Today I learned that you can go here and make online charitable contributions to a whole bunch of charities. Good information to have.

I thought I already wrote a post about this, but I can't find it, so perhaps it was in my head. Anyway, aside from the 12 New Year's resolutions I posted the other day, I also have one more. This one was actually made way back in September, after Katrina hit, but it's one I plan to keep for 2006.

I resolved at that time to give a set amount of money each month to charity. After giving it some thought, I decided that the way I'd do this was to pick one or two or three charities each month and give to those. In order to spread the word, I started posting buttons to link to the charities I'd chosen over there -->, changing them when I gave to something new (ideally each month, but the Katrina Relief Fund was up for several months, for obvious reasons). So that's what those are there for. Thanks to the reader who asked!

This month's highlighted organizations are the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) and the National Women's Law Center. Both are great organizations and I encourage you to check them out.

The month has changed already! For my February giving choices, I went local. The Blanton Art Musuem is UT's art museum--it's been undergoing a big remodel and will be re-opening in April, which I'm very excited about. Safe Place is a fantastic organization that helps women and children get out of abusive situations. Both are definitely worth your time and dollars, so check them out.

The other day, Mark and I caught a show on Animal Planet called "Rocket Dogs." Rocket Dog Rescue is a dog rescue in San Francisco, run by an amazing women named Pali Boucher. The show did not just talk about the rescue, but about Pali's life and how she came to be doing what she's doing. I have rarely admired anyone more. Born a ward of the state with a drug addicted mother who died when she was 10, Pali had a rough, rough childhood and early adulthood. A number of years back, she was homeless and drug addicted. Then she met a dog named Leadbelly (looked to be a hound/Rott mix of some time) and wanted to be able to take care of him so badly that she went into rehab and got clean.

Due to some very convincing and cute canvassers coming by last night, I've added another reputable cause to my giving list.

Among other things, TCE convinced Michael Dell to take back old computers and recycle them responsibly. Excellent!

Since the month has changed already, it's time to choose new charities to highlight on WINOW. This month, I've chosen two charities. The first, Breast Cancer Research Foundation, is in honor of my friend Suzanne, who is currently fighting for her life against breast cancer. The second is Rocket Dog Rescue, the organization run by my new personal hero Pali Boucher, about whom I wrote an entry last month.

Please check out these orgs and give if you can. Happy March!

Next month, I am participating in a benefit walk for Safe Place, a fantastic local women's shelter/organization combating domestic and sexual violence. So, I'm soliciting contributions to sponsor my walk. My current goal is to collect $300 for Safe Place. If you think you might want to contribute, please go to my walk web page.

Thanks in advance!

One day early, but oh well. My choices for April Giving are:

1. The Catholic Charities Justice for Immigrants project. This may seem an odd choice for me, and it is, but there is reasoning behind it. My great-grandmother, an Italian immigrant and a devout Catholic, died last week. This donation is in her honor. May she rest in peace.

2. Lilith: A Fund for Reproductive Equity, a local organization providing funding for low-income women to get abortions. From their website: "Lilith: A Fund for Reproductive Equity believes that the right to choose an abortion is meaningless without access to abortion services. Restrictions on abortion access and funding are discriminatory because they especially burden low-income women. We oppose all efforts to restrict abortion rights and are committed to fighting for access to abortion for all women. We believe that it is the responsibility of government to provide public funding for abortions, but that we must act now to support women who want abortions but cannot afford them." I'm behind that.

As always, please check them out (butttons at right), and give if you feel moved to do so. Happy April!

I'm a little bit behind, but my choices for May giving are on the right. I choose Covered the Uninsured Week as something to highlight, even if there isn't necessarily anywhere specific to donate, because it's this week, and getting health care to people who don't have it in this country is one of my top priorities. I chose Amnesty International because they sent me some frighteningly dire mail a few weeks back and I put them on the top of my pile of future choices. Timely, I guess. Anyway, those are my picks for this month.

I just realized I'd been remiss in changing my May "Give" selection for June, and here it is the 9th already. For June, Mark and I gave to two local dog rescues, Blue Dog Rescue, and Lucky Mutts Rescue, both linked at left. In return, they kindly listed Bridget, our foster dog, on their referrals page. And now I just wait for the phone calls and emails about her to come pouring in...:)

Anyway, support your local dog rescue this month, if you have the inclination. They're doing good work, and they could use your help.

July's giving is going to Spindletop APBT/AST Refuge. I came home to yet another sad, sad story about pit bulls. Rest in peace, Fred.

Besides being the month of my birth, August is also National Immunization Awareness Month. In that spirit, my choice for August giving is Doctors without Borders. Doctors without Borders is a great organization that provides emergency and basic medical care, including immunizations, to those in need worldwide, including and especially in some of the world's saddest and most frightening places. They do great work and are worth supporting.

