Charitable Gift Giving

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Whitney Houston's Charity Work

February 18th, 2012 · Children's Charities

Whenever a celebrity dies, the media always seems to go into a feeding frenzy. They race to see who can find out the most dirt. What kind of drugs was the celebrity on? What problems did they have in their personal lives? Can you get pictures of their kids? Better yet, can you get pictures?

We can’t blame the media, of course. After all, they just providing what the public is demanding. Sadly, we live in a world today where so many people seem to find entertainment and value in the downfall of the rich and famous.

As I write this, I’m watching the end of the memorial service for Whitney Houston, and I can’t help but be impressed by what the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, NJ did. For the first time, you heard from those who loved Whitney Houston not about her marriage to Bobby Brown, or her struggles with drug abuse or alcohol. Instead, you heard about Ms. Houston’s love for her friends, for her church, and for God and of their love for her.

It all was a powerful last reminder that she was, after all, a human being, and that’s it’s really not our job to judge, that’s someone else’s job. Rather, why not remember the things about her that were noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy?

On that subject, one of the things you never really saw in the sensationalist headlines was Ms. Houston’s charity work. When I saw all the  list of all charity work she had done in her lifetime on a Whitney Houston fan site, I was flabbergasted. From the Whitney Houston Foundation for Children to St. Jude Children’s Hospital to the United Negro College Fund to the Children’s Diabetes Foundation to countless other charities, she did an amazing amount of good in her all-too-short life. And so if we do remember her life, let’s remember those things and not the mental image of a Beverly Hills hotel room. Because at the end, only one of those things really count.

Before Whitney Houston passed away, her manager and sister-in-law, Pat Houston introduced a line of soy-based candles based on fragrances from the Holy Land. They’re called “Marion P” candles, inspired by the nickname that Whitney called her sister-in-law.

whitney houston candles

Over the years, you may notice that Whitney Houston never gave product endorsements, but she decided to endorse this one, saying:

“I’m delighted to be a partner with Pat Houston and the creation of her beautiful candle line. It’s the essence of everything pure. It’s not just a candle, it’s an experience. I have never endorsed anything before this. These candles are truly inspiring – they are 100% soy and also made with shea butter so that when the candle melts down, you can use it as a body moisturizer. Also, you are doing a good deed as a portion of the sales goes to Patricia’s teen mentoring program.” 

Funny thing, I’ve actually just started buying soy candles exclusively, just because they burn a lot cleaner and the scents are arguably better for breathing into your lungs than wax candles. The fragrances are scents from the Holy Land, including Grapefruit, Lychee, Cedarwood Amber, Blackstone, and Honey Suckle with names inspired from scripture. A portion of proceeds will benefit Teen Summit, a program developed by Patricia Houston to help rebuild, restore and repair the lives of underserved youths.

If you’ve been inspired by Whitney Houston’s voice over the years–I still get chills when I hear her rendition of the Star Spangled Banner at the 1991 Super Bowl (royalties of which, incidentally, were donated to the American Red Cross)–why not consider a donation to one of her favorite charities (sadly, her Foundation seems to no longer be in operation, but the other charities are), or consider a purchase of one of these candles. Her family has also suggested that in lieu of flowers, donations can be directed to the Whitney E. Houston School of Performing and Creative Arts in East Orange, NJ. These are all ways you can show how much you appreciated all that she gave to the world.

 

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Stylish Stainless Steel Water Bottles that are more Swell than SIGG!!

February 15th, 2012 · Developing Areas

A few years ago, SIGG started to make carrying water around in stainless steel water bottles trendy. Not only that, by using a water filterwater filter, and bottling your own tap water, you can save a bundle over other options like buying bottled water (In fact, tap water through a Brita filter is pretty much the same thing as filtered bottled water like Aquafina or Dasani). And of course, by bottling your own water you can save your local landfill from being filled with plastic bottles.

Recently it seems at every conference and trade show I go to there are cheaply made stainless steel water bottles being given away. Ironically, these are often so cheaply made that I invariably see a bunch of them always ending up in the garbage which of course makes it doubly ironic because it takes metal a heck of a lot longer to biodegrade than plastic.

I had the pleasure of trying out a new stainless steel water bottle called the “S’well” bottle. You can check out their Web site at www.swellbottle.com.

The bottle came packaged in this absolutely gorgeous gift box, making it an ideal gift for anyone you know who drinks water 🙂 It’s the same shape as a Pringles can, but much sturdier and a little larger.

swell bottle gift box

Carefully packaged inside the box is the bottle, wrapped in a plastic bag and wearing a bib, of all things.

s'well bottle

Here’s what the bib says:

S’Well
Your S’well Bottle is designed to look great and do good.

