Great Gifts and Great Causes
Summer is a prime wedding season, so you’re probably struggling over what to buy. Wedding gifts usually follow the traditional (and sometimes boring) route — pots & pans, blenders, china, gift cards and cash. Are you looking for a unique and special gift idea? Something the bride and groom will remember for the rest of their lives? Why not commemorate the wedding of your loved one with a charitable gift?
Weddings are life-changing events. Celebrating them with charitable gifts will also be life-changing for people in need. Your special bride and groom will be thrilled that you decided to help make the world a better place in their honor! Here are some ways to do just that.
Online shopping has opened up endless possibilities for making charitable donations while you shop. Charitable shopping portals offer whatever wedding gift you originally intended to buy plus thousands of other choices you may never have considered. You don’t have to “pound the pavement” looking for the perfect gift; you can do it all from your laptop in the comfort of your living room.
Many portals have relationships with huge retailers such as Amazon.com. You do your shopping as usual but 2% to 30% of your purchase is automatically donated to charity. You purchase the wedding gift, but you give homeless veterans, rainforests, endangered wildlife, cancer research and many other deserving causes the opportunity to benefit from your gift as well
You may be surprised to find that many charity shopping portals even offer you special discounts and coupons, making your purchase price lower than you would have found elsewhere. Whatever you spend does double duty; your friends receive a great wedding gift and a needy organization gets something out of it too. It doesn’t cost one extra dollar but your gift can make a huge impact on the world. Check out each shopping portal to find one that supports a charitable organization of particular interest to you or the bridal couple.
Of course, buying a product is not the only way to accomplish your charitable goals. You can support the wedding couple’s special causes (or your own) by making a donation in their names in lieu of a gift:
· Are they concerned about the one billion people on the planet who live without access to clean water? Make a donation for a water purifier through an organization such as OxfamAmericaUnwrapped.com.
· Provide baby chicks to a needy family through organizations like FoodForThePoor.org. Hungry families will be able to put food on the table and sustain themselves by selling eggs in their communities.
· For a lasting charitable gift, help the Nature Conservancy’s “Plant a Billion Trees” campaign to restore rainforest devastation in the Amazon by planting a tree in the name of the bride and groom.
· Make a donation to support cancer, glaucoma, diabetes, or multiple sclerosis research by exploring top-rated health charities through CharityNavigator.org.