One of my favorite blog-dogs, Mrs. Kennedy's gorgeous bulldog Katie, had to be put down this week due to cancer. In her name, September giving goes to the National Canine Cancer Foundation, to support research into cancer in dogs.

In 1987, October was declared "National Domestic Violence Awareness Month". In honor of this month of recognition, I'm directing October's giving towards a local domestic and sexual violence shelter and organization, SafePlace. Please consider giving to your own local DV shelter this month, or to one of the many national level organizations combatting domestic violence.

November is National Adoption Month. In that spirit, and in honor of my best kid friend, H., who is soon moving very far away and whom I will miss more than I can say, I've decided to send my November giving to Half the Sky Foundation. Half the Sky's mission is as follows:

Half the Sky was created by adoptive parents of orphaned Chinese children. Our purpose is to enrich the lives and enhance the prospects for the babies and children in China who still wait to be adopted, and for those who will spend their childhoods in orphanages. We establish early childhood education, personalized learning and infant nurture programs in Chinese welfare institutions to provide the children stimulation, individual attention, and an active learning environment.

A little bit of money can make a huge difference in the lives of the kids in China Half the Sky serves. For example, $50 pays for a month of nanny services, and $100 buys a month of art supplies for a preschool. Please consider honoring the kids in your life--adopted or not--with a donation to Half the Sky or some other adoption organization this month.

I don't know if I've made this clear before now, but I'm sure it's not a surprise: I'm against the war in Iraq. I marched against it before it started (and just after), I've written countless letters against it, I'm against it. I think it's a bad idea. I don't think we ever should have invaded. I think it's bad, bad, bad.

That being said, I have a little tradition I started for myself several Thanksgivings ago that I thought I'd share. The first year, I took up a collection at my workplace to do it, since then I've been doing it on a smaller scale on my own. I go over to anysoldier.com and pick out a couple of wish lists, head over to Target to shop, and send a couple of care packages to folks serving abroad. Particularly to women serving abroad.

So why, since I am against the war, do I do that?

Well, to begin with, I don't think that the young men and women who are suffering on the ground have much say in the policy that put them there. Less say than I have in it, probably, due to their lower age and lower socioeconomics. It's not their fault they are there.

Secondly, I empathize with them, for a kind of strange reason. When I was the age some of them are, I was in my first year of college, and I was so, so homesick. I was in a safe, nice place, which I had chosen, which was only a couple hundred miles from home, and I was miserable. And I seriously cannot comprehend how much worse that it would have been to been in a dangerous situation, with few amenities, in a foreign country, where you had the risk of having to kill or be killed. It's beyond my capacity for creative thought. So I feel personally responsible for doing a little something to try to alleviate the homesickness these kids (and they are kids) must feel. For me, nothing helped more than a package from home, and I think it must be the same for them. And I feel especially for the women, whose lists so often ask for things like deodorant and tampons, as they are in a place that has to be alienating to them on a whole other level (both in terms of the military and in terms of the country).

Finally, I believe in being the change you want to see in the world. The change I want to see is for our government not to ever feel that it's the right thing to do to send kids to kill and die a million miles away for spurious reasons. But that's not something I have much capacity to change right now. What I do have the capacity to change, albeit in a very small way, is how horrible it is for those kids. And I want to do that.

Be forewarned that the website is sort of sickeningly ra-ra USA and doesn't mesh with many (if any) of the political views you or I may hold. To me, that doesn't matter. I can look past that, for a minute, and try to just be kind. I think that maybe if more people could try to do that, we wouldn't be in this mess.

Also, if you decide to send a soldier a care package this Thanksgiving (or some other time), please include a letter. From what I've read/heard, personal letters are reallly appreciated.

December already!

And, of course, that means that I need to put up my choice for December giving. It's really a no-brainer this time of year--Christmas gifts for those who might do without otherwise. In my particular case, I will be making some gift donations to the University of Texas' Orange Santa program, which collects donations into a "store," which is then open for parents to "shop" for presents for their kids. Obviously, if you aren't local, it doesn't make sense for you to give to this particular program, but there is something like this (a giving tree, a Toys for Tots donation barrel, something) in every town, I think, and I highly encourage you to include a donation to one of these programs in your Christmas shopping list.

For my first-of-the-year giving, I'm renewing my memberships in a few worthwhile organizations for 2007. These organizations are:

American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA)
Feminist Majority Foundation
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
Amnesty International USA
KUT (Austin's public radio station)

These are organizations that I believe are worth my membership every year, at least in our current climate. I encourage you to take a bit of time this January and consider whether you have similar organizations, and pledge your support to them--at whatever level--for 2007. You don't have to make a big donation to become a member, and increasing membership is as important as money for some of these groups, as they can bring down more funds of other types when their membership numbers go up, among other things. It's a good thing to do.Plus they send you stickers. And address labels. And this year the ASPCA send me really cool wrapping paper. So there's that...

