Charitable Gift Giving

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

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A FitBit for the Kids…Sort of

March 10th, 2016 · UNICEF, World Hunger

It’s not hard to see that one of the hottest gifts this year is going to be wearable electronics for the purpose of tracking your fitness and exercise. For years, of course, people carried around pedometers to track their steps. The advent of smartphones changed all that. Suddenly, you could do more than just see how many steps you took in the day. You could see your fitness profile for the entire day…how much you walked, how much you ran, and how much you just sat around.

After years of her talking about it, I got my sister the granddaddy of wearable fitness trackers, the a Fitbit. When they went on sale at Best Buy I decided to splurge and got myself an Apple Watchicon (on our sister blog Gaming.Fit I’ll go through the steps of how I use the Apple Watch as a FitBit).

With everyone in the family wearing wearable technology, the little ones in your household might feel a little left out. They’re already not happy because everyone has a smartphone except for them, and seeing everyone with these things on their wrist except for themselves is bound to make them feel left out.

Target comes to the rescue with a brilliant idea. For the price of about a third of the cost of a FitBit and a tenth of the cost of an Apple Watch, you can pick up a colorful UNICEF Kid Power Band. It comes in orange and blue, and in a very timely and brilliant licensing move, it worked with Disney to also produce two limited edition “Star Wars: Force for Change” colors to coincide with the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

The inspiration for these Power Bands is obviously the FitBit, which has successfully “gamified” exercise (how many of you with FitBits deliberately walked that extra flight of stairs just so you can collect your “points” for the day?). The same thing happens with these watches. The only difference is, “points” in this case aren’t just theoretical or psychological, but result in very real change in the world.

Here’s how these UNICEF Kid Power Bands Work:

  1. As an adult, you can purchase a UNICEF Kid Power Band for your child or a child in your life, and help them download an app called Kid Power. Out of this purchase price Target will donate $10 to the US Fund for UNICEF.
  2. Kids will wear their Kid Power Bands and the app will tell them to “go on missions” where they can learn virtually about new cultures and earn “Kid Power points” for completing activities and challenges. A group of kids can do this together (this would be an amazing thing to hand out to kids on a sports team, for example, or to kids in a family so they can have friendly competitions with each other as to who’s being more active)
  3.  These “points” aren’t just for show; they’ll unlock therapeutic food packets that UNICEF delivers to severely malnourished children around the world (by way of corporate sponsors and individuals who pledge).

The band is basically a pedometer and accelerometer, so it’s not quite as complex as a FitBit that calculates things like calories, active minutes, floors climbed, and so on. On the other hand, a lot of that stuff is really overkill for kids–just tracking the number of steps is enough for most.

I can’t say enough about this great idea. It encourages kids to exercise, it helps them feel “just like mom and dad” with their own wearable technology, and perhaps most importantly, it teaches them to look beyond their immediate surroundings and realize how blessed they are as well as the value of helping others who are less fortunate than them.

We live in strange times today where one out of every four children in the United States is inactive, meaning they may be on a road to obesity as an adult, while at the same time one out of every four children worldwide suffers from malnutrition, meaning that many will be at risk of starvation. This product is an amazing idea, and a great way to help everyone on both extremes.

Here’s how the band works in practice.

  1. You’ll get these two items in the package–a plastic band with a stylish strap and a thin watch-like face and a USB charger that’s pretty slick in that it attaches to the back of the watch magnetically, much like Apple’s watch.target powerband for kids and charger
  2. When you first plug it in, the words “UNICEF” and “KID POWER” will flash on the watch face.kid power band
  3. The first thing I noticed was that this isn’t some weak LCD watch, but the display was OLED, with the words bright, white, and jumping off the black dial. A battery icon will show that it’s charging.
    charging fitbit for kids
  4. Next, you download the UNICEF Kids Power app on iOS or Android.
    IMG_3314
  5. The app take a little getting used to. The grown-up in the house sets up a master account first, and then sets up accounts for each of the family members. When you set up an account, you enter a screen name, your birthday, choose an icon of various sports, and your email address. That’ll set up the master Family account, and then you can set up sub-accounts for the members of your family and link your Power Band to the right account.IMG_3321
    Admittedly there are usability improvements they need to make. You need to contact them to do things like transfer Family Accounts to someone else or remove Family Accounts, which leads me to suspect that they rushed this to market without building some basic things.

