Ganymeder

Do you or someone you know have a birthday coming up? Christmas or other holiday giving thinning your checkbook? Can’t afford to give as much to charity as much as you’d like? Why not plant two seeds in the same pot, and make your purchases through an online charity?

It can work two ways.

If you have a birthday or something coming up where people will be shopping for you, why not ask for a charitable contribution to be made in your name? Just tell them your favorite charity, give them the website or other relevant info, and enjoy a gift that keeps on giving – not just to you but to the world at large. If your prospective giver really wants to give you something to unwrap, many charities have online stores where they sell activism materials, clothing, etc. You can increase your impact by asking for activism apparel to wear or materials for distribution (pamphlets, literature to donate to libraries, etc.).

If you are familiar with Free Charity donation sites, you already know that they are funded by sponsors. By clicking to donate this way (at no cost to yourself), you are taken to a “Thank you” page displaying ads from the charity’s sponsors. Why not increase the impact by making purchases from those same sponsors? Many items can be purchased online this way. Save yourself a trip to the mall when buying a piece of jewelry for your favorite Aunt Berty – you’ll save gas and help a worthy cause in the bargain.

Free Donation sites

Care2.com - A hub of online charitable giving for multiple environmental, animal, and humanitarian causes. Their sponsors’ ads are displayed on their “Thank you” pages.
The Literacy Site – The name says it all. After clicking to donate books, the “Thank you” page displays ads and links from their sponsors. You can also shop directly from their online store and purchase from startling collection of books, jewelry, artisan items, toys and even birdhouses.

Online charitable stores:

Free the Slaves: Abolitionist organization that works to raise awareness about Modern Day Slavery (aka Human Trafficking). Their online store features products made by freed slaves such as jewelry, rosaries, handmade paper products, bags, purses, and even a Fair Trade Soccer ball. Books and films about slavery are also available.

Farm Sanctuary – Their online store features apparel, pamphlets, books, videos, totebags, and even some stuffed animals.

These are just a few of many online options for making your charitable giving go farther. When you get more bang for your charitable buck, you aren’t the only one getting a better deal.

How do you save children, fight breast cancer, feed an ape, and help children learn to read in less time than it probably takes you to finish your morning cup of coffee or tea? There is a very simple way. Donate. With a click, you can donate for free every day. There are a lot of charities out there that get funding this way, and the only cost to you is a few minutes of your time.

It should be noted that most Free Donation sites are sponsor driven and limit the amount of clicks per page (or button) to once daily. The exception in the below list is the Free Rice site which allows multiple clicks (because it’s a game). Also, Good Search allows multiple searches because it is a search engine.

Care2.com - This is a social networking site for the socially conscious. Just click on their “free click to donate” link which takes you to tabs for each of 10 charitable giving sites. Just “hit” the button, it will take you to a “thank you” page that displays ads from sponsors. Then go on to the next tab. It takes only a few minutes to work your way through them all. *

In addition to the tabbed charities, there is also a Daily Action site that highlights a particular action for the day. You can also join the Care2 community for free which entitles you to a free webpage, email, messages, and participation in groups.

If you like to blog about issues, you can “share” your Care2 blog entries with others in the Care2 Community by posting to a group. It’s an easy way to expose your blog posts to a wider audience. Just be sure that the posting is relevant to the group (a poem about AR to the poetry group, for example).

The Ecology Fund – It’s just what it sounds like – a charity site focused on environmental issues. This one has clickable buttons (for several environmental causes) located on the same page. It should only take a minute or so to donate at this site.

The Literacy Site – (from their site) The Literacy Site is dedicated to funding free books for children. (…) To date, more than 87 million visitors have helped provide more than 1.6 million books to children who need them the most. Another free donation site.

FreeRice.com – This may seem out of place, but how’s your vocabulary? This free click charity raises money with word quizzes! For each correct answer, a portion of rice is donated to the UN World Food Program. For each wrong answer, you simply have to try again til you get another correct answer. But be warned…. this game is addicting!

