Buy Christmas Presents While Helping Charity

Christmas time is a time for giving to your family and friends. Wouldn't it be great if you could help others through the money from your purchases? Well now you can. Buy Christmas gifts from these organizations to help them earn money while getting that perfect trinket for a loved one during the holidays.

Help a furry friend
Many local organizations like the Animal Welfare Association in Voorhees, NJ, have shopping sites that benefit them as well as you and your gift recipient. You can buy all types of products for your animal, animal decorated t-shirts and sweatshirts, and host of other non-animal related products while your local animal shelter enjoys the proceeds to help homeless animal.

Help your favorite non-profit organization
Goodsearch.com had an ingenious idea when they created a search engine that will donate 1 penny to every search you make online. Now they've come up with an even better idea - a shopping area that allows your favorite non-profit organization to get monetary donations from each purchase you make with their participating partners. Simply go to http://www.goodsearch.com and register your favorite non-profit organization (I signed up my church, for example), designate them as the organization that should receive the donations, and then search the internet for whatever you are looking for or complete your Christmas shopping in the "GoodSearch Shopping" area. If you do not have a specific charity in mind, you can always choose from the list of over 46,000 non-profits already registered with the site.

There are also several "Click for" sites that allows you to click on the button on their site to help donate food, money, books, and more to various non-profits, free of charge to you. They also have shopping areas where the proceeds are donated to that cause. For example, you can raise money for mammograms to prevent breast cancer, donate bowls of food to animals, books to illiterate children to help them learn to read, and more. There are 5 sites in all: http://www.thehungersite.com, http://www.thebreastcancersite.com, http://www.thechildhealthsite.com, http://www.theliteracysite.com, http://www.therainforestsite.com, and http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com. You'll find unique things from around the world for your Christmas presents.

You can find a long list of sites just like these at http://www.justgive.org

Shop for the kids
Schoolmall.com donates 40% of the proceeds from all purchases made through schoolmall.com to the school of your choice. Just like goodsearch.com, you need to register your school and then designate them as the school you'd like to shop for. Anything you buy from over 200 retail giants will go towards the school. This is much better than any fundraiser because you aren't ropped into buying trinkets you don't need. You can get the things you want and need from retailers you buy from anyway. When my cousin's little one told me about it, I bought the fancy patented leather red shoes that I've been longing for and helped her school earn money in the process. This would work great for the many Christmas purchases you'll need to get over the holidays.

Many schools are getting even smarter with their fundraisers by selling gift cards to favorite stores. The school gets a portion of the money (up to 50% back depending on the organization you working with to get the gift cards) and someone special in your life gets a free pass to go buy their own favorite Christmas present! Schooltimesnetwork.com even lets you buy the gift cards online while still benefiting your school.

Buy a brick
If you have someone in your life who holds a special place dear to their hearts, see if that organization sells bricks that help them raise money. Schools, libraries, museums, and other non-profits are famous for this. My husband and I own a Corvette and one Christmas he purchased a decorative brick on the sidewalk at the National Corvette Museum in Kentucky. When we went for a visit, I had to find it to see what he had written on it. It sits right in front of the door and reads "Nick and Denise. Our Corvette." It was a novel Christmas gift that I will enjoy for years to come and the Museum enjoyed all the proceeds to help run the operation.

Happy Christmas shopping!