Remember George's 'Human Fund' in Seinfeld? An untraditional present where the benefit of the gift goes to a charity or person in need (in that episode, the charity case was George himself).Nowadays, charities are much more inventive and rather than offering generic donations 'on behalf of', you can give anything from farm animals to school books to seeds and almost anything else a person in need could possibly want. It's a fun way to give and do good at the same time.
For example, Oxfam Unwrapped offers gifts of cattle manure for $15 to help crop growers in Sri Lanka, or you can build a school in Vietnam on behalf of a loved one for $3,500.
ChildFund Australia's Donations with a Difference scheme allows you to buy the most 'Eggsellent' gift of chickens for impoverished famlies in Cambodia for just $21, or lay out some more dosh to pay for a water pump in Papua New Guinea for $1,485.
You can buy online and gifts even come with great gimmicky cards. You can even opt for an e-card, so it's never too late to start your Christmas shopping. I guess the only consideration is how much the gift will be worth in the sight of the recipient. Fortunately there are 2 recipients, so even if your intended gift recipient (the person who ends up with the card) isn't too thrilled about a family in Uganda gaining a water bucket on their behalf, the Ugandan family will love you to bits. And let's face it, it's much better than socks or random kris kringle gifts that end up re-gifted year after year.
1 comments:
One caveat regarding Oxfam Unwrapped: their fine print states that your money won't actually go into buying a goat, chicken, donkey or whatever, but rather, only contribute towards projects that relate to those things...
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