  6. What’s cool is that once the band is charged it’ll display the name you typed in to show whose it is.
    1. Tap on the watch face once and the time of day will scroll in, making this a bona-fide watch.
      watch for kids with pedometer
    2. Tap on it again and it’ll show you an icon of two footprints, showing the steps you’ve taken.
    3. Tap on it again and you’ll see the “points” you’ve heard (one point is equal to about 2,400 steps)
    4. Tap on it one more time and you’ll see an icon of an airplane, which I believe shows the the “missions” that the child has completed.
  7. The whole thing with “missions” takes a little getting used to. It looks like you need to purchase credits with physical money ($3.99 a credit) in order to unlock these. Once you do, you unlock in-app content from people like Alex Morgan, Maya Moore (Haiti), Tyson Chandler (Uganda), Burkina Faso (David Ortiz). While the money is of course well spent, I would have liked to see a little more “freemium” content rather than just blocking everything until someone buys credits.

But overall, it’s a great idea and fills a big gap as far as helping kids get more active and at the same time help those who are less fortunate than them. I definitely recommend picking one up at your local Target or ordering one here.

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Life is Good Book – the history of LIG and wisdom from the guys who started it

February 19th, 2016 · Uncategorized

For years you’ve no doubt seen this smiling Life is Good guy everywhere.

life is good guy

I remember seeing my first Life is Good T-Shirt back in the 1990’s and smiling. There was just something about the smiling stick figure (whose name is Jake) as he went about his life doing “good” things, from camping to biking to playing with the dog. I remember really, really wanting one of those t-shirts (and eventually getting a few).

I wasn’t alone. Today, the Life is Good company is a business worth more than $100 million dollars.

The founders of Life is Good are two brothers, Bert and John Jacobs who in their own words “didn’t want a real job but weren’t afraid to work”. In a world where people only seemed to talk about bad news, they bucked the trends and started a brand based on optimism and fun. Clearly, they struck a chord.

This book is hard to categorize. It’s part biography, part history, part self-help book, part business book, part scrapbook, part philosophy book. It’s also an art book, filled with full-color Life is Good artwork.

You can learn the entire story of how the brothers grew up, how they got the idea in the first place, and how they ran their business from a tiny startup to a powerful and popular brand.

The chapters are divided into different “superpowers”: Openness, Courage, Simplicity, Humor, Gratitude, Fun, Compassion, Creativity, Authenticity, and Love. But instead of spouting out theoretical and trite advice that you might find in other self-help books, they share stories from their own lives and business that show how their living out these principles ultimately led to success for them. In each chapter, they also provide practical advice on how you can apply these principles in your life.

This is also not a typical self-help book that’s filled with either pedantic and didactic religious advice nor fluffy new age philosophy, and yet ironically it’s probably more helpful than either of those kinds of books. All it is is a very practical account of Bert and John’s story and simple lessons from their lives that you can apply to yours. It’s one of those rare books (like the T-Shirts themselves) where just about anyone, no matter their background, will read, enjoy, and be hard pressed to put it down without feeling energized, inspired, encouraged, and optimistic.

As with all Life is Good products, a portion of proceeds goes to help the Life is Good Foundation, which partners with leading children’s charities and organizations to help the most vulnerable children in our society.

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Ultra Soft Balm from L’Occitane

February 6th, 2016 · Developing Areas, Uncategorized

International Women’s Day is coming March 8, and to commemorate the date L’Occitane has released a limited edition Shea Butter Balm to raise awareness for women’s entrepreneurship worldwide.

The balm will sell for $6 and 100% of proceeds will finance NGO projects for women’s leadership in Burkina Faso. You can read more about L’Occitane’s work with Burkina Faso here, and purchase your own balm here.

