Paul's Web Space 2.1

The Story of Stuff (and holiday giving)

Please watch "The Story of Stuff" with Annie Leonard. I knew Annie when she was in DC, and a mutual friend and colleague, Andre Carothers of the Rockwood Leadership Program, provided one of the testimonials. This is a great time to think about consuming less, giving or requesting gifts that are easy on the environment, or simply give to people or causes that need it in lieu of some of your standard holiday giving. I've offered this option on my holiday list for a few years, but went a little further with my research this year. Spread this around if you know anyone who can use this information.

A Better Present For a Better Future is a campaign to spread the word about such alternative giving ideas. Network for Good and Global Giving are two organizations that enable contributions to many organizations in the US or NGOs and entrepreneurs in third world countries.

Gifts in my name to those in need can be made to:
Save the Children Holiday Gifts
Oxfam America Unwrapped
Seva Foundation: Gifts of Service

Gifts that also support cool organizations:
OneWorld Gift Guide
The Progressives Guide to Holiday Gift-Giving
Shop Amnesty

Change.org and Razoo are social networks that help you find organizations and causes to support. My Facebook profile has a box promoting my Change.org changes/organizations/etc; I have another application on my profile called Causes (that is pretty much just on Facebook). I support numerous causes here, including the Give One Get One Program (G1G1) from the to the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative.

The coolest alternative giving resource yet is on Twitter. I follow the santacause account on Twitter, which suggests alternative giving options. Some ideas I found this way include Better World Books - Buy Used Books, Fund Literacy and GiveStream - The Easy Giving Community.

Don't forget the programs by Goodsearch , or The Hunger Site, which enable charitable contributions simply by searching or clicking, not hard.

One of my favorite gifts in support of organizations this year is the Causes 1: Darfur CD from Waxploitation. This compilation features lots of great artists, doing new music, obscure or cool covers, or live versions, and 100% of the proceeds are going to three of my very favorite international relief charities: Doctors Without Borders, Human Rights Watch and Oxfam America. I've bought two and plan to give one away this Christmas, my own form of G1G1.

I hope this article prompts you to think about alternatives to traditional holiday giving, or provides some resources that help you pursue those alternatives. Please share. Thank you.    Link: http://www.storyofstuff.com/

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