Charitable Donations for Christmas Help Others
Donate to a Charity for a Unique Christmas Gift
Oct 22, 2009
Many people donate to charity on a regular basis but perhaps would not think of charitable gift giving as a possible Christmas present idea. The emergence of non-profit organizations that specialize in lending money to poor entrepreneurs in developing countries has now made it easy for donors to give gifts on behalf of others or allow recipients to choose a worthy cause themselves
This article profiles two non-profit organizations, Kiva and GlobalGiving, offering hundreds of projects worthy of a charitable donation and a fast way to channel money to transparent locally-run projects that would normally never be funded.
Charitable Gift Giving via Micro Finance Loans
Micro financing gives poor people and institutions access to affordable loans and other financial services they would otherwise have to obtain informally at a high cost. Ordinary people can now help others in need by gifting a micro loan to a suitable cause; most loans are paid off relatively quickly, and, while the giver can then take the money back, in practice, most donations are put towards another project.
Kiva has a vision “to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty” and has been changing the lives of thousands of people since 2005. Charitable donations from as little as $25 can be made as loans to:
- Build a washroom – for an old lady in Mexico that will be repaid from her pension.
- Educate a Ugandan fisherman’s children – by expanding a group fishing business.
- Buy a cart for a Cambodian food producer - to transport food to market and improve his family’s standard of living.
GlobalGiving, established in 1997, seeks to “unleash the potential of people around the world to make positive change happen.” Donors can search for projects by country or theme and can choose from projects such as:
- Vaccinate 5 village children in Mali – cost is just $10 or give $820 to vaccinate the whole village of 800 people!
- Buy a mosquito net – just $10 buys 2 nets to protect a child from Malaria.
- Educate an Indian child - $40 pays for an entire year at school.
- Daily meals for children - $75 provides 50 children in Burkina Faso with a daily meal.
Micro Finance Christmas Gifts
Both the above non profit organizations work with micro finance partners who ensure that loans are made to people who can afford to repay them. Gifts can be purchased in the form of vouchers or gift cards sent either by e-mail or snail-mail. Recipients simply need to open an account and redeem their gift certificate or voucher to choose the cause they wish to support.
Donate to a Charity for a Unique Christmas Gift
Help others this Christmas by making a charitable donation to a poor entrepreneur via a micro finance loan; send the Christmas gift certificate to a friend or family member and empower them to change someone else’s life for the better.
Related Articles
Alternative ways to give charitable gifts can be found in Give a Charitable Gift at Christmas and ways to make donations at a corporate level can be found in Corporate Christmas Gift Ideas.
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