L’Occitane has been working with the women of Burkina Faso for over thirty years, the connection being Shea butter. Women of this region for generations have harvested the nuts off the Karite tree and churned them into the paste-like butter. If you’ve ever used Shea butter in your life, you know it can be a “miracle ingredient” for your skin–an all-natural ingredient that’s widely used in cosmetics as a moisturizer, salve, or lotion.

I got a chance to sample some of this balm. This particular balm can be used on the lips, body, or hair. You scoop a little out and “melt” it in the palms of your hands before applying, and help nourish, protect, and soften your skin upon application, with a gentle rose scent.

IMG_4663 shea butter balm

Today, more than 17,000 women are employed producing shea butter through fair trade cooperatives funded by L’Occitane. To build on this commitment, L’Occitane also promotes women’s entrepreneurship in the region by offering literacy training, microcredit loans and savings programs.

 

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Stella Artois Buy a Lady a Drink Chalices

January 31st, 2016 · Developing Areas

As they did last year, this year Stella Artois is selling Limited Edition Chalices with designs representing a specific country in the developing world. Last year they featured Ethiopia, Honduras, and India. This year, the designs are from Haiti, Kenya, and Peru.

Water.org is a non-profit, founded by Gary White and Matt Damon, that helps to bring clean water and sanitation to the world. Those of us who turn on a faucet to see crystal clear that are regulated by federal, state, and local laws to be safe may forget that around the world over 660 million people lack access to safe drinking water, and 2.4 billion people lack access to a toilet. In these societies, often the burden of finding and collecting clean water falls on the women.

Each chalice is $13. But for each chalice sold, Stella Artois will donate to water.org enough to supply 5 years of clean drinking water to the developing world. Their campaign is called, cleverly enough, “Buy a Lady a Drink”. You can see pictures of the chalices here along with the designs that inspired them.haiti chalice

kenya chalice peru glass

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Yogitoes – Yoga Towels from Manduka

December 16th, 2015 · Education

Looking for the perfect gift for the yoga practitioner in your life? Manduka is a company that creates top-notch yoga gear, from yoga mats, to towels, to headbands, to bags, to props.
yoda mat by manduka

The Manduka PRO Yoga Mat is both stylish and supportive. It has a lifetime guarantee, and measures 71 inches by 26 inches, with a thickness of 6 mm.

Its surface is closed to keep moisture and sweat from swwping into the mat and breeding bacteria, while the high-density cushion provides exceptional comfort and joint protection on virtually any surface, from carpet to hardwood and even cement or concrete.

It has a fabric-like surface that’s slip resistant (even with a light amount of sweat on it), and actually improves with use over time. There’s a dot pattern on the bottom to resist sliding.

This limited edition was created by Ryan McGinness and the great organization Bent on Learning, a non-profit organization which helps bring yoga instruction to New York City public schools (a city where a little calm and meditation is critical, especially for kids). For every yoga mat sold, two children get a free yoga class.

Another fantastic product by Manduka is their line of Yogitoes towels. I had the pleasure of trying one out. The towel comes rolled up like a yoga mat:

rolled up yoga towel

But when you unroll it you’ll see that it’s made of absorbent fabric that acts like a towel, absorbing all your excess sweat during your practice. The design you see here is a beautiful limited-edition design called “Cloudbreak” that’s as beautiful as it is functional. In total it measures over 5 feet (68 inches). In the picture here you’ll see how beautiful the design is–it looks like a watercolor painting. 

pretty yoga towel

More than just a towel, it actually grips your yoga mat so that you can perform your yoga right on it. With their patented Skidless technology, no matter how much you move or sweat the towel won’t slip.

yoga towel that grips mat

After your session is over, you just take the towel off and throw it into the washing machine.

Each yogitoes towel is made from no fewer than eight discarded plastic bottles, preventing them from entering landfills or polluting the ocean. The recycled bottles are woven into 50% poly yarn that requires 66% less energy to produce.

From products that help children to products that help the environment, you won’t do much better than Manduka for finding a great gift for the yoga fanatic in your life.

