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-Keith Pelczarski
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The Season of Giving
We're winding down a nice Christmas here at GoNutty HQ, and I still have giving on the mind. We're past the gifts for friends and family, so now it's time to think about helping others who we don't know. It's also a great time to get some extra tax deductions before year end.
Aw, now I've gone and tainted the altruistic spirit of giving with thoughts of filthy lucre. There is method to my nuttiness, though. You see, I firmly buy into the notion that if you give a man a fish you feed him for a day, but if you teach him to fish, you feed him forever. The same applies if you buy the man a fishing pole. In that spirit, here are a number of organizations that are combating hunger and poverty from economically uplifting approaches.
A great way to help people is by providing microloans to help people establish small businesses. The model for these groups was the work of Muhammad Yunus at the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. Yunus and Grameen were so successful at helping people with microcredit that they were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 (the first time a corporation was ever bestowed the honor). In addition to providing funding, Grameen requires that borrowers follow the 16 decisions of Grameen Bank, to foster community development in addition to individual economic gain. The Grameen Foundation (a separate entity, though Yunus serves on the board) has taken the idea worldwide.
Seeking to follow in the footsteps of Yunus and Grameen are Microplace and Kiva. Both offer the option to direct your investment to a specific entrepreneur, putting a face and a story on the loan.
Another organization that seeks to make lasting change from small investments is Heifer International. Instead of lending money, though, Heifer gives people livestock ranging from bees to chickens to goats to pigs to water buffalo to, well, heifers.
Share Our Strength is dedicated to fighting hunger and poverty both here in the U.S. and abroad. They do so in a number of ways, but the most interesting to me is Operation Frontline, which teaches families how to prepare healthy, low-cost meals and how to save and spend wisely to get the most for their money.
Habitat for Humanity helps people by offering safe, affordable housing. The families who get the housing pay down payments and mortgages, and also put in their own sweat equity in the construction of the homes. In addition to monetary donations, Habitat receives a lot of help from people volunteering to help with construction.
The Motley Fool's Foolanthropy efforts have been raising money for worthy charities for years. This year they announced that they will be concentrating on helping organizations working to increase financial literacy (including the aforementioned Operation Frontline at Share Our Strength).
If you're looking to get someone else involved in giving, JustGive.org is a site where you can give charity gift certificates and the recipient gets to choose from a wide variety of non-profit causes to which they can donate.
A fun, easy way to help fight hunger can be found at FreeRice. All you do is answer vocabulary questions, and for each one you get right they donate 20 grains of rice through the U.N. It's funded by banner advertising served below the quiz.
Finally, if you want to give yourself the present of less junk mail and help the environment at the same time, sign up for Catalog Choice and reduce the amount of unsolicited stuff that ends up in your mailbox. Even small changes can make a difference, right?
:: Keith 18:58 [link] :: ::