It’s our last gift guide of the year! I hope you’ve had fun shopping with us, and that you’ve found some lovely ideas for the people in your life.
We’re back with one final edition, including our annual Reading Certificates (they pair excellently with bookstore gift cards or tea or chocolate or pretty much anything), Introvert Time Certificates, and Craft Time Certificates!
Obviously they can be mixed and matched for ideal combinations of gifting. There are all color PDFs, so please right-click and save-as!
Reading Time Gift Certificates
Introvert Time Gift Certificates
Crafting Time Gift Certificates
In addition to giving time for favorite activities, another holiday option is to give charitably in honor of people you love.
TW/CW: I’m linking and discussing different charities and organized efforts to help marginalized individuals, victims of crimes including sexual assault, and other causes in the next section, but I don’t want to surprise or upset you.
Among the options I’ve used this year or in the past:
- Kiva Gift Cards – the recipient can choose to make a loan on Kiva.org
- Donations to local women’s shelters, LGBT+ shelters, and the Domestic Violence Hotline
- Animals and virtual adoptions from the World Wildlife Federation and from Heifer.org
- Organizations such as AWJS (which I still call “JAWS”)
- Trans rights and justice organizations such as the Transgender Legal Education and Defense Fund
- The Southern Poverty Law Center
- Local food banks and food pantries
- Local animal shelters and adoption programs
- Friends of the local library system
- Local literacy programs
Whatever your focus or the focus of someone you love, you can make a donation in their honor, and typically they receive a card acknowledging the gift. And you can inspect the rating for the charities you find on CharityNavigator.com. Charity Navigator also has something called the Giving Basket, where you can donate to a bunch of different charities all at once.
There are options that don’t cost anything, but lift you and another person. Amanda linked to the Words of Hope program from Just Detention International.org, which sends words of support and love to survivors of prisoner rape. Just Detention is an organization “dedicated exclusively to ending sexual abuse behind bars.”
What charitable gifts do you gravitate towards? Any specific charities you love to support in honor of people around you?
Happy holidays, everyone. I wish you all the best books, the best food, and the best experiences this holiday season and into the new year.
This year we supported three local classrooms through DonorsChoose.org , one elementary, one middle grade, and one high school. We chose the projects that spoke to us and gave in memory of my parents who supported education throughout their lives.
I give to Dark Sky International for my dad, who is a dedicated star-gazer. I ask for trees to be planted for me- we have a local org, Treefolks, and I’ve also received from the Arbor Day Foundation before.
My office just finished wrapping packing and delivering to our giving tree families. Boy,10, likes drawing & superhero comics? You could hear my chortling from the parking lot as I filled the cart at Michael’s.
I also love Heifer Project. My guild has donated many a quilt to their auctions. Aside from their good work there’s nothing like giving someone a card that says “A goat has been purchased in your name.”
My (Asperger’s) son works for a non-profit that employs people with handicaps of all kinds. They have been a godsend to us, but they are currently experiencing financial difficulties and we are not sure they are going to survive. This would be a tremendous blow to my son and the other people who work there – I encourage everyone to donate to their local non-profits that work to improve the community you live in. Big charities are great, but if you want more bang for your buck, donate locally.
I’m excited to do Kiva gift certificates for all the kids and cousins this year. I don’t know how I hadn’t heard of them earlier, but I love the idea of giving the kids a more active role in the donations as they pick the loans to make and then get to do it again when the money is paid back. Plus, it lets us talk about the power of microlending (and why it is needed).
What Laurel said. When you give to a big national charity, the money takes some time to get to the local organization and is filtered through administration which costs money. Personally, I support several small groups who do amazing work with neglected and abandoned animals. (One of their graduates is sleeping at my feet as I write this.)
My cousins have a tradition of sending Christmas cards that support a cause. Many local charities have cards available, especially ones with programs for children.
@ KarenL, I 2nd that motion – Donors Choose is my favorite charity for the past several years. And living in Michigan there are always high need projects to support that are nearby.
We picked out a gift to support refugees through ELCA Good Gifts. Good Gifts let’s you choose the type of support you’d like to give and the amount.
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