You probably know that February is Black History Month. Did you know that it's also Library Lovers' Month? In acknowledgment of both of these things, my February dollars are going to my local public library and to the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit. If you have the notion, think about where these to month-long observations would lead you to give your time or money or resources, then proceed accordingly. If you are anything like me, you'll be glad you did.

Edited on 2/2/07: Mark and his mom went to visit the Austin Zoo yesterday, and on his request, I am adding them to this month's giving. Like some other zoos (and unlike others), the Austin Zoo is based on providing a safe and happy home for animals rescued from abusive and inappropriate situations, including private ownership and circuses. It's as much sanctuary as zoo. I can definitely support that.

For March, my donation dollars are going to Austin Parks Foundation. We take our boys to a city dog park nearly every weekend, so the least I can do is show my support by becoming a member of the park foundation. It's only good sense.

How are the parks where you are? Do you use them? Support them?

Due to my being a bit of a scheduling numbskull and double-booking myself for April 14, I am not going to be able to take part in this year's SafePlace Walk. However, I am still a huge admirer of SafePlace itself and of the walk, so that's where my April donation dollars are going.

I've delinquent in my monthly giving post, sorry! I kept meaning to put it up and forgetting. And I know you were waiting with baited breath, too...

For May, in honor of the real Labor Day, May 1, I'm highlighting a great organization called Sweatshop Watch. Sweatshop Watch grew up around California's garment industry and has since gone international. They're a great group who agitate for workers rights and work towards awareness of lousy labor practices. They also provide a fantastic resource in their Shop with a Conscience Shopping Guide. If you have extra pennies lying around this month, they definitely are worth supporting.

The banner under their logo there on the right of the page is for my union, the Texas State Employees Union (CWA Local 6186 AFL-CIO). They're currently fighting the good fight in the state legislature, trying to get a reasonable raise, some health care reform, and some other things for all of us state workers. Anybody who knows anything about this state knows that is a hard battle to fight, so I wanted to give them a shout-out (and a little bit of cash) this month as well.

A slight bit early due to my upcoming vacation and Internet-hiatus, here is June's highlighted charity: The Special Olympics. I'm sure you already know what they do, but I will add that their summer games are coming up in October in Shanghai, China, so that's pretty cool. As I mentioned earlier, picking this month's charity was the prize for my Beanie Baby contest, so thanks to Shara!

Oh, and another financial thing I need to do in order to get myself back into a healthy place is to resume my monthly giving campaign on the blog. I suspended it several months ago, and I can't even quite remember why now, and I have been resenting myself for it ever since. So, for the month of October, I'm giving to Basic Rights Oregon. Basic Rights Oregon is a group dedicated to "ending discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in Oregon," and right now they are fighting for a comprehensive domestic partnership law in Oregon.

That's them on the right, if your giving dollars are still burning a hole in your pocket this month.

The organization I am giving to in November is one that is very near and dear to my heart, and has been since Mark made me a member as a birthday present several years ago: The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. I hope to someday be able to afford to give at the $5,000 level, because the you get an invitation to go visit!

The mission of the Elephant Sanctuary is:

To provide a haven for old, sick or needy elephants in a setting of green pastures, old-growth forests, spring-fed ponds and a heated barn for cold winter nights.

To provide education about the crisis facing these social, sensitive, passionately intense, playful, complex, exceedingly intelligent and endangered creatures.

For the most part, the elephants who live there are former circus and zoo elephants, and many of them have been treated quite badly in captivity. The sanctuary seeks to let them live as peaceably and naturally as possible for the remainder of their lives. I love elephants, and hate how they are treated around the world, and I am 100% in support of the sanctuary's mission. So today I am renewing my newly-expired membership and I encourage anybody out there who is interested to consider becoming a member.

Someone inquired as to what my criteria are for the organizations to which I give and highlight each month. I answered truthfully--I have none. Got me thinking, though--where exactly is my money going? What's the breakdown? Does it reflect my values? So I thought I'd tally up my former giving orgs and see where it all falls out.