 

 

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Automatic Air Freshener for the Holidays from Air Wick

December 4th, 2015 · Habitat for Humanity, Poverty

When the holidays come around most people are good about getting their house ready for guests. The house is cleaned from top to bottom so it looks nice. You put some nice Christmas music on for your guests so it sounds great. And of course, you pour your time into cooking a fantastic holiday meal so everything tastes great.

But there’s always one sense that gets the short end of the stick–the olfactory one. While we’d like to think our houses naturally smell like pine needles and freshly baked Christmas cookies, the reality is that the “natural” smells of the seasons aren’t always so pleasant.

Candles are great but may not always be a good option with kids running around, especially when you’re surrounded bytablecloths, trees, wrapping paper, and other flammables. Air fresheners in an aerosol can are great, but it can be a little awkward walking around spraying while people are talking.

Enter the Air Wick Life Scents Automatic Air Freshener, a.k.a. Air Wick “Freshmatic Ultra”. This is a cool little device that you can just set and leave on a table (preferably high up, out of the reach of children and pets). The exterior is available in white or black, and blends in to your decor, much like a flower vase would.

airwick automatic air freshener

Open it up and put in two AA batteries (included). Then, take the cover off a Life Scents can and position it carefully in the unit so that the nozzle is pointing out through the hole.

using the air wick freshmatic

Close it and turn a knob to select a small, medium, or large rose icon; this will indicate how strong you want the scent to be throughout the house (obviously the greater the scent, the less time your refill will last; some reports reported only 2 weeks before the can went empty, most other talk about how the can can last upwards of 60 days.

airwick freshmatic intensity

Then, at a frequency that corresponds to the rose icon, the aerosol will spray. For a general ambience where the effect will be more subconscious (where your guests will say, “wow, something smells really nice”), you put it on the little rose. If things get extra stinky with hot sweaty adults, children, and animals bringing in all kinds of odors to your lovely clean home, you put it on the big rose.

I got to try out three scents: Emerald Woodland (morning frost, evergreen, sugar cookie), Snowflake Vanilla Cookie (vanilla custard, spiced punch, roasted chestnuts), and Apple Crumble (pastry crust, spiced apple, vanilla). They smell amazing, and pretty much as described. Right now I have it on Emerald Woodland Scent, and the room is filled with a sweet, fresh, crisp, and woodsy scent. The effect is much like aromatherapy candles, just without the middleman of the fire and wax. But because these are “layered” smells the smell is much more complex than just a single aroma.

freshmatic emerald woodland

One very cool thing about smells is the memories that it can bring up from way back in your past. When I put on the Emerald Woodland smell, I was instantly transported to some point in my childhood. I can’t pinpoint the exact moment, but it involved pine needles, Christmas lights, and the warmth of family. Granted the actual memory is long gone, and it very well could have been some cheap scratch-and-sniff card I smelled as a toddler, but whatever it was, it was magic for me as a child.

This holiday season Air Wick has been donated $250,000 from a portion of profits from its Life Scents collection (whether the plugin refills, the Freshmatic Auto Spray refills I described above, or candle and wax melts) to help Habitat for Humanity. During this holiday season when we’re all snug at home in front of the fireplace or the tree, it’s sometimes easy to forget that there are so many people who struggle to even have a roof over their heads, especially those in low-income families.

Since 1976, Habitat for Humanity has helped more than 5 million people, building new homes for them or rehabilitating and preserving their existing homes. The donation will go a very long way towards making that dream come true for many more people.

For more on this incredible cause, see this video.

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The Giving Hat to Help St. Jude’s

December 1st, 2015 · Uncategorized

As a way to draw attention, raise awareness, and support the fight against childhood cancer, Kmart has introduced The Giving Hat, a simple winter knit hat with one of three messages embroidered in it: “Smile”, “Light a Lot”, and “Give Thanks”. The hats will be on sale at your local Kmart from now until the end of December.

