Gifts that Give Twice

[PLFXpert 0]

This thread is open to all your gift ideas that "give twice".

With the tough economic times, donations to charitable organizations dwindle. Every year, my goal is to give a little more than the previous year to the various organizations I support. This year, I will--thankfully--be giving what I did last year, but I could not help but think what else I could do.

It occurred to me, I already had ideas of things I wanted to get my hunny and friends and family for Christmas. Why not see if I can purchase those items through a vendor that supports those organizations?

I know a lot of DZ.comers support Best Friends Animal Society (as do we) and I have to say I was impressed with some of the options in their store. I bought the fleece jacket for myself pictured on the home page of The Best Friends Store.

It just arrived, along with a few purchases for friends and family.

Use this space to share gift ideas and places to go to purchase gifts that "give twice" this holiday season.

Paint me in a corner, but my color comes back.

[PLFXpert 0]

Also for the animal-lover:

Dog Lovers Wine.



P.S. There is also a cat lovers, horse lovers and nature lovers wine club, all supporting animal shelters and rescue groups.

Paint me in a corner, but my color comes back.

[LisaH 0]

http://american.redcross.org/site/PageServer?pagename=gen_store_main&s_src=RSS09000E005&s_subsrc=RCO_FrontPagePanel

Be yourself!
MooOOooOoo

[Skootz 0]

Bead for Life is excellent.

I've hosted their parties for years. I've never heard a negative word about them and the way the money goes back to improve and teach the women new jobs skills is wonderful.
http://www.beadforlife.org/indexb.html

[CSpenceFLY 1]

Fruit Cake.

[LisaH 0]

Re-gifting doesn't count.

Be yourself!
MooOOooOoo

[PLFXpert 0]

Neat!

Paint me in a corner, but my color comes back.

[silent_pumpkin 0]

I like The Hunger Site. They have many interesting/hand-made gift items for sale and every purchase helps fund food donations.

You can also donate in a more traditional fashion and choose where your donation goes from clean water, food, education, etc.

The Hunger Site:
http://shop.thehungersite.com/store/category.do?categoryId=253&siteId=220page=1

[happythoughts 0]

Ok, I'll say that I attempt to not be a packrat. Opinions vary.
I just don't like to trash usable stuff and people give me stuff.
(My current set of living room furniture was given to me.)

Anyway, in the last 6 months, I acquired 2 extra tvs.
I helped people move, others got a new one and gave me the old one. They sat on the floor for a while.

So, on Wednesday, the Salvation Army drops by with a truck.
Out goes two old beds and the two tvs, plus some bags of clothes.

On Saturday, I am talking to some movers and they have a
nice tv set that they will give me. No charge.

On Sunday, I told someone at the dz and their tv was broke, so I gave them my current set.

Anyway, don't toss stuff in the trash (especially electronics).
Someone else can use it.

[PLFXpert 0]

Yup! I click on The Animal Rescue Site each day and have made a purchase or two from them in the past.

Recently the formerly-mentioned Best Friends Animal Society won $100k from the site who partnered with Petfinder.com.

It is a wonderful website for multiple causes; I would encourage everyone to choose at least one to click on each day and give for free!

Paint me in a corner, but my color comes back.

[PLFXpert 0]

I have a set area in the garage I store things that would be useful to another. Once the area is full, I send Bill out to load up his truck and haul it all to Goodwill.

This happens more often than not, as Bill's mom is a habitual estate-saler constantly sending us home with a bunch of stuff that never makes it through the door to my house.

Paint me in a corner, but my color comes back.

[happythoughts 0]

Quote

Bill's mom is a habitual estate-saler

My dad liked yard sales and craft fairs.
He never got the idea that no one sells a working coffee-maker.

He used to give me one on a recurring basis to replace the last broken one that he gave me.

[PLFXpert 0]

Oy vey--not to hijack my own thread, but--I had the most fun having my very own garage sale about a year ago. We had one closet and an attic full of stuff that needed to go. We advertised and put up signs. We "opened" at 6:30 a.m. and closed by Noon. At 11 a.m. I put out a sign advertising "everything $1" which was great because we had larger items people were traveling back for that then purchased all the things I wouldn't sell for $2 for $1.

By Noon, most everything had sold, and Bill loaded the rest into his truck and headed toward Goodwill.

I had SO much fun!

But, the point of my awesome story is everything we sold worked. We could not give VCRs away, but I had cheap Radio Shack cameras, etc. and never-viewed-DVDs that sold for a killing. The guy who bought my RS camera was SO cute. He was like 60-years-old and rode up on his Harley and insisted a disk must have come with it. I retorted, if one did, I would have it for sure, and would look in my disk arsenal. I did, and there was, and I presented it to him and he bought it leaving us both very happy.

Paint me in a corner, but my color comes back.

[PLFXpert 0]

EBay'ers, 'tis the season to add 10% or more to your favorite charity when selling.



Another thought: Attend a charity auction! Sure, you might have to dress up a bit, but you might be surprised at the range of things up for auction and their prices. For example, my hunny's company advertises their service on the radio. Recently, at a local auction his company purchased radio time from a popular radio-station that had donated X amount for a low starting price. He ended up paying about what they would normally pay, but instead the money went to the charity. Win-Win!

I love silent auctions.
P.S. Charity events/auctions are also great because they often benefit local divisions and it is an opportunity to meet like-minded locals. Networking!

Paint me in a corner, but my color comes back.