Tag: causes

Season of Gifts #1: Kiva.org

On By idoliovIn Company Profile3 Comments

Company: Kiva
Products: Gifts, jewelry, home decor, fashion, hand-made gifts, furniture
Cause: Micro-entrepreneurs and artisans

Kiva_Store_Categories

Now that we’re in December and in the home stretch of the gift-giving season, I’ll be profiling merchants that feature unique gifts. First up: Kiva.org.

I mentioned Kiva in my Giving Tuesday blog post, but this post is about their online store. They have gifts for men and women in a variety of categories and feature stories of the artisans that make the items. Purchases benefit artisans who have borrowed money via Kiva and started or expanded their businesses. You can shop by category, region of the world where the items come from, price range, occasions, or interests.

They have gift sets:
 

Furniture and decor:
 

Jewelry
 

Men’s and Women’s Fashion

Until I started doing research for this blog post, I had no idea of the extent of their collection. I’ll be coming back for birthday, wedding, and housewarming gifts all year long.


Continue reading “Season of Gifts #1: Kiva.org” →

Company Profile: Patagonia

On By idoliovIn Climate Change, Company Profile, Environment, Outdoor clothingLeave a comment

Cause: Environment, Climate Change
Company: Patagonia
Products: Outdoor Clothing

By now you may have seen the news reports that Patagonia, the outdoor apparel firm will give away it’s $10MM in profits as a results of this year’s corporate tax cut to causes working to reverse climate change.

But this wasn’t a one-time stunt. Patagonia has been supporting grass-roots efforts on environmental and social initiatives since it was founded. It donates 1% of sales (not profits!) to support environmental organizations. And in 2016, it donated ALL its Black Friday sales to charity.

The ongoing donations, through membership in 1% For the Planet®, fund small environmental grants to hundreds of charities that fight for the environment in their local communities. The results are impressive – the screen shot below is from their websites and highlights their achievements as of the last fiscal year (2016-2017).

PatagoniaResults.PNG

So as you’re doing your holiday shopping, for outdoor clothing, consider shopping at Patagonia to support the environment.

 

 

Giving Tuesday Resources

On By idoliovIn uncategorized1 Comment

#GivingTuesday was started in 2012. The cynic is me says it was started to help us all relieve our collective guild about our over-consumption on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. But whatever the reason, it’s an excellent prompt for all of us to think about what causes we want to support and to actually do it!

With that spirit of action in mind, below are some resources and organizations that have special programs in place for Giving Tuesday. I’ll continue to update this blog post through Tuesday, so check back.

Givingtuesday.org

Local giving: Go here, type in your city or state, you get a list of organizations in your area. There’s a list of advisers and partners to help you make decisions about which organizations to contribute to.

Kiva.org

Microlending: Kiva.org is a global organization that solicits donations and then loans the money to small entrepreneurs to start or expand their businesses. Because the money is paid back, it can be re-lent to others. For Giving Tuesday they’re offering an additional $25 to lend if you buy $50 worth of Kiva cards – which can be used as gifts, ala gift cards.

As a personal note, my husband and I created a fundraiser on Kiva as part of our wedding and we continue to re-lend those funds as they’re paid back. Truly a gift that keeps on giving.

Ed Asner Family Center in Los Angeles

Disabled Rights/Assistance: The Ed Asner Family Center’s mission is to promote self-confidence in differently abled individuals and bring balance and wellness to those individuals and their families. According to this tweet, one lucky person donating $20 or more until 11:59 on Tuesday will receive a signed script from The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

All Classical Portland

Classical Music: All Classical Portland radio station is doing an on-air fundraiser. Anyone who donates between now and Tuesday evening will be entered into a drawing for a stay at The Allison Inn Spa.

AllClassicalPortlandGivingTuesday

Keto Natural Pet Foods

Animal Rescue: On Tuesday, Keto Natural Pet Foods will donate 10% of all sales to Best Friends sanctuary.

BestFriendsGivingTuesdayTweet

Facebook

General: Facebook is, once again, matching donations up to $7 million on Tuesday, as well as waving the processing fees.

Do Good on Black Friday: Smile!

On By idoliovIn uncategorizedLeave a comment

Belated Happy Thanksgiving! I hope your holiday, however you choose to observe, was relaxing (and tasty!) I took Thursday off to cook up a storm with my family and then enjoy the fruits of our labor without too many online distractions.

Now to business: it’s Black Friday, which for many of us means the start of our Christmas gift shopping season. Gifts for others and gifts for ourselves.

Did you know you can do a little good just by shopping at Amazon.com through their “AmazonSmile” program. Simply type “smile.amazon.com” into your browser rather than http://www.amazon.com and for anything you buy, Amazon will donate 0.5% of the price to the non-profit of your choice. For example, my purchases on Amazon over the years have supported my local community orchestra.

Amazon Smile donations

It’s an easy way to support the causes that you care about all year long – not just on Black Friday. You can support a different cause with every purchase. The only downside: it’s only 1/2 of a percent. So for every $100 you spend, Amazon will donate 50 cents. It’s not much as an individual, but if you get all of your members or supporters to use that link, it can add up over time.

Nature forest mountain

Hello World . . . Take Two

On By idoliovIn uncategorizedLeave a comment

Thanks for being here! I originally started Support Your Causes as an e-commerce site. However, I quickly realized that trying to do that as a side project along side a full time job, being a full time mom, and volunteer Treasurer for one of my causes didn’t leave me enough time to devote to it. So I’m relaunching it as a blog.

But why?

You know the feeling when something is important to you, like helping the environment,  helping the victims of a natural disaster, helping rescue animals. Or maybe you want to support a cause that’s more immediate and closer to home like your local community symphony or your kids’ sports team. What if you want to support them but you simply cannot donate any more money? Or any money! What do you do?

Yes, you can and should volunteer when you can. But at the end of the day, your cause is going to need money to be effective at fulfilling its mission. And any organization that works at improving the world . . . animal rescue, ocean clean up group, your kids’ sports team . . . needs money to operate.

So here’s a thought: in addition to donations, what about buying from businesses that support the causes you care about.  Money-making businesses; for-profit businesses; non-profit businesses. Spend your hard-earned money buying products and services that you buy anyway, but spend it with companies that already support the causes you care about.

My plan is to use this blog to highlight companies that are genuinely involved in a good cause and support it in a meaningful way. Hopefully it’ll help you and me decide where to spend our dollars in a way that improves the world.

If you have a company you’d like me to feature here, send me a note (and a link) at
info @ supportyourcauses dot net.

“You can’t change the world alone – you will need some help – and to truly get from your starting point to your destination takes friends, colleagues, the good will of strangers and a strong coxswain to guide them.”   –William H. McRaven