Paul's Web Space 2.1

Charitable Holiday Giving - Continued

UPDATE: I've received good feedback and discovered more resources and opportunities related to giving to charity for the holidays, often in someone else's name, sometimes including their input.

Monday's Yi-Tan Community Call #163 featured its 2007 Gift Guide. The call included a discussion of charitable gift options. Changing the Present offers more gift ideas for helping those in need (and was also promoted by Oprah). Yi-Tan call host Jerry Michalski also introduced us to the Handmade Gift Pledge to give only gifts made by hand, and also discussed resources to help the handy make their own gifts, or to give those handy types.

Then Andy Carvin tweeted that he was being interviewed on the NPR show Hearsay, about privacy in social networks; when I tuned it in, it was still streaming last Friday's show on Christmas Shopping, which discussed this topic extensively.

One of the guests was Sharon Tannenbaum, from the magazine Real Simple, who discussed the current issue's Holiday Gift Guide, particularly the popular feature Gifts that Give Back. This guide mentions several notable opportunities to do just that, including (once again) ChangingthePresent.org; DonorsChoose.org, which enables the recipient to help a school or classroom in various ways; and MarkMakers, which makes donating fun, giving kids the opportunity to direct a donation to the cause of their choice.

Later in the program, she interviewed Devon Hermanson, from WorldVision Gift Catalog, which offers more than 100 poverty-fighting gifts. He cited sharply-rising trends in holiday giving, figuring that donors "are really hungry for a way to bring meaning back into Christmas."

Finally, one of the editors at Education Week responded by suggesting Heifer International, a charity that fights hunger through livestock donations in Third World countries - "which is especially appealing to kids."

This suggestion brings us back to the beginning, because Heifer is one of the three partners behind A Better Present for a Better Future, the very first site I mentioned on Friday, and a very elegant offering, so I might as well mention the other two sponsors - Share our Strength and Conservation International. (Disclosure - the drummer in my band the Oxymorons works at CI.)

Happy (last minute) shopping! ¶ 1:18 AM | Permalink | |
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