The name that shows up on my blog most often is SafePlace, a local organization working to eradicate domestic and sexual violence. I have given to them four times in the past two years. SafePlace is followed in popularity by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) and Amnesty International, each to whom I have given twice. After that, there are a bunch of one-time donation organizations. These include:

Dog organizations
Rocket Dog Rescue
Blue Dog Rescue
Lucky Mutts Rescue
Spindletop APBT/AST Refuge
The National Canine Cancer Foundation

Other animal organizations
Austin Zoo
The Elephant Sanctuary

Feminist/women's organizations
National Women's Law Center
Lilith: A Fund for Reproductive Equity
Feminist Majority Foundation

Health organizations
Breast Cancer Research Foundation
Covered the Uninsured Week
Doctors without Borders

Arts/culture organizations
Blanton Art Museum
KUT
Austin Public Library
Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History

Environmental organizations
Texas Campaign for the Environment
Austin Parks Foundation

Labor organizations
Sweatshop Watch
Texas State Employees Union

Human service organizations
Katrina Relief Fund
Catholic Charities Justice for Immigrants
Half the Sky Foundation
Any Soldier
Orange Santa

Misc
The Special Olympics
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
Basic Rights Oregon

A total of 32 different organizations, 12 of them local, 16 national, and 4 local to somewhere else. As I expected, animal organizations are overrepresented. Labor organizations are really underrepresented, as are feminist organizations, and that is something I hope to fix in the next year. I like and hope to keep my fairly local focus. All in all, I'm pleased.

On my travels through the Internets today, I came upon something I didn't know about: the website for the I Live Here, I Give Here campaign. Basically, the deal is that Austin is ranked 48th of the 50 largest cities in the country when it comes to charitable giving (though, interestingly third in volunteerism), and this campaign is striving to increase charitable giving by Austin residents by educating them about community needs and the organizations that are in place to meet those needs.

The goal of the campaign is to get Austin residents donating 3% of their incomes, while working towards 5%. Giving that church-based tithing is generally 10%, that seems doable. Right now, the average American household gives 3.2% of its (post-tax, I think) income to charity.

I think the campaign has the right idea--people would give more if they knew how and where their money could be best used. As for myself, their goals and the use of their handy giving calculator (under "How do you compare?") have once again opened my eyes to how much more I should be doing. I'm giving less than 2% of my take-home right now. Given my fairly low financial responsibilities (no kids), I ought to be doing better. And I am hoping this campaign will help me to find ways to do that. I'll definitely be re-checking their site when I decide on December's blog-highlighted charities.

Today is World Food Day. All over, there are events to raise money to feed those who need feeding and remind those of us who are lucky enough to have constantly full bellies that we live in great privilege. One of my favorite of these projects is the Empty Bowls Project. In an Empty Bowls Project, participants make clay bowls and serve soup in them to guests, who pay a suggested donation (usually $10-$20) for the soup and then keep the bowls, to remind them there are empty bowls all over the world. The donations fund projects working towards ending hunger.

Here in Austin, there is an Empty Bowl Project at Clayworks Studio on Burnet every Sunday before Thanksgiving. That's this Sunday, November 18, from 11am-3pm, at 5442 Burnet Rd. The suggested donation is $15 per bowl. Local restaurants provide soup and there is live music. Get there early, because last year I came late and there was a line around the block.

If you aren't local, you can go here and see if there is an Empty Bowls Event in your neck of the woods.

As I mentioned last year, it has for a few years now been my Thanksgiving time custom to send a care package or two to enlisted folks via anysoldier.com. I was about to head on over there to get some lists to fill this year, but then heard about a different project, Operation Paperback. Operation Paperback is a troops-supporting endeavor as well, but it is specifically to send gently used books to soldiers living abroad. I can definitely appreciate why books would be a great comfort when you're so far away from home, as well as being a source of entertainment (my understanding is that extreme boredom is one of the biggest problems for soldiers) so I'm going to do that this year instead.

I know I've said this before, but I in no way equate wanting to make this season a little bit brighter for those people who are unfortunate to be stuck on the ground in this stupid fucking war with supporting it. I can both be intensively, obsessively against them being there and want to make being there as easy for them as possible. And, if you are so inclined, so can you.

Over at the right, you can see my December giving choices. Both have already been mentioned here, but just a reminder, Operation Paperback sends books to soldiers abroad, and Orange Santa is my local "giving tree" type program. Go forth and give. 'Tis the season.

As you may have already noticed, everyone who is anyone has a charitable holiday gift giving guide, listing their favorite holiday gifts which also contribute to charity. Well, I'm a sucker for a trend, so here are a few I like:

1. JustGive.org. Want to give a donation in someone's name, but not sure where they would like the cash to go? As JustGive, you can buy a charitable donation gift certificate, and the recipient can then choose which of over 1,000,000 local and national charities to use it for.


2. Eco-Libris. Eco-Libris is an organization from whom you buy credits to plant trees to offset the books you read (like carbon credit purchasing). A good gift for a book geek? For the holidays, they have packages of a holiday card and 5 book credits for $6.50, 10 for $12.00, 25 for $25.00, and up.