Good Search – This search engine site works very simply. Just type in the charity you’d like to benefit from your search (I donate either to Farm Sanctuary or Free the Slaves) under the question “Who do you Good Search for?” Then do your normal search. Please only use this engine for genuine searches. If people use the site fraudulently, the charity will be delisted and no longer benefit.

*I should note that at the Care2 free donation site, I click on almost all the charity buttons. I do not click on the donation button for HSUS (the “Pets” tab). I don’t support AR organizations that kill the animals whose interests they are supposed to represent.

on the right side of the page directly underneath “Recent Books from my library.”

I finally figured out (or stumbled upon the solution) how to add free charity links to my sidebar instead of just as a blog entry. Please click on these sites daily. They are all worthy causes, and it won’t cost you anything but a moment of your time.

Just a note for anyone who might be unfamiliar with the concept of free charity sites, these sites get money from sponsors based on the amounts of clicks they get daily. Once you click on the donation button, it takes you to a “Thank you” page where you will see advertisements from their sponsors. So the sponsors are in effect paying for selective advertising, you’re donating to a worthy cause for free, and the charity benefits. Please take the time to click daily. Most of the sites only allow one click per person per day, with the exception of Free Rice. If you forget things easily (like me) you can even make one of the sites your startup page. Thank you.

EDIT: Update Feb. 5, 2008.

I have also added some additional links to the left side of the page above the blogroll. These links might be of interest to aspiring writers, since I am preparing for NanoEdmo next month. I have joined the Nanoedmo.net site, but right now I’m having difficulty logging into their system. Hopefully this will be resolved soon so I can post about Nanoedmo (National Novel Editing Month) in preparation for March. In the meantime, I will be content with adding the links for any aspiring writers and/or editors that may be reading this.

Also sometime in the not too distant future, hubby may be adding Forums to this site for me.  I was thinking of starting with the categories I already have and then adding subcategories if the need arises.  I don’t really foresee anyone other than my family wanting to use this feature, but anyone who is interested will be welcome!  It’ll be great to be able to discuss issues, current events, and books.

Free charity sites for those who want to donate to good causes but might lack funds. With just a few clicks you can donate to charity for free. Most of these sites work off the principal of sponsorship. When you click on the charity’s donate button, it takes you to a “thank you” page where you view the sponsor’s advertisement. The sponsor will donate a small amount based on the number of people who see the add – who click on the “donate” link. Most sites only allow 1 click per day, and each click adds up. So do a good deed and click daily! www.care2.com

“Click to donate” button on the top right corner of the Care2 page will bring you to multiple free charity buttons. Just go on and click on the donate button for each charity and then move on to the next charity’s tab. When you reach their page click to donate again. This shouldn’t take more than a minute or so and allows you to donate to multiple charities daily.

http://www.freerice.com

This site donates a small amount of rice through the United Nations to help end world hunger. It’s also sort of fun. You are quizzed on your vocabulary, and each correct answer increases the amount of rice donated.

http://solvepoverty.com

The clicks on this site help pay for community development through jobs and education in poor communities.

http://www.ecologyfund.com

This is another multiple click site where you can donate to several green causes for free.

http://www.tree4life.com

Click daily to plant trees in deforested areas of Brazil.

http://www.matercare.org

Click the Lifesaver icon on the top right corner of the page. MaterCare International (MCI) is an association of Catholic Obstetricians and Gynaecologists dedicated to helping mothers, expectant mothers and their children. Each click helps pay for surgery to repair a mother’s obstetric fistula.

www.TheLiteracySite.com The Literacy Site was founded to help promote literacy among children from low-income families nationwide. Partnering with First Book and Room to Read, the site makes books available to children around the world, giving many children their very first book. With the generous support of sponsors, each click provides 1% of a book. This site helps foster a love of reading.