The holiday spirit is often criticized for becoming too commercialized. What’s wrong with commercialism? Cynics (like me) might say that giving feels more like a duty than a thoughtful gesture. This year try to not be like me and put the meaning back into giving by exploring different ways to donate money to charitable causes. Here are a few sites that can give you some innovative ways to be philanthropic this year.

DonorsChoose.org connects classrooms in need with individuals who want to help. It aims to improve public education by engaging citizens in an online marketplace where teachers describe what they need, and benefactors can fund specific student projects that they are interested in. The projects range from buying pencils to funding an entire field trip. DonorsChoose.org was started by teachers at a Bronx public high school in the Spring of 2000. They saw how profoundly the scarcity of classroom materials was affecting the students’ education and sensed an untapped resource in people who were frustrated with their lack of influence over the use of their charitable donations.

A really different way you can help children is through Laptop.org, which was started in 2002 by MIT Professor Nicholas Negroponte, when he experienced first-hand how connected laptops transformed the lives of children and their families in a remote Cambodian village. The big picture is that if every child in the world had access to a computer, a great amount of dormant potential would be unleashed. This large-scale idea led to the foundation of One Laptop per Child and the creation of the XO laptop. Its mission is to provide a means of learning, self-expression, and exploration to the nearly two billion children of the developing world with little to no access to education. Every $200 you contribute is equal to one laptop. They provide opportunities to give individual laptops, or to contribute as a group. Right now through December 31, 2007 they are offering a “Give One, Get One” program, where you will be compensated with a laptop, for every laptop you donate.

Probably one of the most global ways you can be charitable this holiday season is through Kiva.org, which lets you connect and loan money to unique small businesses in the developing world. When you choose a business on their site, you are essentially signing up to “sponsor a business”. This contribution will help the world’s working poor make strides towards economic independence. During the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates from the business you’ve sponsored. You eventually get your loan money back, which you may withdraw, or re-loan to another business.

Of course, you can always donate to a foundation that supports a cause that affects you personally, like for me that’s Shoe Shoppers Anonymous, but you might have some cause that is more pressing.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 17th, 2007 at 8:05 pm and is filed under I'd Love To Be a Better Person... Sitting Down. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.