childrens Research Hospital has lots of unique gifts for kids.

Selecting an item that benefits a worthy cause shows a heightened level of thoughtfulness and compassion. Your recipient is sure to be pleased with the gift and the charity selected will undoubtedly be grateful for the support.

Happy 2012 giving!
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Addendum: Right after I posted this, I received a tip from The Hunger Site about fair trade gifts.  You can also link to stores benefiting breast cancer, animals, veterans, autism, child health, literacy and the rain forest!  Cute stuff, too!

Spare Change with a Huge Impact

I've noticed that even though we decided on supporting only 12 charities this year, we've been donating to quite a few more with barely a second thought.

For instance, at the McDonald's, we gave our spare change to the Ronald McDonald House Charities at the drive-thru window. At the Food Lion, while shopping for groceries, we gave $1.00 to their Shop & Care program benefitting Easter Seals UCP (United Cerebal Palsy) in North Carolina. We stopped in at AC Moore and donated a buck towards their Easter Seals Act for Autism project. My daughter's school had a fundraiser for the Childood Leukemia Foundation. We also saved our boxtops for Boxtops for Education PTA fundraiser.

In 2009, Ronald McDonald House Charities raised over $18 million from the spare change boxes on their countertops. Last year, Food Lion raised over 3 million dollars in four short weeks through the Shop & Care program. Boxtops for Education has raised over 320 million dollars for schools - nine million in our state of North Carolina alone.

Small change CAN really make a difference! Literally, the coins in your car, together with the millions of other coins in millions of other cars, can help change the world and make a tremendous difference in the lives of so many. So, don't pass up the opportunity to give a little spare change to those boxes on store countertops and know that you have a hand in something great!

March Charity Selected!

Ignite Raleigh is a series of interesting, unusual and inspiring 5-minute presentations made by local professionals, techies and folks from all walks of life crammed together in one 3 hour event. We attended the most recent gathering that was free but they asked that everyone make a contribution to DonorsChoose.org, an online charity that connects donors to classrooms in need.

When our family sat down to discuss our charitable options for this month, of course, DonorsChoose.org was one of them. We considered health organizations like Operation Smile, humanitarian agencies like the Salvation Army, groups like the SPCA of Wake County and other global poverty organizations like The Hunger Project.

We decided to take a closer look at DonorsChoose and found one high poverty classroom in particular that was looking for science kits. The teacher shared that "We are a rural Title I school in North Carolina. 97% of our students receive free or reduced lunch on a daily basis. Many of them do not have televisions, take vacations or even have a chance to leave this town. I want to bring the world to their fingertips through these experiments and realistic pictures." That bit of information sealed the deal.

Our charity for the month of March is DonorsChoose.org. We've selected Ms. B's Classroom in North Carolina and chose her project "Bringing Science Vocabulary to Life" for the purchase of science kits.

Talk about designating your gift! That is one very specific contribution and we are so happy to help!

February Charity Selected

Several weeks ago, we had a pretty good selection of organizations for our charity project: animal shelters, wildlife protection, childrens agencies, all sorts of noble and worthy entities. We had a fairly good idea of who we were going to support.

That was, until the Haitian Disaster. Hundreds of thousands of people are helping in any way they can - either by funding, clothing and medical collections, or volunteering. It occured to us that millions of dollars are providing food, water, and medicine. But, who is passing out the food, who is driving to remote areas to supply water, who is administering the medicines?

That's why this month, we chose to support International Relief Teams. IRT is "an international relief organization dedicated to organizing volunteer teams to provide medical and non-medical assistance to victims of disaster and profound poverty worldwide." Within days of the earthquake, they sent a team of ER physicians to work at the general hospital, they shipped over 1,200 family tents, they airlifted 100,000 meals of shelf-stable food and sent $160,000 in medicines & medical supplies. They are a 23 year old organization and a 4-star Charity Navigator agency. They also have some inspiring stories and photos on the IRT Facebook Page.

We're very happy to know that our small donation will help such incredible and necessary efforts. Congratulations to International Relief Teams: our February Charity of the Month!

Want to learn more about IRT and their efforts in Haiti? Watch this incredible video of IRT volunteer Colleen Buono of MD providing medical attention to a boy pulled from the rubble of a collapsed home after 4 days - inspiring!

To learn more about making your own donation to IRT, visit the donation page of their website. To learn more about other organizations providing relief in Haiti, view this article on CNN with a list of worthy causes.

Small Gifts from Many Make a Huge Difference

In a world filled with dire need and tens of thousands of charitable organizations out there to help, making a decision of which one to support can be overwhelming. Even though I work for a local charity, deciding who to help and when is a daunting task. So daunting, in fact, that most of the time, our family just didn't give at all.

I recently picked up a book called "Give A Little: How Your Small Donations Can Transform Our World" by Wendy Smith. I was relieved to discover that I wasn 't the only one who had the heart to help but didn't feel that my small contributions would make a real difference.

Wendy has a wonderful way of breaking down the numbers of us so called "small donors." Remember the devastating Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004? Of the $6.2 billion in world-wide aid, individual US citizens contributed a shocking $2.78 billion... and the median donation was $50.00.

Ever heard of the March of Dimes? In 1938, President Roosevelt, a polio victim, called for the public to send just one dime to the White House to help fight polio, which affected tens of thousands of children at the time. In the first year, $238,000 in dimes were sent by ordinary citizens. The dimes continued to arrive over the years as cases of polio decreased until the disease was eradicated in 1979. The March of Dimes now focuses on the prevention of birth defects and infant mortality.

Wendy gives more examples of collective giving - inspirational stories that will bring tears to your eyes. It was this book that gave me the idea for our 12 Charities of Christmas Project. Setting up a structured giving program where we choose only one or two charities each month eases the overwhelming feeling of who to support and when. It also keeps the conversation going throughout the year of new organizations that come to our attention and which ones we feel strongly about.

In addition, supporting a charity does not always have to be monetary. As we were packing up some of my daughters outgrown clothes today, she said "We can give these to Goodwill - that's supporting a charity, too!" There are volunteer opportunities at lots of worthwhile organizations and other non-traditional ways of giving such as using GoodSearch.com (you search, they give), GoodShop.com (you shop, they give), eBay Giving Works (shop or sell to benefit charity), donating Lowe's Foods Greenpoints or Food Lion's Shop and Share Program (register your MVP card and they donate a portion of your grocery bill to your favorite charity.)

We don't all have to be the next Bill and Melinda Gates - in fact, it's us little guys in major numbers that make the real difference!

"Never underestimate the power of a small group of committed people to change the world. In fact, it is the only thing that ever has." ~Margaret Mead

(Thanks again to Wendy Smith for all her amazing reasearch in for the book "Give A Little: How Your Small Donations Can Transform Our World". I highly recommend it to everyone with an interest in charitable giving!)