3. Humane Society Woof Doormat. Cute, heavyweight doormat, made of natural fiber and eco-friendly dye, benefiting the Humane Society. $35 plus $5 S&H.


4. Dog Breed Bottle Stoppers. Also benefiting the Humane Society. How freaking cute are these? Comes in tons of breeds, $18 each.


5. Recycled Silk Throw Rug. This throw rug is not only gorgeous, it's made from recycled silk scraps by a family-owned fair-trade certified Indian business. Buying it for $39.95 through Greater Goods also provides either 28 bowls of food for shelter animals (if you choose The Animal Rescue Site store) or something similar through one of the site's other charitable stores (The Breast Cancer Site, The Hunger Site, The Child Health Site, The Literacy Site, or The Rainforest Site).


6. Stone Mala Necklace. These hand-strung fair-trade semi-precious stone necklaces are blessed by the nuns at the Dolma Ling nunnery in Tibet, whom the proceeds from their sale help support. The $24.95 you pay for a necklace at Greater Good will also provide 50 cups of food if you order through The Hunger Site, or similar from the other options.


7. One Laptop Per Child. If you haven't already heard of this program, the premise pretty simple. Through the "Give One Get One" program, you spend $399 and get one specially produced XO children's laptop and donate one to a child in the developing world. Gotta do it now, though, as it is available only through December 31.


8. Can I Sit With You? I've mentioned it here before, but buying the $14 Can I Sit With You? book, to the dual purposes of giving kids stories to help them believe they really will make it out alive and supporting the Special Education PTA of Redwood City (SEPTAR), is an excellent plan.


9. Life saving essentials for Burmese families. Partners World asked Burmese refugees what they needed to stay alive, and they came back with the following heartbreakingly simple list, for a family of 5 for a month:
   1. 75 kilograms of rice; 5 kilograms of salt
   2. 1 cooking pot
   3. 1 lighter
   4. 1 machete
   5. 1 large plastic sheet for making a roof in the jungle
   These things can be provided for $50.


10. Finally, whatever you are going to buy, you can probably sign up through iGive to buy it and make sure some of the proceeds to to the charity of your choice.

This month's charity bucks are going to assist those who are in dire straights beginning this year due to the Writer's Strike, which I fully support. There are a couple of ways to send help to these folks, but I chose the The Actor's Fund, since it supports all those in the business, not just those who are in the writer's guild. Given the jillions of "little people" who are likely being laid off due to the strike, many of whom do not have union support, that makes sense to me.

I've been reading a lot about moral eating recently (I just finished Plenty, about the 100-Mile Diet), and in that spirit, the charity I am choosing to give to and highlight on my blog for February is Farm Sanctuary.

Farm Sanctuary works to end cruelty to farm animals and promotes compassionate living through rescue, education and advocacy. We envision a world where the violence that animal agriculture inflicts upon people, animals and the environment has ended, and where instead we exercise values of compassion.

For those who are new to the blog, I do this every month, both to remind myself to give and to let readers know about giving opportunities about which they might not otherwise be aware. The logo for Farm Sanctuary will be featured over on the sidebar all month.

And no matter who you support, don't forget to save receipts of your donations--they're tax deductible!

In November, I posted about I Live Here, I Give Here, which is an Austin campaign to make people aware of local charitable organization and non-profits and increase giving. As one of my giving goals for 2008 was to increase local-level giving, it's a great resource for me. In honor of NaBloPoMo: The List Edition, here is a list of some places I'd like to give to this year, many of which I discovered through I Live Here, I Give Here:

Sorry, day late...

April is National Sexual Assault Awareness Month, so my giving dollars are headed out to the National Sexual Violence Research Center.

May you be safe from sexual violence this month and always.

Also, on a semi-related note, if you are following my debt reduction tally at right, you'll see I'm down $2,806.27 since 1/1/08. I feel pretty good about that.

This month, I am excited to be giving to Femme Film Texas. They're a local organization who teaches film making, Internet publishing, and media literacy to young women. Plus, I dig their logo.

Like most people, I'd expect, I have a lot of plans for my stimulus check. I may think giving them out is a crappy idea, but since I'm going to get one, I have lots of ideas on how to spend it. Clearly, what I should do with it is not even consider other options and just pay debt. But I need new shoes! And something off my Etsy favorites! And some summer clothes!

Or, I could give it away.

There was a piece on Marketplace on Friday about why it might be best to consider giving all or part of your stimulus check to charity. You can listen to it below, but basically the upshot is that charitable organizations are suffering right now just like everyone else, and there are those (myself included) who believe that the money these checks represent may well have been better spent bolstering social services. So, if you think like that too, maybe we should both put our money where our mouth is and give some of our stimulus checks to charity?

