Charitable Gift Giving

We surf the Web to find good products that help out a great cause.

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Office Supplies That Save Money and Help Charity

May 12th, 2011 · Zuma Office Supply

Zuma Square Pop-up 4Of all the great ideas for items where a portion of proceeds goes to charity, Zuma Office Supply has one of the best: order office supplies and 50% of your purchase goes to a worthy cause.

Office supplies are one of those things we all buy. And we know that companies make a killing (how much money, after all, does it take to make a paper clip?) What’s cool about Zuma is that they don’t just mark up their prices 50%–their prices are comparable to other office supply shops, and in fact they have a pricing guarantee to match or beat other office superstores!

You can designate which charity the donation goes to, from cancer research to children’s causes to hunger relief to the environment. Whether you need a box of staples or you’re the office manager for a big company, you can’t go wrong with doing right.

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Guaranteed entry to the NYC Marathon

May 9th, 2011 · Cancer

It’s almost as hard to get into the NYC Marathon as it is to run it. In order to get a guaranteed admission, you need to fall under one of the following categories:

  • Members of NYRR since 1/31/10 who have completed 9 NYRR races and either volunteered for one event or made a $1000 donation in 2010.
  • Entrants in the New York City Marathon 2010 who canceled prior to the race.
  • Those who have completed 15 or more New York City Marathons.
  • Those who have applied but been denied entry for the last three years in a row (2008, 2009, and 2010), and who did not secure an entry through alternative methods in those years.
  • Those who met qualifying time standards posted on the NYC Marathon site.

Everyone who didn’t fall under these categories had to go through a lottery, which happened on 4/27.

At this point, the only other way to get into the Marathon is to go through a charity. Mary Ann at YouCast wrote to me yesterday to say that there are still VERY limited spots open for Team Continuum’s team.

Founded as a not-for-profit charitable organization in 2003, Team Continuum provides immediate, vital, non-medical assistance to cancer patients and their families. As a survivor of cancer myself, and someone who’s lost loved ones to cancer, I really appreciate what this charity does.

Team Continuum is an official Charity Partner of NYRR. Athletes who did not get in via the lottery or did not register at all can secure their entry by joining the team and registering online at www.teamcontinuum.net.

There is a cost involved (it’ll range from $2500 to $3750 depending on what hasn’t filled up yet), and given that there are tens of thousands of people running, they will fill up quickly. But it’s nice to know that your fee will be gong to help alleviate the suffering of cancer patients and their families.

Benefits include coaching, race day gear, and a private pre-race pasta party. For more information visit their website or call 917-595-4168.

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Boy is my hair red

May 6th, 2011 · Children's Charities

project ladybug logoIf you’re getting tired of wearing wristbands, here’s a new concept: wear a hair extension!

From May 1 to June 7, salons in selected areas around the country will be giving a free red hair extension to anyone who donates $10 to Project Ladybug. This is a fantastic charity founded by Dina Manzo, formerly of The Real Housewives of New Jersey, which helps improve the quality of life for seriously ill pediatric patients at St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital in Paterson, NJ; Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital; and Comer Children’s Hospital at the University of Chicago.

Wearing a red hair extension will be a great way for you to not only show you care, but also help you spread the word about the help that these children going through unthinkable pain and suffering need.

If you’re in Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Nevada, New York, Ohio, or Rhode Island, check out their Web site to see if there’s a participating salon near you.

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Free Salad for Teachers at Cosi Today

May 3rd, 2011 · Education

free apple crunch salad cosi

Here’s a nice little thing that Cosi is doing for teacher’s today on Teacher’s Appreciation Day. They’re giving away free Apple Crunch Salads. If there’s a teacher in your life, tell them to mosey on down to their local Cosi. But hurry–the salads are only being given away May 3, 2011 after 5:00 PM!

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Charity Bouquet for the Mom with Bieber Fever!

April 30th, 2011 · 1-800-Flowers.com, Developing Areas

justin beiber flowersYes, it’s that time of year again–the time to panic wondering if you’ve forgotten Mother’s Day again! Don’t worry, Mother’s Day 2011 is still 8 days away. But you’re cutting it close!

Every year, I like to highlight a different flower company donating some of their proceeds to charity. This year, I thought I’d shine the spotlight on 1-800-Flowers.

Problem is, the only charity bouquet 1-800-Flowers has right now is the Bieber Fever Charity Bouquet, where a portion of proceeds goes to Pencils of Promise which helps to build schools in underdeveloped countries. I figured I’d feature it here because it’s a great cause, the flowers are really nice, and if the bear is good enough for a screaming tween girl, then by gum it’s good enough for Mom!

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Celebrate Disneyland's 45th Anniversary with unique baby and toddler clothes that supports UNICEF

April 27th, 2011 · Nordstrom

Feed bag for kidsOne of the most popular gifts we’ve featured is the FEED Bag, a charity shopping bag where proceeds go to help the world’s hungry.

This year, Nordstrom is celebrating Disneyland’s 45th anniversary with a collection of some of the most adorable infant and toddler clohes you’ll find anywhere this year.  These clothes are limited edition designs available for a short time only, so grab them while you can.

