Instead of gifts for his birthday, my mom’s husband has sent us all a letter asking that we donate to a charity, hug a child, pay it forward, do random acts of kindness. Since I hug kids every day (and will gladly continue to do so!), I’ve been really searching for a charity that I want to donate to this holiday season.
In the most recent issue of Parents magazine, I found a link to The Charity Navigator. It’s pretty informative, and has the charitable organizations broken down into categories for easier searching.
It really reminded me, as we move forward into the holiday season, that this season is about giving – and it was uplifting to have someone say, “I have been so greatly blessed in my life – do me a favor by sharing that with someone who needs it.”
So – I feel like I’m on a mission and I’m excited. I have been researching different organizations, and trying to decide (if I could, I’d donate to all of them, but we’re sort of on half an income until Hubby gets a new job). Any suggestions?
About sarah
We’re trying something like that this year too. We’ve been putting change into a bank all year, and just gathered the rest of our available funds last night. If we purchased or made gifts for everyone in my family and his side (like I’m used to doing), we couldn’t really do anything that meaningful. But by pooling all our funds into one, we are going to be able to furnish a medical clinic in Africa, buy ten fruit trees for a family, clothe 25 children in Romania, and outfit a classroom with school supplies for an entire year. We are doing that through World Vision, an organization we know is financially honest and accountable. I’m so excited to be able to let my family know that these things are being done in their honor. I’m thinking about making little ornaments or something based on the four things we are doing, and then giving them that as a visual reminder of what their gift is.
We’re already talking about working with another organization next year to provide wells with clean water for some folks in Africa. (That one is called BloodWaterMission, and it’s done by Jars of Clay who were inspired by what Bono had to say.)
Honestly, with our budget, I never thought we could do something like this. But because World Vision got companies to give matching gifts (actually their gifts go far above ours), we can do something pretty cool. For instance, the pharmaceutical companies in the States are going to multiply our donation by 12 in order to outfit the medical clinic. I think that’s pretty amazing.
Anyway, that’s what we’re doing. There are tons of organizations out there, and it sure is hard to choose what to do.