Skip to main content

It's Christmas Eve and you still haven't finished gift shopping?



Let me guess, it's Christmas Eve and you still have gifts to give? Boy oh boy do I have good news for you!

What do you get for that special someone who has everything? The gift of giving!

And here are some of my favorite charities I think you should consider this holiday season (or for Valentine's Day, Birthdays, Anniversaries!)

1) Oxfam- Oxfam working to right the wrongs of poverty, hunger, and injustice. As one of 17 members of the international Oxfam confederation, we work with people in more than 90 countries to create lasting solutions. Oxfam saves lives, develops long-term solutions to poverty, and campaigns for social change. Whether it's providing a packet of seeds for a farmer in a poor area ($12) or a meal for a school aged child ($35), or supporting a women entrepreneur so she can get her business off the ground ($100). It's a one stop shop to provide meaningful gifts that will matter to each person you gift them to!

On top of which, a donation generates really cute cards, so your gift is done!





2) Habitat for Humanity- Habitat has a global presence, but you can have a great impact by donating directly to your local branch! Right now, Nissan is even matching gifts so your donation can have double the impact. This organization uses donations, volunteer effort and 'sweat equity'- where the families in need of homes have to participate in the creation of other homes for those in need. It makes the families value their new spaces even more and ensure the cycle of giving continues.

Give the gift of 'home' this holiday season!


3) National Park Foundation- Even if you've never been to a National Park, isn't it your right and the right of your descendants to visit a National Park when you are able? A donation to the NPF helps ensure the upkeep of the several hundred US National Parks and availability of services. They also generate a donation certificate you can enclose as a gift to the person whom you donated for.






Of course there are TONS of charities out there to select from- be sure to check for a third party verification and read online about the allocation of dollars received before donating to make sure your buck does the most good.

On that note, get to givin' and Happy Holidays!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It's a Silly Time to learn to swim when you start to Drown

It's a silly time to learn to swim on the way down Well why am I quoting this fabulous Tegan and Sarah song? It came on during my morning commute and it had me thinking- yeah! I bet a lot of society feels the same way about climate change. It is beyond me how people can deny that climate change exists- or say they 'don't believe in it'. It's not a religion, cult movement, theoretical ideal or ideas spun by your average street-corner crazy. It is a scientifically documented, million researcher strong, thousands of pages-per-volume fact. But- it would be so much easier to get by day to day if you didn't feel like the world around you was closing in and smothering you. We don't know how to swim through all this information- and with the policy makers in their later years, they have some trouble understanding what to do and think if they just ignore it, deny it, or drag their feet they can just tread water instead of swimming forward. I totally see how that gets
1 comment
Read more

Living Technologies

Ok, so of course coming fresh off the plane from the Living Future Conference in Seattle has really got me excited about the best and brightest in green building. I will be sharing lessons learned , case studies, and knowledge nuggets in several posts. And sorry for falling off the map for so long to all my readers- life happens, eh? So one of the most interesting innovations I learned about at the conference is the BIQ house in Hamburg, Germany. This is a multi-story apartment building that is completely powered by algae! Algae sits inbetween panes of glass, eats carbon dioxide and sunlight, and produces oily algae that are digested by the building to create power. Neat huh? This building is a pilot/prototype but just opened several weeks ago. This building brings up a lot of interest in algae for it's many uses. i've seen explorations in bioluminescent algae for street lighting, algae grown for biofuel for transportation, algae for wastewater treatment, and now to pow
2 comments
Read more

Some basic terms

So, the first thing you should know. Is technically I'm not a complete laywoman. As you learned from my previous post I have spent all of my undergraduate career studying the 'Green Design' Stuff. There are tons of certification processes and awards just within the United States, but one of the most widely accepted and used is the LEED Certification Process with the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) . LEED stands for L eadership in E nergy and E nvironmental D esign. It is a point system, where you earn a credit for every determined area (for example" Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, and Material and Resources are categories of points). For more information and resources regarding the LEED process and USGBC's various projects, visit their site at: www.usgbc.org One of my responsibilities as Sustainability Intern will be to earn my LEED Accredited Professional certificate, because although I have had a bunch of experience with LEED projects througho
Post a Comment
Read more