S’well Bottles are sophisticated enough for the boardroom and tough enough for a mountain hike. They’re double-layered, insulated stainless steel so your water stays ice cold for 24 hours and your coffee stays hot for 12.

BPA free, non-toxic, and non-leaching, S’well cares about Mother Earth. We donate 10% of sales to WaterAid, a non-profit organization, to provide water and sanitation to the world’s poorest communities. Please enjoy your S’well bottle for years to come!

But that’s not all! When you open the bottle, there’s a “message in the bottle” insert.

swell bottle message

The insert says:

Your S’well bottle is double-layered, insulated stainless steel to keep hot beverages hot for 12 hours and cold beverages cold for 24 hours.

In order to achieve constant temperature maintenance we created a new advancement in metals science and called it ThermaS’well Technology, naturally! By using this bottle, you reduce the number of plastic bottles in landfills and oceans. Your bottle holds 17 oz/500 ml.

Every sip you take from your S’well helps WaterAid, a 501(c)(3) organization, bring clear water to the world’s poorest.

On the flip side are care instructions (basically similar to a SIGG bottle–you can’t put them in the dishwasher or microwave, and you clean it by using warm soapy water and letting it air dry). They also give their Facebook, Twitter, and Web site addresses.

I was intrigued by what they said about their double insulation, so I tried an experiment. I turned on the hot water in the sink until the water was scalding hot. Then I filled an old SIGG bottle with water, and then the S’well bottle.

The SIGG bottle was so hot I couldn’t even pick it up–I dropped it back in the sink within 5 seconds of filling it with hot water. This was due to it only having one thin layer of stainless steel between your hand and the water. On the other hand, the S’Well bottle was still cool to the touch outside even after filling it to the top. I couldn’t believe it. It was like a Thermos, only a lot cooler and hipper looking.

Speaking of cool and hip, take a look at my SIGG and my S’Well side by side:

sigg bottle alternative

While I love my SIGG and it’s been good to me, I think my new water bottle of choice is going to be that absolutely gorgeous ruby red S’well bottle. The brushed steel makes it easily the winner of any stainless steel bottle beauty contest. And it also comes in other colors, like black, pink, blue, silver, green, and gold. It makes THE perfect gift for runners and anyone else who like to keep themselves hydrated throughout the day (and if you want to be healthy and fit, that’s not a bad habit to get into).

Get yours now at S’well Bottle’s online store–before the rest of the world realizes how very cool it is and they sell out! 🙂

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LUSH Cosmetics Wrapped Gifts that Give to Charity

February 12th, 2012 · Animal Causes, Conservation, LUSH

Lush cosmeticsLUSH Cosmetics has this beautifully wrapped
My Fair Lady Gift Set all ready to be presented to the lucky recipient.

The set includes a hat box full of LUSH Cosmetics’ most luxurious products, such as their whipped Turkish Delight body polish and almond marzipan scented Smitten hand cream. If you haven’t tried LUSH products before, you’re in for a treat. All of their products are completely natural (when’s the last time you bought cosmetics with a warning that it’s so fresh it may melt!). After using them, you and your recipient will feel refreshed, much more than any chemical-filled cosmetics can do.

A full $8.50 from sales of this gift is donated towards our Charity Pot fund, which directly goes towards grass roots charities working to protect animals, the environment and to create better social conditions.

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Delicious Charity Jams, Jelly and Preserves

February 5th, 2012 · Cancer

What did one berry say to the other?

If you hadn’t been so fresh last night, we wouldn’t be in this jam!!

Okay, I dusted off that old groaner of a joke to call attention to a wonderful, wonderful new site called Hope, Health, Joy with an incredible story.

For years, Julia Butera enjoyed an enormously successful career in the Fashion Industry in New York (and as the old song goes, if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere). I actually looked her up on LinkedIn, and you can see how for yourself how fast she moved up the corporate ladder in a highly competitive industry. But as happens to so many of us who are busy with careers, her job often took her away from her family. On her son’s 4th birthday in 2009, she had to miss it because she was overseas on business.

But just a year later, in November 2010, Julia was diagnosed with Stage 3 Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. She underwent treatment at the Hackensack University Medical Center and went through a grueling ordeal of surgeries, hospital stays, chemotherapy, and steroid treatment. As of September 2011 her cancer is thankfully in remission.

Julia made an incredible decision. She decided to change her life and “find her joy” and not let a career make her miss the joys of life and family. An avid cook, she started a business called “hope. health. joy.” that sells jams and jellies (in case you’re wondering, jelly is made from fruit juice and has no bits of fruit in it; jam and preserves are made by boiling fruit and does have fruit in it).

