The Gift of Giving

The debate on when to donate to charity happens to so many of us. All year long we say we want to give back to our community or support a cause we believe in but don’t because there are so many other things we need that money for. Then Christmas rolls around and we have to buy gifts for friends and family while trying not to break bank. Well why not kill two birds with one stone?

The gift of giving is becoming a huge online trend along with online donations, which have greatly increased in the past few years. Now there are many website that offer online platforms that focus on different kinds of giving - i.e. teachers and classrooms, small business start-ups in different countries, artists trying to get started, all varieties of charities or individual causes.  All you have to do is buy a gift card on a giving website and the person you gift it to can then make a contribution to any cause they want. It’s a win-win situation because you want to get gifts for family and friends, but also want your money to benefit good causes.

If you’re not convinced, here are a few things worth thinking about. Shopping during the holiday’s means dealing with huge crowds, traffic and sold-out items because it’s the busiest time of the year. Wouldn’t you rather order all of your gifts from home, on the Internet, in one transaction? You won’t have to worry about websites running out of gift card either. The other thing about Re-giving is that you don’t have to spend a lot of money. More online donations are made each year and the average donation amount is becoming smaller. The idea of Micro donations is that everyone can make a difference and every little bit helps. You can buy everyone a gift that you need to with the same small amount. Whether you’re giving to your friends, family, co-workers or teachers, they will be pleased and excited to receive any size gift that they can turn around and give to something they support.

This Gift idea was one of my favorite before it was one of Oprah’s “favorite things”. If you would like to receive something like this, chances are your friends would like it too. Choosing this gift route means you can actually relax and enjoy the holidays like we’re supposed to instead of worrying about presents for 12 different people.