Supporting local businesses

This is always high on my list, but I made sure that this year our gifts came from shops owned locally, featuring products made locally as well. This means that products had less transportation costs and are tied to sustaining the community’s economy. For me, my favorite part of shopping locally means that I can create relationships with the shop owners and learn more about the products and producers they work with. I’ve found some of my favorite things this way and enjoy being able to share recommendations with friends – then it is a gift and a connection!

Supporting real crafters

I know I said that I’ve taken my turn a few times with DIY projects, but I’m just a casual crafter. Etsy certainly makes it easy to find those crafters that make my homemade soap look like a class experiment! I’ve also found with Etsy that sellers are eager and open to talk with you about the products they use and how they are working to be sustainable as well. This year, I took it a step further and connected with an incredibly talented crafter locally (double whammy!) so that we could meet in person to discuss the gift idea and ensure it is going to be perfect.

Supporting real impact

The holidays are also the end of the year when many nonprofits are running fundraising campaigns and preparing for the next year. I have given DonorsChoose.org gift cards as “thank you” gifts in the past (especially for speakers or presenters!) and enjoy hearing when someone writes back to tell me which project they funded and why. Razoo also has gift cards you can purchase online and email to recipients, and instead of giving to a classroom project like DonorsChoose.org, Razoo cards can be used to donate to over 1 Million organizations!

Whether you’re a Millennial, budget-conscious, DIY-specialist, or not, I certainly recommend these three options for your last-minute holiday shopping!

Photo: Flickr gazeronly

The Virtual Village

When you visit the Unwrapped Virtual Village, you are given three different villages to help:

Hovering your mouse over one of the villages in the circles gives you a dexcription of what issues face that village and how you can help.  Clicking on one transports you to the village where you can click on items throughout the area that can help the local village members.

Clicking on one of the dots lets you see what it is with more detail and to “get the item” for the village.  So far, the experience has been like that of an educational game: finding and helping but also learning the real world side of it all.  Once you click on “get the item” though, you are give the opportunity to move from playing a realistic or educational game to actually buying an item and supporting the village in real life.

You can now click to get the item for the village in the game, or you can buy the item as gift via Oxfam.  What I like most is that the educational side of the scenario doesn’t stop: you’re given a case study about how, in this example, solar panels are actually impacting the lives of others.

It is really important to me that organizations continue to educate their supporters about the work they are doing as well as how they as an organization as well as the supporters are helping and positively impacting the service areas.

Telling stories of impact comes both from the organization as well as from those supported…and even comes from those who support you!

A Little Story

I have a very close friend who came to me with a “problem” a couple holiday seasons ago.  The problem was that her family was very excited about doing something for the holidays that was going to really impact people around the world who were struggling more than they were and that they were really excited about an opportunity they had heard about to buy a goat from Scotland that would be taken to a village or a family in Africa.  She was thrilled that her family was excited to be philanthropic and support others, but she felt like they had made their decision of how to help without investing any time or due diligence into who they were helping and if what they were doing was really something needed.

She challenged them to investigate other options, who they wanted to help, and what could really do the most for them with the amount they had to donate or invest.  It turned out that they did not end up purchasing a goat from Scotland.

This story isn’t to say that people should stop funding or supporting programs that deliver livestock to needy areas, not in the least!  The lesson here to be sure you are educated about the impact you want to make and how best to make it.

I think Oxfam’s Unwrapped Virtual Village is a fun way to get the whole family involved in investigating and learning about issues in other parts of the world and choosing the gifts that they care about and know will also make a good impact.

What do you think?