Each hat costs only $5 at your local Kmart or online, and $1 from each hat will go to St. Jude in their work to find cures for life-threatening childhood diseases and to help those who are suffering from them. For more information, check out this video:

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Robot Stuffed Toy with a heart #kausbot #kauzkrew

November 27th, 2015 · Breast Cancer, Cancer, Children's Charities, Conservation, World Hunger

It’s so hard to find a stuffed toy that’s very unique anymore. Everywhere you go you see the same dogs and bears, most of which were mass produced in an assembly line and churned out thousands at a time.

Contrast that to Kauzbots, one of the most unique stuffed toys I’ve seen. They’re actually not real working robots (they’re to robots as a teddy bear is to a real bear). But looking at them they just exude personality. They’ve got two circular eyes and a line for a mouth inside of a rectangle face. They have three buttons in front with various “electronic” signals stitched in. They have multicolored striped arms leading to a stuffed wrench for hands (which happen to fit right into their stuffed nuts for ears), and multicolored legs leading to hammer-like feet.

kauzbot cute plush robots

On the back are two sewn fabric “buttons”, one that says “Activate” and one that says “Shut Down”. A pocket on the back (complete with two stuffed “screws” holding it on) reveals a cute little hand-stitched red heart which you can take out.

the robot with a heart

At about 12 inches long (20 including the legs and feet), and about 5 inches thick with padding, this little guy is the perfect size for hugging or for going on all kinds of adventures. The material is excellent–the robot’s body is sort of a thicker cotton and polyester material you might find in a totebag, while the arms and pockets are softer fabric.

I’m impressed at how well it’s put together and at the attention to detail in the design, right down to the stuffed screws and the hand stitched heart. Every stitch is in place and the material is durable but still soft and cuddly.

But what makes Kauzbots unique are the first part of their name–“Kauz”. They come in 10 different colors and each supports a unique cause. The robot will come with a tag that explains the robot’s name and a few details about the cause it supports. Each time you buy a Kauzbot, 10% of the proceeds go straight to the cause the robot is designated to help.

Kale is green with blue eyes and supports the Arbor Day Foundation’s mission to plant more trees.

Kalvin is brown with red eyes and supports different causes; currently he’s supporting Dream Catalyst’s work of helping homeless children.

Kaprice is pink and supports women with breast cancer (the Web site says she supports the Breast Cancer Network of Strength, but that charity is no longer active so presumably Kaprice’s portion will be going to another breast cancer charity).

Karson is red with blue eyes and supports music therapy programs at children’s hospitals.

Karthy is yellow with red eyes and supports Talk about Curing Autism’s mission to help the autisti.

Khloe is white with red eyes and supports the National Children’s Oral Health Foundation.

Kiefer is black with red eyes and supports the International Rescue Committee.

Kourage is purple with blue eyes and supports the Pablove Foundation’s mission to eradicate childhood cancer.

Kruz is blue with red eyes and supports Lifewater’s mission to deliver clean water.

Kamo is coming soon and I’m guessing his proceeds will go to support veteran’s causes.

The little lady above is named Karissa. With blue eyes and an orange body, her mission is to fight hunger with Share Our Strength. The tag reads:

Karissa is passionate about fighting hunger and poverty around the world. More than 840 million people in the world are malnourished–799 million of them live in the developing world. Whether due to drought, conflict, or disease, mothers and fathers will not be able to find enough food for their families in poor communities around the world. Karissa is committed to helping hungry children and their families get the assistance they desperately need.

I think what I love most about Kauzbots is that they’re imaginative and fun to play with, but they also create awareness to a wide range of great causes that might otherwise get the attention they need.

And in addition to helping these organizations, you can also use it to teach your kids valuable lessons about the importance of giving and helping others.

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Beadworks – Adorable Miniature Animals Made with Beads

November 19th, 2015 · Conservation, Developing Areas

bead animalsSee these two little guys shooting the breeze? The elephant to the left and the zebra to the right are actually made up of tiny beads. They both measure about 1.5 inches tall and long and are oh-so-adorable and will look great on a Christmas tree or just as a conversation piece at your desk.

This is just a sampling of what you’ll find at BeadWORKS Kenya, a venture of Northern Rangelands Trust. Click to their catalog and you’ll find bead jewelry, boxes, bracelets, napkin rings, keychains, necklaces, coasters, and much more. Each of them are handcrafted by women in Kenya. Specifically, 1,000 women in five community-led conservancies who would otherwise have no source of income use their traditional skills to make these wonderful beaded handicrafts.