I was fortunate enough to have sampled some of these jams, and I can tell you they are the real deal. To let you know what I mean, here’s the list of ingredients from a jar of grape jelly:

– Fox Grape Juice (Fox Grape is a species of grape–no actual foxes are harmed in the making of this jam).
– Pure Cane Sugar
– Pectin
– Citric Acid

That’s it. No fifteen-syllable words. These are preserves made the old fashioned way–completely naturally.

On her Web site, you can order the jams, and there are great suggestions on how to use them. For example, the grape jelly can be used as a glaze over any meat dish, warmed up over vanilla ice cream, or used to make the perfect PB&J sandwich.

There are other incredible flavors, including:

– Red Raspberry Jam
– Raspberry and Brandy Preserves
– Bordeaux Wine Jelly
– Peach Preserves
– Red Berry Special
– Peach Cobbler Preserves
– Peach Pecan Conserves with Cherries and Amaretto

jellies and jam

And incredibly, each is available at the affordable price of $8–where 75% of the proceeds are donated to The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

I got the chance to sample some of Julia’s jam. It is jaw-droppingly delicious. I mean, this is you-can-eat-it-right-out-of-the-jar jam. I remember as a kid hearing stories of kids in who ate spoonfuls of jam out of jars, and it grossed me out. After all, the only “jam” I knew of were Smucker’s Strawberry Jelly and Welch’s Grape Jelly, both of which tended to be sickeningly sweet. But when I opened my first jar of jam, the Fox Grape jelly, the first thing I noticed was that the jam was beautiful and had an almost jewel-like quality about it:

beautiful grape jelly

I took a whiff of the jar, and it smelled really, really fresh, like I was standing in a grape vineyard. And when I  snuck a taste of Julia’s Fox Grape Jelly, it was pure ambrosia. It had the consistency slightly thinner than Jell-O, and had a wonderful fresh grape flavor that made me shudder with delight. Unlike jelly you find in the supermarket, it wasn’t sickly sweet–there was just the perfect amount of sweetness that the grapes remained the star of the show.

I recently started to follow Julia’s Twitter account @hopehealthjoy, where she recently shared a link for a recipe for scones. I decided to bake some, and used some of Julia’s Fox Grape Jam, the Red Berry Special, the Raspberry and Brandy, and the Peach Preserves. Here’s what they looked like:

scones with charity jelly

Of course, I snuck a taste of each of the jams and preserves as I opened them.

The Red Berry Special was an amazing blend of strawberries, blended with a mix of raspberries and cherries. The result is a rich, complex blend of flavors that catapult the flavor over regular strawberry jelly. This was thicker than the grape jam, and had chunks of real fruit in it.

I wasn’t sure what to expect with the Raspberry and Brandy Preserves, but I liked what I tasted. It was thicker, a dark red color dotted with raspberry seeds. There was, of course, the taste of fresh raspberries, but the addition of brandy gave it a sharp, tangy kick. Again, it was the perfect recipe where the brandy didn’t overwhelm the taste of the raspberries (and yes, I stayed sober, even though I ate more than one spoonful!)

The Peach Preserves was also thick, sweet, and again a beautiful amber color.

peach preserves

Here’s what the scones looked like after they were baked:

baked scones

Okay, they don’t look quite like the picture in the scone recipe (this is a charity gift blog and not a baking blog, after all), but when I took my first bite of the Fox Grape scone, I was blown away. I kid you not–it was just about the best thing I’ve cooked in the last year. The jam actually took on a richer flavor as it cooked and bubbled on top of the scone. The scone itself was full of fluffy, buttery goodness. And the part of the scone that soaked up the fruity goodness was heavenly. If you’re a guy looking for THE perfect Valentine’s Day present (or birthday present, or present for your wife on Mother’s Day), nothing says you’re a real man more than putting on an apron and cooking up a bunch of these jam-filled scones and serving them to her for breakfast 🙂

I have a lot of other plans for this jam. Something else I’ve always wanted to try was to make Linzer Cookies. On the same site I found this great recipe, and of course I wanted to make use of the Raspberry preserves, the classic filling for Linzer Tortes. And of course, I have a date with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in my future. I’ll be sure to come back and update you on how those efforts go! 🙂

Of all the charitable causes I feature on this site, few give me greater pleasure to highlight than those of young entrepreneurs who have decided to use their business skills to help the world. I definitely encourage you to visit her site–and to share her news with the world with a reTweet of this post!

