The Giving Season
By ALISON GWINN
Want to share your time, talent or treasure, but don’t know where to start? Consider these 35 ways to put veterans, seniors, kids, the hungry and Mother Nature on your holiday list.
We are a nation of givers: Americans donated a staggering $335 billion to charities in 2013, and the vast majority of that—87 percent—came from individuals, says Patrick Rooney of the University of Indiana’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, which works with the Giving USA Foundation on its Annual Report on Philanthropy. Two out of three Americans report giving to charity each year, and charitable giving has grown 3 to 5 percent a year since 2010. Keep the giving going this season with these worthy ideas—from offering frequent flier miles to injured veterans and feeding the elderly, to providing blankets and pajamas to homeless children so they can get a warm night’s sleep.
Save stories: Volunteer to tape- or video-record interviews with veterans from World War I up to the present conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq through the Library of Congress-sponsored Veterans History Project (loc.gov/vets). (iStock)
Veterans
Send a care package. A $15 donation will pay for one care package from Operation Gratitude (operationgratitude.com), which has sent more than 1 million to military personnel worldwide since its founding in 2003.
Fund a flight. Give frequent flier miles to wounded service members who need them to fly to medical centers for treatment (or to enable family visits) through the Fisher House Foundation’s Hero Miles Program (fisherhouse.org). Contribute counseling. Mental health professionals can donate services to returning veterans and their families through Give An Hour (giveanhour.org).
Raise arms against cancer. Women in the military are up to 40 percent more likely to get breast cancer than civilian women their same ages. Visit vetsfightingbreastcancer.com to fund screenings and treatment. Send your thanks. Write letters to servicemen and servicewomen who rarely get mail from home through Operation Write Home. (operationwritehome.org)
Get cookin’. This year, the hungerorganization FEED teamed withdesign store West Elm and celebrityboosters such as Anne Hathaway(with husband and jewelry designerAdam Shulman) to offer a variety ofmade-in-America holiday gifts, fromaprons ($29) and cutting boards($49) to salad servers ($49), to help feed the hungry. (feedprojects.com)(FEED)
Hunger
Bake it forward. Help the one-in-five children in America who struggle with hunger by hosting a bake sale with proceeds going to Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry campaign (nokidhungry.org) or lead healthy grocery store tours or cooking classes through the organization’s Cooking Matters (cookingmatters.org) program.
Help a man to fish. Give a holiday gift in a loved one’s name to Action Against Hunger, (actionagainsthunger.org), which helps to feed more than 7 million people every year. Choose from a variety of options, from $49 for a fishing kit to $100 for a dairy goat.
Go veggie. A contribution to wholesomewave.org provides fresh fruits and vegetables to underserved communities while also supporting small and mid-sized farmers. Dish it out. Visit feedingamerica.org, the largest hunger relief organization in the country, to find a local food bank that needs added manpower over the holidays.
Click away. The site greatergood.com facilitates donations to hunger programs such as Mercy Corps, the Food Recovery Network and other agencies.
Keep kids in school. Sign up to volunteer with the anti-dropout program Communities in Schools (communitiesinschools.org), which helps vulnerable students in 26 states and the District of Columbia.
Children
Contribute kicks to kids. Buy a $10 gift card (available at shoesthatfit.org or Nordstrom shoe departments) to assist Shoes That Fit in providing New Balance athletic shoes for kids in need. Promote play. Kids today play outside less than any previous generation. Donate to Ka-BOOM! (kaboom.org), a nonprofit that has built more than 2,300 playgrounds nationwide, to help make sure all children are within walking distance of a playground.
Make bedtime better. A $25 donation to Project Night Night (projectnightnight.org), will fund a tote filled with a blanket, children’s book and stuffed animal for a homeless child. Or, courtesy of pajamaprogram.org, provide a book and warm pjs to kids in need.
Become a “blanketeer.” Make a quilt or help collect and distribute blankets to children in hospitals, shelters or social service agencies nationwide through Project Linus (projectlinus.org).
Tutor a struggling reader. Give an elementary-school pupil reading below grade level a leg up with twice-a-week, 45-minute tutoring sessions through Reading Partners (readingpartners.org).
Load a trunk. An elephant trunk, that is. Your gift of $30 will provide the 150 to 200 pounds of food an elephant eats daily at Tennessee’s Elephant Sanctuary (elephants.com), the nation’s largest natural habitat for old, sick or needy elephants.
Nature
Get wild. Protect the world’s oceans through Oceana’s Adopt an Animal program: Spend $50 on a stuffed puffin, whale, sea turtle or other sea creatures (oceana.org). Or check out the World Wildlife Fund’s (worldwildlife.org) species adoptions; for $55, you get a stuffed animal, photo, adoption certificate and gift bag.
Plant a tree. The Nature Conservancy’s Plant a Billion Trees program aims to restore forests around the globe, from Brazil to China. Click on plantabillion.org to see a map of the project’s work so far, and to donate. Visit the site americanforests.org to specifically protect forests in the American West.
Recycle for a cause. Do your part for the planet—and help fund worthy efforts—by recycling household items. Fight poverty by donating new and gently used shoes (soles4souls.org). Assist domestic violence victims by passing on old cellphones (shelteralliance.net). Spare the landfill by connecting to local charities accepting used electronics (donationtown.org). Send used baby apparel to clothe needy infants (newbornsinneed.org).
Raise a puppy. Is your child begging for a dog, but you’re not so sure? Get a feel for what it’s like to have a pooch around by volunteering at guidedogs.com as a foster puppy raiser for the blind.
Fund a furry friend. Studies show pets provide both a psychological and physical boost to their owners—so donate to petsfortheelderly.org to help a senior get a dog or a cat. (iStock)
Seniors
Help feed the elderly. One in six Americans over age 60 faces the threat of hunger, and Meals on Wheels is there to help. A total of 2.5 million seniors in all 50 states, many of whom have chronic health conditions, rely on the service. (mowaa.org). Make a one-time donation ($35 provides five meals), or join the Next Meal Club to donate monthly.
Be a fixer-upper. Assist seniors near you with tasks like raking, shoveling or doing minor home repairs through Volunteers of America’s Safety of Seniors Handyman Program (voa.org). Put it in drive. Be a volunteer instructor in AARP’s Smart Driver course (aarp.org), which allows older drivers to brush up on their behind-the-wheel skills.
Teach tech. Are you software-savvy? Sign up to teach older adults computer and technology skills through SeniorNet (seniornet.org).