Tiffany’s Unofficial Holiday Shopping Guide 2010

 It’s that time of year….the air is cooling, cookies are baking, and the stores are crammed with Christmas stuff and promoting pre-black Friday sales!

BUT, did you know that on average, Americans spend 450 BILLON DOLLARS on Christmas??? That is ALOT of money!

Where does your part go? To toys that kids don’t play with, or an ugly sweater from aunt Bertha? What if you could change the way you do Christmas? What if the gifts you gave and received helped lift another out of poverty? What if even part of the 450 Billion was turned into 1,178,010,471 Children Sponsored for a year OR 112,500,000 Water Well Systems OR 9,000,000,000,000 Children Dewormed OR 692,307,692 Cows OR many necklaces, scarves or other items made by women rebuilding their lives after being rescued from human trafficking?  How could the world change from JUST America’s response to ONE HOLIDAY?

I encourage you this holiday season to give INTENTIONALLY and with PURPOSE! Give gifts that benefit others, not just the recipient. I know there are many worth while companies out there to shop from, but here are a few that either I highly recommend, or are of unique interest:

Food For the Hungry: Various

Sponsor children, livestock, plants, hygiene items in honor of someone http://www.fh.org/catalog

Send Holiday Cards with benefit http://fh.giving-matters.com

Trade As One: Various

Items bought support women’s businesses to stay out of poverty http://www.tradeasone.com

Azizi Life: Various, Handmade

Sale of items help create a profitable industry for women in Rwanda http://azizilife.com

Nightlight International: Jewelry

Creates business for people who have been impacted by trafficking http://www.nightlightinternational.com

 Toms: Shoes

For each sale of a pair of shoes, Toms donates a pair to someone without shoes http://toms.com

Sseko Designs: Shoes

Each pair of sandals goes to help employee and further educate women in Uganda http://www.ssekodesigns.com

Clothe Your Neighbor As Yourself: Shirts

For each shirt purchased, this organization helps clothe someone in the US http://clotheyourneighborasyourself.com 

Kiva: MicroFinance Loans

Browse profiles, loan small amounts to help aspiring business owners get started http://www.kiva.org

Streetlight PHX: Donate.

Help provide girls rescued from human traffickig in phoenix  http://www.streetlightphx.com

There are many organizations making a positive difference. Hopefully, this will help guide you and get you started in your journey to intentional shopping and gift giving.  And, if money is tight this year there are many other options to make a difference with your actions such as pooling money or have your kids collect coins to donate, serve at a local shelter, collect cans for a local food bank…..

Have fun with this and please feel free to comment with stories or other ideas.

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