The question then becomes, of course, which charity? The piece on NPR mentions food banks in specific, and that makes sense. I have a couple of weeks until my deposit is supposed to show up, so I'll be thinking about it.

Back when I used to watch Trading Spaces, Vern Yip was always my favorite designer. I liked his simple, non-silly designs, and he seemed like the closest thing the show's designers had to a real person. So, when I saw that he had another show, Deserving Design, I was all over it. Now that I've watched the show, I love it even more. The premise is simple--Vern goes into the home of "deserving" regular folks and redesigns two rooms--one that they know is going to be done, one that they don't. "Deserving," here, means people who have given of themselves in some way. The most recent episode I saw featured a family who had fostered 62 children, some of them very high needs, and adopted 6 of them (all of whom had to have been under 12). Vern's makeovers focus on what the families actually need and how they actually use their space (and he uses tons of photographs, which I think is great), which is fantastic. What really gets me about the show, though, are the families themselves. The things they give to their communities and the sacrifices they make are inspiring.

So I was thinking about that. And about how, not so long ago, I was more focused on how I could help other people (my monthly giving, among other things). Lately, though, my focus has gone inward in a way I'm not proud of. And while I was thinking, I was, like I often am, thrifiting. At the south bins. Where I came upon an entire table of new with tags Beanie Buddies. Clearly these are no longer collector's items, I said to myself, but couldn't you have donated them to a homeless shelter or something? Kids can still play with them if they don't get destroyed here! And then it occurred to me that I could make that happen.

And so I came, inspired by Vern Yip, to purchase 40 Beanie Buddies. I had no idea how cute these things were! A couple of them (the octopus, the ladybug, the moose...) might have to live at my house and become gently loved dog toys. The rest, though, can go to a local DV shelter, or be saved for Christmas-time toy drives. What toddler is going to care of his/her lovey is still in style?

It's nice to wake up and remember why I'm here.

As I've mentioned, Mark and I are very active in dog rescue. We currently have two foster beagles, Belle (who you see in the basket here) and Huey. For the last couple of years, we've been fostering through a great local organization, Hound Rescue. Today we had a Hound Rescue meeting, and we learned, among other things, that the organization is not doing great financially. Mostly, this is due to a recent influx of older and sicker dogs, due, at least in part, to the general economic downturn. People give up their dogs when they can't make ends meet, especially if those dogs are elderly or have health issues (like both Huey and Belle do). In order to keep taking in and taking care of these elderly dogs, the organization needs to refocus on fund raising.

And that's how I want you to help. No, I am not asking you to write a check or Paypal over some cash (though we of course wouldn't turn it down). Rather, I am asking for some mouse clicks. If you go over to The Animal Rescue site, you'll find a contest they are having, the Petfinder Shelter Challenge. Once a day on each computer, you can go there and vote for Hound Rescue in Austin, Texas. If we get the most votes in our state, we get $1,000. If we get the most votes in a given week, we get $1,000. If we win the grand prize, we get $25,000 (that's a lot of beagle care, folks). $1,000 goes quite a long way for these guys, and voting is really no big deal to do, so please take a second (or as many seconds as you can, on different days between now and December 14), and give us a vote.

Over on my side bar you'll see a button that will take you straight to the voting. Just come back to WINOW and click on it anytime.

Thank you!

Remember I told you about Huey, the beagle/porpoise cross we've been fostering who likes cat boxes? Well, it turns out that Mr. Huey needs some surgery. It's nothing huge--he blew out his ACL and it needs to be repaired. It's a fairly common surgery for dogs and has an excellent success rate. Huey will need several months of post-surgical recovery time, but Mark and I love him to death and will be happy to have him into the spring. After that time, there is no reason to believe that he won't go on to leave several more happy and healthy years.

The problem, of course, is that the surgery isn't cheap. As I believe I've mentioned, Hound Rescue has been really swamped these past months--the worse the economy gets, the more dogs are in need. Right now, HR just can't afford a couple of grand for a beagle surgery that isn't life-saving. So, for at least the time being, we're in a holding pattern. Huey is on three legs and we're trying to raise funds.

If you can, please consider helping Huey out. If you click on the Huey button in this post, or on the sidebar, you will be taken to Hound Rescue's donation pages (through Paypal). If you can make a donation, that would be great. Please indicate in the comments that it is for Huey's surgery. And if you can't give but want to help, or want another way to help, please grab the button and post it on your blog or online space.

Thank you!