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Alexandra Taylor Scarves and Ties for Charity

February 2nd, 2012 · Developing Areas

High-end fashion designer Alexandra Taylor has released an impressive collection of scarves and ties that help bring awareness and much-needed funding to an important cause: ending the scourge of malaria in Africa.

Here in the United States, we often forgot how blessed we are. We have scientists working on mosquito eradication programs in our cities. We have the top medical care. When an “epidemic” like the West Nile Virus hits, panic ensues on every news broadcast on all the 24-hour news stations and nightly news broadcasts. And yet despite all that, your chances of actually contracting the virus is 1 in 452,488.

It’s quite a different story in Africa. Every 45 seconds, a child dies from a mosquito bite. Every 45 seconds. The disease that’s carried is malaria. It’s a terrible disease characterized by high fevers, shaking chills, flu-like symptoms, and anemia. These are real children, with real friends and real mothers and fathers who love them. And yet a tiny mosquito can wreak such havoc on families.

The most cost-effective way of preventing malaria is an incredible simple one. Just $10 will pay for a net to be placed over the bed of sleeping children. The net is treated with a long-lasting insecticide which is safe for the child but which repels the mosquitoes, which feed at night, from biting them while they sleep.

The scarves themselves are what you’d expect from a high end fashion designer. They’re made of a fine silk mesh and are extremely lightweight and stylish yet still functional. They’re 100% silk, and 100% made in the USA. Here are two of the designs.

scarves that help end malaria

The designs are all inspired by African colors and designs. This design in particular is a work of art that’s sheer and see-through with a design that evokes the life-saving mosquito nets themselves.

mosquito net scarf

With the purchase of every scarf, Alexandra Taylor will donate $10 to Nothing But Nets to fund the creation and delivery of mosquito nets.

 

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Rhino-friendly Rhino Head for Your Trophy Room

January 30th, 2012 · Uncategorized

Looking for rhinoceros head to mount in your trophy room, but don’t really feel like slaying a giant rhino today? UncommonGoods has the answer. This Rhino Head
icon is handmade in Haiti from 100% recycled newspaper, cardboard and paper. Its green head and white horn will made a great conversation piece and addition to your den.

Sales support artists in Carribbean Craft, an FTC-supported job workshop for craftsmen living in temporary housing after the earthquake. The design was done collaboratively with Aid to Artisans.

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Vases to Help Haiti

January 27th, 2012 · Developing Areas, Macys

Macy’s Heart of Haiti Collection has a unique set of handcrafted vases from Haiti, including the Heart of Haiti Charlotte 1 Vase pictured here.

If you bought your Bieber fever flowers (and if you didn’t, what are you waiting for?? ;)), this vase makes a great alternative to the glass vase that 1-800-Flowers gives you, and helps a great cause to boot!

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Music to Help Haiti

January 24th, 2012 · Amazon, Developing Areas

Since the first music CD to help Haiti was released a few weeks after the earthquake, a whole bunch of other artists have come together to produce their own albums to help Haiti. There’s one to suit just about every musical taste, and the proceeds are still going to help. Here are some of the more popular ones:

 A Symphony Of Hope: The Haiti Project (Classical)

  Many Hands: Family Music for Haiti (Family)

Are You Listening (Gospel)

Everybody Hurts (UK)
We Will Lift You Up (FOR Haiti Relief) (Inspirational)

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Jewelry Hanger from Haiti – Birds in a Breadfruit Tree

January 21st, 2012 · Developing Areas, Macys

This Birds in a Breadfruit Tree Jewelry Hanger from the Macy’s Heart of Haiti collection is a great way to support artisans of Haiti while displaying all your hanging jewelry in a beautiful and practical way.

Made from recycled steel, this piece has a beautiful design of graceful birds in a breadfruit tree, a tree widely grown and used in Haiti. Your jewelry can serve as “fruit” for the tree; the more you hang the more beautiful it becomes. And of course, your purchase of this item will help the artisans who made it make a living to help rebuild their communities and their country.

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Bieber Flowers for Valentine's Day 2012

January 18th, 2012 · 1-800-Flowers.com, Developing Areas

Okay, who doesn’t have Bieber Fever these days? Wish the Justin Bieber fan in your life a Happy Valentine’s Day with this Bieber Fever Bouquet. It’s a bouquet of one dozen multicolored roses in a glass vase, along with a teddy bear wearing a Justin Bieber T-Shirt and a free 4-month membership to Justin’s Fan Club.

A portion of proceeds will go to Pencils of Promise, a nonprofit organization that is partnering to re-build schools in Haiti.

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