Saturday, November 26, 2011

Stimulation Saturday-Ways to give during the holiday season

helping-hand

If your anything like me, you pretty much buy what you want during the year and by the time the holidays roll around, you really don’t need anything. Or, you have friends and relatives who are the same way; there is really nothing they need or want.

I decided this year that I would be giving donations as gifts and asking people in my family to do the same. Except for T. T don’t get off that easy. LOL

I did some research and found some non for profit organizations that really use what they are given to help the world one person at a time.

 

Kiva

Kiva is a non-profit organization with a mission to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty. Leveraging the internet and a worldwide network of microfinance institutions, Kiva lets individuals lend as little as $25 to help create opportunity around the world. As the money is paid back, you are able to keep loaning the money.

 

Operation Smile

Since 1982, Operation Smile — through the help of dedicated medical volunteers — has provided more than 2 million patient evaluations and over 200,000 free surgeries for children and young adults born with cleft lips, cleft palates and other facial deformities.

 

Locks Of Love

Locks of Love is a public non-profit organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children in the United States and Canada under age 21 suffering from long-term medical hair loss from any diagnosis. Most of the children helped by Locks of Love have lost their hair due to a medical condition called alopecia areata, which has no known cause or cure. The prostheses help to restore their self-esteem and their confidence, enabling them to face the world and their peers.

 

Housing Works

Housing Works is a healing community of people living with and affected by HIV/AIDS. Their mission is to end the dual crises of homelessness and AIDS through relentless advocacy, the provision of lifesaving services, and entrepreneurial businesses that sustain their efforts.

 

Toys For Tots

The mission of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program is to collect new, unwrapped toys during October, November and December each year, and distribute those toys as Christmas gifts to needy children in the community in which the campaign is conducted.

 

RIF (Reading Is Fundamental)

Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) is the largest children’s literacy nonprofit in the United States. They deliver free books and literacy resources to those children and families who need them most.

 

Note please. I have no affiliation with these organizations. Though I do donate to some of them, I recommend you investigate each site and make your own determination before donating to any organization or cause.

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