I had an interesting conversation with a good friend of mine today. It's a variation on a conversation I've had before, but my friend put it very succinctly. She is not, she said, getting anyone a Christmas gift this year. There is nobody on her list who needs anything, so she's just not doing it. Instead, she's donating the amount of money she would have spent buying her family and friends things they do not need to a local food bank.

This logic is, I think, completely correct. And it made me think--is there anybody on my Christmas list who needs anything? No, there isn't. In past years, I could have made the argument that my unemployed or under-employed little brother actually did need gifts, but he's had a good job for the past year or so, so I think he's got what he needs these days. And really, there is nobody else on my list, adult or child, who needs a damn thing. And neither do I need anything.

So why do this thing at all? Why spend the hours and hours picking things out? Even though I'm doing it in what I consider a "responsible" way this year, with almost all handmade or used gifts, I'm still ending up with stuff for each person, and I am still spending money on that stuff. Why not direct that money to a source where it's actually needed and call the whole thing off?

For me, the biggest reason why not is a selfish one. I love gifting. I love receiving gifts, and I really love giving them. I love plotting and planning what people might want or like, I love shopping, and I love seeing people open things I've chosen for them. The whole thing just fills me with joy. Which isn't to say that I don't feel any Christmas season stress--there are holes on my list that I'm beginning to fret about, I've already spend too much, and the wrapping and shipping elements of gifting when your family and friends are spread to the four winds doesn't thrill me at all. But the good outweighs the bad for me every time.

That's really not a good enough reason though, is it? I take all this time, and all this cash (which I could be using to pay off my debt, or to help any of a million good causes), and I do this thing basically because I like it and because it is expected of me (at least I like it--a lot of people are doing it only for the latter reason). Honestly, that's stupid.

The problem isn't, and never was, the custom of gift-giving itself, though. The problem is that gifts can't fill the space they used to fill when you live in a time and a place and a socioeconomic class where people can and do buy for themselves everything they need and much of what they want. As a child, growing up in a working class family, we got fun stuff for gifts, but we also got a lot of things we needed wrapped with paper and bows. So much so that getting "socks in a box" remains a running joke in my family. That makes sense. It makes something that is needed fun, and there isn't a lot of excess in it. But along the way something has changed. Now, if I asked not what I want, but what I need, I can't come up with anything.

So who can we fix it? I tend to think that my friend is on the right track--those of us who are lucky enough not to need anything, and not to have folks on our list who need anything, should stop this silliness, and put our money towards folks who do actually need things. Alternatively, though, we could stop buying ourselves so much crap year round, so that when gift giving occasions come around, there will actually be something legitimate to request. But I don't really see that happening.

Maybe, with spending half of what was spent last year, some American families are working towards less excess. I know that even though I am gifting, I've tried to be more reasonable this year. My focus has been mainly on the gifts I choose being from sources I feel good about supporting, but I've also just cut down on the number of things I'm giving and the amount I'm spending. And it sounds like both my family and Mark's are doing something similar (though I'll believe it when I see it). I'm seeing a lot of similar thoughts around the net as well, with folks relying more and more on handmade gifts (some of which are homemade, some swapped for, some purchased) and a smaller number of gifts in general. But I have to wonder--does this really imply any cognizance of how stupid and wasteful gift giving has become, or is it simply a response to a bad economy? When the economy gets better, will those gift spending numbers go back up? What would have to happen to make the change permanent?

I've already started jotting down a list of goals for next year, and one thing I know I want to focus on is more responsible, planned philanthropic giving. I've heard and been told that gifts that can be counted on (i.e. monthly gifts, or seasonal gifts that happen every year, like memberships, or whatever) are both more useful for organizations and increase giving for individuals. I can see why that would be the case--if your giving is just one of your bills, you do it automatically, not just when you feel like you have extra. (It would also help greatly with keeping track of your charitable giving for tax purposes.)

So, I think I want to try to standardize my giving next year. I want to figure out an amount, based on a percentage of take-home, to give, then plan how the majority of it will be given and when, and set up direct payments. This is going to take several steps, though, and I'm going to have to think about each of them.

First, I need to figure out what the right amount to give is, given my income, my other financial priorities, etc. So I looked around at tithe amounts. Tithe literally means ten percent, and some churches are strict about that. However, lots of churches ask for half-tithes (5%) or quarter tithes (2.5%). I'm not a person of faith, and even if I were, I'd be uncomfortable, I think, with a church that demanded any percentage. Still, this gives me a place to start thinking about it. Remember that kerfluffle a year or so ago about how much given rich people give to charity (or, more likely, how little)? Thinking about that, I did some Googling and found that the national average for charitable giving in 2005 was $1,800/year per family, about 3.5%. I haven't decided what my magic number is going to be, but it will be in this range somewhere.

