Gifts That Give Twice:
Teaching Kids about Charity through Meaningful Gift-Giving
by Robin Schoenthaler
The holidays are full of “life lessons” that we want to
transmit to our kids. Certainly we try to convey that despite its
commercialism, the holidays should be a time when we think of others, a time
when we hope to give (as well as receive!), gifts that will delight, and a time
when we work extra hard to help others in need.
In the new global village, it’s becoming possible to do all
three, all at once. Thanks to smart organizations and clever technology, there
are now many ways you can show your children ways to make the holidays a happy
time not just for Uncle Max and Grandma Katherine but also for distant strangers
in dire need who will benefit from their gifts.
There are three broad ways to use your family’s gift-giving
as an opportunity to improve the lives of others. Perhaps the easiest is to
simply buy native crafts and food products specifically from organizations (“Fair
Trade Vendors”) who have made a commitment to funnel a significant amount of their
profits straight back to the original craftspeople. This connection is simple
and easy to demonstrate to the kids: if they buy grandma a scarf made in a
poor town in India, the money will directly go to help the children in that
village.
Another way – although a bit less concrete -- is to simply skip
the “physical” gift-giving entirely and instead spend the money on a charity or
charitable act in the recipient’s name. You can make things a bit more real
for the kids by reading the stories on the websites and seeing the incredible impact
simple services can make.
Finally, if you want to buy standard fare on a standard
website (such as Toys ‘R Us or Barnes and Noble), your family can choose to buy
through on-line “charity malls” who will funnel a percentage of
your purchase to the charity that you and your children choose.
Here’s some details and websites for each of these methods:
Native goods.
More and more often at craft shows you can see, scattered among the
quilted ducks and seashell earrings, handmade wares from other countries. In
some cases these are charities sending the money back as part of their
mission. In other situations, the charitable group has actually helped set up
the craft workers’ infrastructure, supplying materials or start-up funds, and helping
create a mini-industry that can make a huge difference in the lives of its artisans.
You can find these goods at craft shows, Fair Trade Stores, (specific
stores are listed at www.fairtradefederation.com/memret.html#MA)
and a few have websites (see www.fairtradefederation.com/memol.html)
. Many are too small-scale to sell on-line, but do check out the following,
with quotations taken from their websites:
- www.tabitha.ca/crafts.html. "The Tabitha
Foundation is a Christian, non-profit organization, seeking to help the
suffering in various nations," with a variety of Cambodian crafts.
- www.selling-womens-stuff.org/ "Creating a new art
form by blending traditional African textiles with traditional American
quilters' designs.... Marketing the
new art form in global markets via the internet and craft fairs." Absolutely gorgeous
stuff.
- www.crossroadstrade.com/
“Crossroads Trade is dedicated to ensuring the
survival of indigenous craft traditions around the world, emphasizing the
uncommon. Crafts are purchased directly from artisans, cooperatives, refugee communities,
and economic development initiatives.” A wonderful selection of unique
gifts.
- www.serrv.org “SERRV is a nonprofit
alternative organization that promotes social and economic justice for
people in developing regions of the world by marketing their goods in a
just and direct manner." A wide variety of goods from many different
countries.
- www.globalexchange.org/stores/ "If you buy a basket
from a typical crafts importer, the peasant artisan receives a tiny
fraction of what you pay. At this store, you know the producer got her or
his fair share, around 15-30% of the retail price." A wide variety
of goods including coffee.
- www.tenthousandvillages.com
"Ten Thousand Villages provides vital, fair income to Third World artisans by marketing their
handicrafts and telling their stories in North America." The website has a list of local stores
but no merchandise.
- www.missiontraders.org
"Your purchase gives employment, income and hope to poor crafts women
in South Africa, Bosnia, the Gaza Strip and western Maine...and all profits from the
sale of Mission Traders handcrafts directly fund a poultry project in the Eastern Cape province of
South Africa under the management of Heifer Project International." A nice variety of items grouped by
country.
Give a gift of charity.
Making a gift in your recipient’s name means they’ll get a card
outlining the impact their gift will have. And these are big, established
organizations, so your kids can read all about it on their websites.
- www.heifer.org
Give a cow for Christmas! "Heifer animals (and training in their care)
offer hungry families around the world a way to feed themselves and become
self-reliant. Children receive nutritious milk or eggs; families earn income;
communities go beyond meeting immediate needs to fulfilling dreams." The
kids can learn a lot about “the cycle of life” by reading the Heifer
Organization’s on-line success stories.
- www.seva.org "Seva is a donor-supported
non-profit foundation building partnerships
to respond to locally defined problems with culturally sustainable solutions
throughout the world." They have lovely "Gifts of Service" in
which a card is sent to your recipient outlining the "act of service"
the card has supported (cataract surgery for the blind, water-reclamation plants,
etc). The cards are extremely striking and are bound to help communicate the
great gifts (such as eyesight) that a charity can offer the needy.
-
www.treesforlife.org/ttfla/ttfla.htm.
You can have 30 fruit trees planted in a teacher’s name for the price of a boring
tie, and “each tree protects the environment and provides a low-cost,
self-renewing source of food for a large number of people.” Gifts also come
with their own seeds, so your recipient can go plant some seeds with your kids
and really help “plant” the idea of the value of the trees around us.
Make your on-line shopping count.
Some small on-line stores promise that a percentage of your purchase will go to a charitable cause while
others are charity mall web sites that allow you to shop at major consumer sites while still contributing
to charity. If Aunt Betty has already told you precisely what she wants, and it needs to come from Amazon
(the web site, not the river), there are several charity mall web sites that you can use to make those
purchases count, too. Be sure and check that the donated percentage seems worthwhile to you --
it ranges from 1% to "up to" 50%.
- www.equilter.com -- Quilting, sewing and fashion; donates 2% of purchase to charity of your choice.
- www.igive.com -- Links to major consumer Web sites, lets you add your own charity.
- www.mycause.com/ -- Links to major consumer Web sites, lets you add your own charity.
And there’s some great miscellaneous:
- www.underoneroof.org/shop.html
In ten years this San Francisco store and site have raised over eight million dollars for the fight against AIDS and
"every penny from your purchases goes to AIDS service organizations." Many unique items, lots of new age or
gay/lesbian themed gifts.
- www.geezer.com
This is a nonprofit, non-government internet site that was created to help older Americans,
particularly from rural areas, sell their crafts and homemade goods. This
is the place to buy a homemade birdhouse from a crusty old “geezer” in the
backwoods. This is really a wonderful idea and a great site; it is truly
the best combination of down home internet cleverness and backwoods charm.
Be sure and have the kids read the “Artisans’ Stories” for a taste of a
whole different kind of life.
- www.sweethomeproject.org
If you order these incredibly fabulous cookies (Dancing Deer) on-line,
you’ll help support a non-profit organization that helps homeless
families, assisting with employment, housing, etc.
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