You might wonder, when you read my “gifts that give back” section, if I’m opposed to just simply giving directly to a cause. I’m not! We all have our own individual “favorite” causes, though, and it’s not hard to figure out that you can give money to them. It’s a little trickier, sometimes, to figure out how you can give back or make a difference, just through what you’re already doing (or with tweaks to what you’re already doing) – like giving holiday gifts.

Option 1: Pay Attention to Where You Shop

One way you can do that is by shopping Fair Trade. If you’re in the US, even shopping American-made can make a difference – it supports the growth of the American job market. This also, in turn, decreases the amount of overseas outsourcing that takes place. I suspect that has a fair trade-like impact, as the US has pretty good labor laws and outsourcing often happens because companies can get cheap labor elsewhere – fair or otherwise, they don’t generally care.

Option 2: Buy Things from Organizations You Care About

Many nonprofit organizations, of various kinds, sell products. These product sales are essential for raising the revenue the organizations need to function! My husband works for a nonprofit, and I promise you, it takes money to accomplish what they’re working to accomplish. We like to eat 😉 so his salary (and the others’ ) is important. They have general overhead operating expenses like rent, telephone and internet service, and electricity. And the actual work they are doing costs money – for printing, advertising, etc. to get the word out as necessary. Plain old donations help fund this, but so do purchases of the things they sell. That means you can kill two birds with one stone – buy a product that represents something important to you (or a loved one) and support the cause financially at the same time!

My husband’s organization is not alone in this. Check with your favorite organization and see if they have products you can purchase. Can you buy multiples to use as gifts?

Option 3: Donate to Causes that Give You Small Physical Tokens

Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry program is a great example. You can give a donation to No Kid Hungry, and receive cards/gift tags in return. The cards are a small token of your gift, but can be affixed to all of your gifts for the year – or send as Christmas cards, etc. – so that even as you are sending cards or wrapping gifts, you are helping the cause. (No Kid Hungry helps feed children right here in the US.) This year’s cards look like this (two options):

 
Do you have any other great ways to give while you give?

Back to the 2012 gift guide