There’s still time to pick up some holiday gifts that also help social enterprises. If there’s a restaurant or coffee shop in your town that’s a social enterprise (and the odds are there’s more than one), give them a call to see if you can purchase a gift certificate. Many of them will let you do that over the phone, saving you an extra trip during this busy time of the year. Or stop by your nearby nonprofit thrift store and pick up something for yourself or someone else. It’s not regifting if it’s for a good cause!
Or you can go online to find some great social enterprises to support during this holiday season, not by a donation but by a purchase. Here are a few that I can think of at the moment, but the possibilities are endless, even if the timeline is not. Well, and of course, you can always give gifts after the holidays — your friends/family will still appreciate them, as of course the social enterprise will as well.
First, check out the Social Edge Gift Guide for Social Entrepreneurs, which offers several suitable items from around the world. Another great example is Relief International, where you can make a gift of $35 to help a women start her own business to grow her own food (in Darfur, for example), AND as a holiday gift, they will send you or your loved one a unique “Relief Beads” bracelet, hand-crafted by women in Africa. But the deadline is today if you want to receive that bracelet by December 24!
And then, finally, there’s my own favorite, here in Denver, the Women’s Bean Project, which sells both food and jewelry to help women break the cycle of poverty and unemployment. They are offering free shipment for any orders tomorrow, December 17, so that would be good deal not to miss.
Happy Holidays!