The bag to the left is a tote version of the aforementioned shopping bag. For each bag purchased, FEED Projects will donate $10.00 to the U.S. Fund for UNICEF to help support UNICEF’s nutrition programs, enough to allow 500 children to receive Vitamin A supplements for one year.

feed shirt for toddlersThe shirt to the right is a classic T-Shirt for toddlers (also available as an infant shirt or a onesie) that has cartoon images of 12 different nationalities standing in a circle around the words “Feed Our Small World”. A great way to start to instill in a child of the diversity of the world around us. And for each Feed Our Small World garment purchase, FEED Projects will donate $3 to the U.S. Fund for UNICEF to help support UNICEF’s nutrition programs.

Surf around the It’s a Small World limited-edition collection for more great outfits, including TOMS shoes which also donate to charity (for every pair of TOMS shoe purchased, a needy child will get a pair).

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Sell Electronics on eBay, Get $5 and Give $5 to a Great Cause

April 24th, 2011 · Conservation, eBay

ebay electronics recyclingDisclosure: We participate in the eBay Partner Network (EPN) meaning we may earn a commission when users click on links to eBay and make purchases. 

Do you have some old electronics lying around? eBay is going green by encouraging you to sell selected old electronics.

Until April 30, check out their special site at green.ebay.com. You can search their online tool to see if the electronics item you want to sell is on their list. If it is, enter the condition of the electronics, as well as any accessories you plan to include with it. You’ll be given an instant quote for how much you’ll get paid.

The offer price is probably a little less than what you’d get on eBay, but making up for it is the fact that you don’t have to pay any eBay nor PayPal fees. In addition, you’ll be able to print a shipping label to ship your item for free. Also, the recycler will remove any personal information stored in cell phones, PDAs, and laptops. Finally, you’ll get a $5 eBay gift card, and a $5 donation will be made to Global Green USA, a national environmental non-profit headquartered in Southern California.

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Charity Nail Polish to help Premature Babies

April 17th, 2011 · Children's Charities

nail polish for preemies A few weeks ago, I got a touching email. Here’s an excerpt:

I am Jennifer Cohen from South Florida and I will always consider myself to be the luckiest person in the world. In 2003, my twin daughters were born at just 31 weeks of my pregnancy. They spent five weeks in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Memorial Hospital West in Pembroke Pines.

Today, Sydney and Alexandria are healthy 8-year-olds. In an effort to show our gratitude and help “pay it forward” my husband and I created a Foundation in celebration of the girls so that we may raise the needed money to buy and donate state-of-the-art incubators to Memorial Hospital West.

We have done the big glitzy gala thing, but found we needed an ongoing revenue stream so that the opportunity to support our efforts did not end at Midnight on any one evening. We also wanted something fun and affordable. So, we have come out with adorable twin nail polish sets as a way of raising funds. I came across your wonderful site and I was wondering if you would consider giving our nail polish gift sets a mention.

Of course, this is exactly the kind of cause which I started this site to bring attention to. Jennifer’s web site is now up and can be found at http://www.sacohenfoundation.org/.

The site contains a special page about her charity nail polish. The set contains one glow-in-the-dark light pink polish with sparkles named “Sydney” and one bottle of light purple nail polish named “Alexandria” after her two daughters who were both born at 3 pounds, 3 ounces and 2 pounds, 14 ounces respectively. Happily, both are wonderful, healthy little girls today. You can see a picture of them on the Web site smiling and holding their namesake nail polishes, which they helped create by picking the colors. The polish is made in the United States, and their manufacturing does not harm any animals.

Proceeds from the nail polish will go directly to support the Cohen’s pledge to provide state-of-the-art GE Omnibed Giraffe incubators for the hospital which the girls were born in. These incubators will in turn help thousands of babies year after year.

It’s not every day that you can find beautiful nail polish that supports such a great cause. Each boxed set is $14.00 plus $3.60 shipping.

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Gwen Stefani eBay Auction

April 14th, 2011 · Disaster Relief, eBay

gwen stefani ebay auctionsDisclosure: We participate in the eBay Partner Network (EPN) meaning we may earn a commission when users click on links to eBay and make purchases. 

From April 11 to April 25, Gwen Stefani is holding a special Charity Auction auctioning off a huge number of personal items, from a chance to meet her for tea at a special event in LA, to L.A.M.B. outfits from her closet, to T-shirts she personally signed.

All proceeds from this auction will benefit Save The Children’s work in continuing to help Japan recover from the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami.

If you’re a fan, this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to win a one-of-a-kind piece of memorabilia, while supporting an important cause.

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Sphynx Cat Book that Helps fight HCM

April 11th, 2011 · Animal Causes

The Nudes – A Pictorial Celebration of the Sphynx is a great book that celebrates the rare Sphynx cat (also known as the Canadian Hairless). This is an amazing breed of cat with a truly unique look, and this book captures its uniqueness in a variety of pictures, ranging from beautiful, to funny, to adorably cute.

The author is donating some of the proceeds from the book to researching HCM (hypertrophic cardiomyopathy), a disease that affects many Sphynx cats.

A great and unique gift for the cat lover in your life.

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