Want to help make your community, your town--your world--a better place, but don't know where to begin? How To Be An Everyday Philanthropist shows you the way. A handbook, a resource guide, a call to action, and an inspiration, it offers 330 concrete, direct ideas for making a difference--all of which have nothing to do with the size of your checkbook and everything to do with using the hidden assets that are already a part of your life. Whether you're shopping, working, exercising, or surfing the Web, there are hundreds of ways to slip small but deeply meaningful acts of philanthropy into your life, using over 600 of the most innovative and effective charitable organizations around.
Have an old pair of sneakers lying around the house? Nike's Reuse-a-Shoe program will recycle them into safe playground surfaces. Getting rid of that old cell phone? Call to Protect will refurbish it as an emergency lifeline for abused women. Racking up frequent- flier miles? Donate them to an ill child so they can travel and get the care they need. Like to knit? Knit hats for cancer patients.
Start a petition, sign a petition, send out an awareness e-mail, and network with like-minded givers and doers at Care2.com. There are ideas for giving things you might never have thought of--your hair, old prom dress, breast milk for African AIDS orphans. Ideas for using your hobbies, talents, time, trash, technology, and more. Each suggestion can be accomplished in the course of a day, most within an hour.
Use your Belongings: You're not just giving away stuff: You're keeping an abandoned animal warm, helping a woman land a job, making a sick child's dream come true.
Use your Body: Give with your body. Use your legs to run for a cause. Use your arms to snuggle a hospitalized baby. Give of your body. Donate hair to create mats that clean oil spills. Donate umbilical cord blood to save lives. Donate breast milk for premature or critically ill babies in need.
Use your Family: Give new meaning to quality time: Adopt a puppy; become a frog watcher; be a host family for the Fresh Air Fund; deposit change in a Giving Jar; sign up for National Family Volunteer Day.
Use your Talents: Match your skills with a cause: Are you a whiz at Web design, accounting, writing? Help a school in Guatemala design a brochure; organize the books in your community center; write a grant proposal for a local homeless shelter.
Use your Computer: Give back without leaving your desk: Use a search engine that donates money to charities each time you click; be a virtual mentor to an orphaned teen; shop at charity malls.
In tough times it's more important than ever that people and communities pull together-- How To Be An Everyday Philanthropist makes it easier than ever before.
