What does the “season of giving” mean to you?
Does it mean giving extra time to your family? Fair. How about giving a penny or two when the charity volunteers at the mall shake bells and ask for donations? That’s kind. But when it comes to giving gifts, what is the goal? To add to the accumulation of stuff in your friends’ and families’ lives? And then there’s the fuss of it: not spending too much or too little, not spending more on one person than another. It becomes quite the stressful task. What about, though, if you gave gifts that were more than just “stuff,” gifts that fulfilled needs for the most destitute and ill and helpless?
We all have those people in our lives who, when asked when they want for Christmas, will say they don’t need anything. I’ll admit it; I’m one of them. Growing up in a house where Santa Claus was always abundantly generous, never finding myself with a shortage of toys to play with or a lack of outfits to wear, it was always hard to think of something I wanted for Christmas. Let’s face it, though: “I don’t really want or need anything” is a perfectly legitimate answer when prompted with such a question. It’s an intentional rejection of abject materialism—not a bad thing.
Sure, that sort of a response makes it difficult when your aunts and uncles and grandparents want to buy you something nice, but what’s the alternative? You could think of things you want just because everybody else has them. You could ask for the bigger and better versions of everything you already have. And in that case it’s not even stuff you want anymore, just the status of saying you have it. Why convince yourself you need more stuff just so you can say you have it?
What if we could give gifts to people who actually need things? (And who’s saying we can’t?)
Enter: the humanitarian gift guide: a way to give to those who truly have needs that are not met. For example, you can give a certificate to your cousin Jen that you donated a flock of chicks to a family in Ghana on her behalf. Below are six organizations that give gifts to the most destitute or helpless on behalf of your designated recipient:
*Note that this is a non-exhaustive list.
1. Heifer
Heifer International is an organization that really believes that, if you “give a man a fish, you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.” That is, Heifer takes your donation money and pools it into buying a few animals for a family to start their own income in farming. This could be chickens, geese, goats, or the classic animal on which the organization was founded: a heifer! Below are some gifts you can give through Heifer and their prices:
The WWF makes a concerted effort to protect endangered species like pandas and rhinos and tigers to name a few, and one way to support their conservation projects around the world is to symbolically adopt an animal. This makes a really cute gift for children and animal lovers alike, as the symbolic donation gives your recipient a whole package of goodies about the animal, including a certificate and a stuffed animal replica of the particular endangered species.
3. Make-A-Wish
You’ve probably heard of Make A Wish, a foundation that grants a terminally ill child his or her biggest wish. Here’s a particularly adorable one below. Anyway, a donation to Make A Wish is sure to brighten the day of your recipient, who will know that your gift is putting a huge smile on a terminally ill child’s face.
Global Giving is a wide-reaching organization that lets you donate to a myriad of nonprofit organizations worldwide. Since Global Giving issues gift cards, this is a great way to let your recipient choose the cause to which your recipient wants the donation to go to.
5. World Vision
World Vision follows current world issues and helps to mobilize philanthropic support for them. For instance, your recipient could help to provide relief for Afghanistan earthquake victims or Syrian refugees, for a few options. You can also sponsor a child through this organization. The process goes as such. First, you search for a child you’d like to sponsor. Maybe your heart aches for for four-year-olds in Uganda, or perhaps you’re drawn to help teenage girls in India. You can choose that.
Then, you will be signed up to send the child a monthly donation, and after that you will get a packet telling you all about the child you sponsor. If you give the gift of child sponsorship to a loved one, you are basically giving them an adorable little pen pal they can get to know for a year, not to mention that you’re substantially improving the child’s quality of life.
Here’s an example of a child you could sponsor:10-year-old Chakkrya from Cambodia.
6. Best Friends
Best Friends Animal Shelter is a nationwide organization dedicated to helping improves the lives of sheltered pets and abandoned animals. While you unfortunately can’t buy a pet for yourself on campus, there’s still the chance through Best Friends to help fund their projects, like rehabilitating stray kittens back to health. Plus, for Christmas this year, Best Friends is doing a gift-matching program, where everything you give is matched by another donor. Translation: you’re helping twice as many pets!
When you’re in the pre-holiday frenzy, when you’re stressing about what to get someone, when you feel like you can’t afford a good gift…take a step back. Realize why you’re giving at all. And maybe, just maybe, this humanitarian gift guide could help you give a great gift.
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