There was scurrying to figure out what to give as gifts for close ones, near and far ... and like almost every year, almost all of my shopping tis to be done ... And, like so much of my life (political activism at DailyKos), the web can come to the rescue ... with everything (yes, EVERYTHING -- okay, maybe almost everything) for sale via electrons ...
But, in the holiday season amid uncertainty for gifts, I turn to salving my soul and direct some of my resources to those who don't have as much to celebrate (healthy/happy family, friends, a Democratic Congress in January, and enough money to put food on the table through a rewarding career which occasionally enables me to do good for the world) as my luck has provided me.
With my seasonal gift giving, a goal is to ensure that at least as much money goes to charities as into things ... Thus, as per the flip side, I search for places that provide donations with potential meaning for loved ones and friends.
Sometimes, for those with so much, the best "gift" is a donation to a charity in a friend's name ...
Through the year, I probably do the equivalent of tithing in donations (not counting political donations, which bumped up a lot this year). Favored charities include many of the 'big' names, but some of the less obvious / obscure favorite donations include:
- Local charities like So Others Might Eat: An excellent food program in DC and Computer CORE providing computer training to help people move up the economic ladder
- Renewable energy and environmental charities like Solar Electric Light Fund for solar power and modern comms into rural villages into the developing world and Green Belt Movement for planting trees in Kenya with Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai's organization. (I donate there, generally, to remediate for my airplane travel.)
- Kiva, well-discussed here here at Daily Kos, which allows 'participatory' mico-financing.
Amid all of these, along with Kiva, I have one charity that I especially like when giving in other people's names: Alternative Gifts Interational.
Alternative Gifts International provides a wide range of 'gift' levels and alternative donations that one can quickly choose from to meet your own charitable priorities or to meet the interests and priorities of the person you donate in honor of. Their current 'list' has 34 "alternative" gifts.
Here are four 'shorthand' examples from their frontpage:
- For the price of an iPod: Provide a fully equipped doctor's kit in North Korea with basic diagnostic tools to enable doctors to deliver better health care.
- For the price of a video game: Provide a wheelchair and give mobility, independence, dignity and hope to persons with disabilities in Cambodia.
- For the cost of dinner and a movie: Provide permanent, accessible clean water for village folk in the Andes.
- For the cost of a necktie: Provide a "Baby Bouncer" for one of the many infants living in orphanages in Russia and give them a chance to leave their cribs and have fun.
Now, with my own ever-mounting concerns over energy issues, global warming, and environmental devastation, there are some in the full catalog that particularly interest me, such as planting trees in Haiti (consider that image from An Inconvenient Truth and help turn it around), "sun powered water" in Gambia (for info related to this, check out Solar Cooking International), and solar heating for Lakota Sioux in the USA (among others).
Obviously, there are literally 10,000s of valuable and viable charitable giving options. Personally, while I barely make tithing livels, I do give to many other organizations both locally and internationally. AGI provides a real service for gift giving -- almost every adult who receives a gift also has a charitible contribution in their name. With AGI, in just a few moments, I can find donations meaningful for each of the distinct personalities of family/friends.
In any event, this is a sharing of a charity and thought about gift giving that you might find of interest and value. Perhaps the comments section can serve as a sharing of other wonderful charitable giving options using the power of the internet.