Next, I need to decide how to split it up. There are a lot of worthy charities out there. Which ones do I want to sponsor? At what levels? That's a much harder question than how much to give. I'm working on compiling a list, and then I'm going to see about ranking it. I'm also going to leave myself some money that isn't ear-marked, as things always come up. This is the part I'm really stuck on. How do I decide who needs my money the most? I'm finding the idea a little bit overwhelming, honestly.

Once I get my priorities lined up, though, I am going to set up automatic payments. I'll divide my annual amount into a monthly amount and set up payments to equal it, either on annual or quarterly or monthly basis, just like any other bill. And that money will just be gone, and I won't spend it on things I don't need, and it will get to places that can use it.

Or at least that's the plan. What do you think? Does that make sense? Any thoughts on amounts, percentages, or organizations to which to give? I have given to charities for several years, but I've never been all that disciplined about it, so this is all kind of new. I think it's important, though. I want to be a person who lives my beliefs--the older I get, the more that's a priority--and one of the things I believe is that it is absolutely the responsibility of those who have more to assist those who have less. And it should also be the pleasure of those who have more to do it, as we are very lucky to be in the position we are in. In 2010, I want to do a better job expressing my gratitude.

Unless you've been living under a very large rock, you know that the situation in Haiti is pretty awful right now. Thousands and thousands dead, untold damage, people with nothing. They need a LOT of help. So, this morning, I was looking around, trying to figure out the best place to give, and I thought I'd share my findings with you:

WorldVision: WorldVision is an international Christian-based organization working on humanitarian issues affecting children world-wide. Charity Navigator gives them a four-star rating, with a score of 60.34.

AmeriCares: AmeriCares is an international disaster relief organization, not religiously affiliated. AmeriCares is based in the U.S. but has projects world-wide, focusing on disaster relief and medical outreach. Charity Navigator gives them a four-star rating with a score of 61.28.

Habitat for Humanity: Habitat is a Christian-based organization focusing on providing housing for those who need it, both within the U.S. and worldwide. Charity Navigator gives their international branch four stars and a rating of 60.78.

Feed the Children: Feed the Children is a Christian-based international organization focusing on providing food, medicine, and clothing to people in need. Charity Navigator gives them four stars and a 69.19 rating.

Doctors without Borders: Doctors without Borders is an international organization focusing on providing medical care in high-needs areas. Charity Navigator gives them four stars and a 61.23 rating.

Red Cross: The Red Cross is probably the most well-known organization and the one that gets the most donations in times like these. It is an international organization focused on emergency response and disaster relief. Charity Navigator gives the Red Cross three stars and a rating of 54.62.

Hands Together: Hands Together is a Catholic-based organization dedicating to helping the poor, particularly in Haiti. Charity Navigator gives them four stars and a rating of 67.36.

Hope for Haiti: Hope for Haiti is another Haiti-focused organization. It is not religiously based and focuses on empowering Haitians in the areas of education, health care, and nutrition, but also runs a disaster relief program. Charity Navigator gives it a four star rank and a rating of 64.82.

These are clearly just a few options. Charity Navigator has provided a list on their site of organizations they evaluate who have Haiti programs; there are several more highly-ranked options there. They also provide some pretty good advice on how to choose where to give and why.

For me, it's a combination of which particular work I want to support the most (medical, housing, food, whatever) and the organization itself. Out of personal preference, I don't generally give to religiously-based organizations (note: this is NOT me saying that nobody should, just that I prefer not to when there are other options). In a situation like this one, I'm also more inclined to give to an organization with a history working in the country in need--Haiti--as they're more likely to have a good idea what is needed and where, and already have some structure. So, this time around, I'm directing my dollars to Hope for Haiti. But really, anywhere you give is better than not doing it at all, you know? So if you've got any extra cash at the moment, please do think about putting it towards these folks who need it pretty desperately.

One more thing: if you have the cash, please don't donate on a credit card. The CC processor gets part of the donation that way, and you really want all your money to go to folks who actually need it, right?

Also, if you have other organizations you want to suggest, please leave them in the comments. I'd be happy to add to the post with your suggestions.

Additional suggestions from WINOW readers:

World Society for the Protection of Animals: WSPA is a non-profit focusing on animal welfare worldwide. They do work with companion animals, farm animals, and wildlife, as well as disaster relief work for all types of animals. Charity Navigator gives them two stars and a rating of 49.96.

Yele Haiti: Yele is a grassroots organization working for the betterment of Haiti. It was founded by Wyclef Jean in 2005. It has not been evaluated by Charity Navigator.

Best Friends Animal Society: Best Friends Animal Society is a Utah-based animal sanctuary and rescue network. In Haiti, they will focus on pet rescue, once that is possible. Charity Navigator gives them four stars and a rating of 60.71.