Innovative Gifting...

I've come across what I think is a very interesting and innovative way to both give a unique gift (for any occation, even create a gift registry) and get people motivated to become philanthropic. Charity Gift Cards can be purchased from two online entities, Charity Navigator (charitynavigator.org) and GlobalGiving (globalgiving.com). These cards can be of any amount starting from as little as $10 and can be sent in regular mail as a physical card or in e-mail as an e-gift card. Once received, the recipient goes online to the respective site and chooses a charity or project of his/her liking to receive the donation. Additionally, the recipient can add their own money to the donation to help even more.

Both Charity Navigator and GlobalGiving are trusted sites that review and evaluate each charity and project that they list on their sites (but of course, some charities are better run then others, so a little research about a prospective-donation recipient, available on each site, would be a good idea). And as an added bonus, each gift card is fully tax-deductible for the purchaser. (Check each site for full information on its mission, evaluation policies, and terms for gift cards.)

I think giving a charity gift card could be a great way to inspire people (especially children) to become more altruistic, less materialist, to feel more connected to others and their needs, and to feel how great it feels to know you're trying to make a concrete difference for someone. Also, I feel it teaches people that you don't have to be rich to give and that giving doesn't have to be done in huge chunks of cash. Sometimes the idea of giving to charity can seem overwhelming when you hear information in the news about scams and mismanagement of funds by individuals that supposedly are working for the benefit of others. But there is so much information available online, especially on Charity Navigator, GlobalGiving, and GuideStar (www.guidestar.org) that we all can feel more secure about the myriad of charities and become more informed and educated donors.

Of course receiving an envelope (or e-mail) with a gift card to be spent for someone else may meet with some resistance. Let's face it - a charity gift card is not as fun as a shiny new iPod! And yes you could be accused of trying to press your morals or agenda onto others, but those that say that ultimately won't look so good (or feel so good) for complaining about a gift, especially one that is supposed to be used for a noble cause. And you're not telling anyone which cause or which charity - they get to choose for themselves. The opportunity to teach and motivate or inspire others may be worth the initial uncomfortableness. (Besides, Oprah did it several years ago with her "Pass It Forward Challenge" where she gave her audience members $1,000 each to give away.) :-)

One obvious caveat – giving a charity gift card to someone who just lost their job or is having other financial problems will be inappropriate and almost cruel - not a good idea. So think carefully about your intended recipient and his/her own circumstances.

Also, before I forget, I found GoodShop (goodsearch.com/goodshop.aspx) and GoodSearch (goodsearch.com). Its a website that donates 50% of the advertisers' fees to the charities of your choice every time you do a search or buy something from their affiliated retailers (i.e., BestBuy, Target, Gap, etc.) through them (the actual search engine is YahooSearch). I don't know much about them or if the search results you'd get from using Yahoo vs. Google would be that different or if having your browser set to accept cookies while you're on that site would be a problem, but I thought the concept was very intriguing - a potentially super easy and free way to "give" to the charity of your choice. Since at some point we all will make a purchase from one of their affiliated stores, we might as well make the purchase through GoodShop and give the charity of our choice a donation (even if it is tiny) that costs us nothing.