BeadWORKS helps them out by finding places for them to sell their products, as well as training them and helping to coordinate things like product development, basic financial skills, and leadership and entrepreneurial skills. As a result these women earn a sustainable income that they use to send their children to school, pay medical bills, and buy essentials like clothes and food.

Community conservation is a growing phenomenon in Africa, including Northern Kenya where BeadWORKS and Northern Rangelands Trust is located. Put simply, community conservation is when private citizens in an area get together and decide that they’re going to work together to protect their own land and wildlife from things like poor land management and poaching. Protecting creation has wide-ranging benefits. results in improved security for the whole community, wiser management of land, and income and employment through supporting community projects.

 

So native wildlife like elephants are protected. How? First, these regions of the world have traditionally relied 100% on lifestock for their income, which expanding grazing land and dealing with situations where wildlife would encroach on that land. By providing alternate sources of income, land expansion could be controlled and wildlife protected. In many cases this opens up a whole new world for eco-tourism where ironically the same animals that used to be killed and poached because they were a threat to income now bring in more income just by saying alive.

Statistics have proven that once alternate sources of income and community conservation are introduced to a region, poaching becomes a lot more scarce. And you can start doing your part by getting these adorable Christmas ornaments or some of the dazzling jewelry that not only make great gifts but can change lives for humans and elephants alike,

 

 

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Beautiful Silk Scarf from World Vision @WorldVisionUSA

November 15th, 2015 · Developing Areas, Disaster Relief, Poverty, Uncategorized, World Hunger

I review a lot of charitable gift sites on this blog but invariably every year when this time comes around I always look to World Vision for some of the most impressive, high quality gifts.

This year is no exception. The World Vision gift catalog for 2015 recently came out and in it are more than 250 gifts to choose from. Unlike what you might find in other charities these aren’t all just symbolic gifts nor are they run-of-the-mill, low quality logo imprinted products. These are high-quality fashionable gifts that rival the best things you’ll see in media to high-end department and luxury stores.

IMG_2224For example, this Royal Silk Scarf is one of the more gorgeous scarves I’ve seeen this season. My wife Lisa was gracious enough to model it for me.

The silk, like any good silk, is soft and luxurious to the touch but keeps you warm on those cold and windy autumn and winter days. But what amazed me were the colors on this thing. It’s a gorgeous blend of rich blues, greens, purples and magentas that honestly look even more stunningly beautiful than scarves costing hundreds more in high end department stores. It’s especially stunning in the sunlight, which makes the vibrant colors really stand out. And because they’re handcrafted no two are alike.

Unlike the $400 scarves made in Italy with giant profit margins that line the pockets of corporate executives, or the $5 scarves made in China and produced under heaven knows what kind of conditions (by who knows whom), this scarf is hand-woven by villagers in Ma Chau, Vietnam.

It’s the gift that gives thrice, once to your recipient, once to the artisans in Vietnam who receive sustainable income from their craft, and once to help the amazing work that World Vision (consistently rated an A+ charity by every charity rating service out there) does.

There are other hand-crafted gifts like this in the catalog from around the world, which also help World Vision’s charitable work as well as provide sustainable income for people to make a living in impoverished parts of the world. Here’s just a sampling:

necklace-from-kenya

 

A beaded cross necklace from Nairobi, Kenya

 

 

 

baby bib from baliA handmade 100% cotton baby bib from Bali, Indonesia

 

 

 

 

christmas star ornamentA Christmas Star Ornament from India

 

 

 

 

shell coastersCapiz Shell coasters from the Philippines

 

 

 

 

There is literally something for everybody in this catalog, so get your Christmas shopping done now. Instead of the typical department store schlock, these gifts exude the personal touch–literally. You’ll feel great knowing you gave your friends and family gifts they will love and use, helped give a leg up to hard working artisans to support their families and communities, and helped World Vision’s mission to help those around the world who are in the most desperate need.

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