Testing the waters ... donations as Xmas Presents?

Clareo · Wed Nov 23, 2011 1:44 am

I am having a really hard time this year with my Christmas shopping. I don't know about you but every year there is one person on my list who I could buy 50 gifts for ... everything that catches my eye says "You". But everyone else on the list ... nothing. No inspiration whatsoever.

I'm at the point of having to think outside the square.

I could do gift cards (and the previous post about suitable $$ amounts has been really helpful), but what about donations to the persons favourite charity? How would you feel about getting a card to say a donation has been made in your name? Would you think that was a "stink" gift?

The reason I'm thinking that way was thinking back to when my parents died. I'm not a flower person to begin with and I can remember being touched getting cards saying that instead of flowers a donation had been made in my parents name to their favourite charities. I'm also aware that in this never ending recession a lot of charities are finding it hard to meet their budget targets ... naturally if it's a choice between making a donation or paying our bills to keep our family together, well we need to do the right thing and charities suffer.

Just wondering & would love to hear your opinions.

love
Clare

Flasher · Wed Nov 23, 2011 2:37 am

Personally speaking, I would absolutely love a gift of that nature! I also know that my grandparents and older aunts and uncles like the idea as well. (They've said repeatedly "We're in our 80's - what could we possibly need?") Sadly, I can't say the rest of my family would be as receptive.

Sus79 · Wed Nov 23, 2011 6:30 am

I think it is a great idea

anazelia · Wed Nov 23, 2011 8:26 am

I would be ok with it for myself- and have gotten gifts like that. I am not sure how I would feel about it for my kids though. I could see going both ways with it.

Northern Brat · Wed Nov 23, 2011 9:10 am

My dh and I got a donation like that one Christmas....my mother-in-law bought us a goat. The card given to us stated that she purchased this goat for a family in Africa...the goat would give the family milk, etc......You can also buy chickens, pigs, etc... We thought it was a wonderful idea, and someone was benefiting from it somewhere. I forget the organization, but I thought that cool. The other thing is do one of the shoe box donations for kids, with thier name on it. Good luck!

Janell · Wed Nov 23, 2011 9:43 am

I agree that the donation as a gift to adults or maybe to a family is an awesome idea. I think I would enjoy it as long as it was a charity I really cared about or an interest that I had, that makes it personal.

It's the spirit of the season. Thank you for sharing that about a sympathy gift as well. I am going to do that in the future instead of sending flowers great idea.

ncokely · Wed Nov 23, 2011 10:42 am

We have used the Samaritan's Purse organization for that before. (I think that might be where the goat came from!!) Anyway we got both my parents and my hubby's parents "grains and seeds and gardening tools" that year. The organization sent enough grains, seeds and gardening tools to a small village and taught them how to have their own gardens. Samaritan's Purse then sent our parents a very nice card expalining the gift. Our parents are both gardeners and they loved it.

Shoot, I need to do this again this year, because I can't find anything for my MIL.

craftyk · Wed Nov 23, 2011 10:46 am

Laura wrote:Personally speaking, I would absolutely love a gift of that nature! I also know that my grandparents and older aunts and uncles like the idea as well. (They've said repeatedly "We're in our 80's - what could we possibly need?") Sadly, I can't say the rest of my family would be as receptive.

I agree with Laura. I would love it, some family members would love it and Other family members wouldn't be too thrilled.

need2scrap · Wed Nov 23, 2011 11:33 am

I agree with adults vs kids. More fitting for adults of course. I think it's a great idea especially if the recipient has stated they don't want/need anything.

PARTIAL QUOTE, sorry, I'm getting a little off topic.:

Janell wrote:It's the spirit of the season. Thank you for sharing that about a sympathy gift as well. I am going to do that in the future instead of sending flowers great idea.

We usually don't send flowers, always cash, sometimes for a specific place, such as the cemetary, or we send stamps and gift cards. Funerals are expensive, and so are headstones.

scrappininAK · Wed Nov 23, 2011 11:59 am

I love that idea - I've also done it before , particularly with people who really had so much they didn't want anything. I gave contrbutions to Heifer who supply animals and training to families to help lift them from the poverty line. The realatives who got this gift doanted in their name loved the idea that they contributed a goat to a family in need

letumom · Wed Nov 23, 2011 1:22 pm

Northern Brat wrote:My dh and I got a donation like that one Christmas....my mother-in-law bought us a goat. The card given to us stated that she purchased this goat for a family in Africa...the goat would give the family milk, etc......You can also buy chickens, pigs, etc... We thought it was a wonderful idea, and someone was benefiting from it somewhere. I forget the organization, but I thought that cool. The other thing is do one of the shoe box donations for kids, with thier name on it. Good luck!

World Vision does that kind of offering every year for their regular sponsors. I sponsor a child and at Christmas have the option to add this to my donations.

PezKat · Wed Nov 23, 2011 6:47 pm

We do that a lot! My aunt & uncle said they prefer that so we both do that for each other every year, and we usually do it for at least part of our parents' gifts as well. We always do Habitat for Humanity for FIL, usually animal charities like Exotic Feline Rescue Center or Best Friends in Utah for my folks - you can sponsor a particular animal & print out a photo of it which is cool... Heifer Intl. and World Vision that have been mentioned are also wonderful organizations! I think Samaritan's Purse does the Operation Christmas Child boxes and Prison Fellowship does Angel Tree (gifts for kids of prisoners), but I don't know the deadline for those - since it involves getting physical things to kids, it might be pretty soon.

LyndaKay · Wed Nov 23, 2011 6:57 pm

I made a donation to the tiny library in the town where my dad grew up. Gave it in honor of his 80th birthday. He thought it was "better than a sweater".

I had a relative give a donation in my name to a political cause that they backed, but made me cringe! It wasn't the best gift for me.

gncntry96 · Thu Nov 24, 2011 7:37 am

Northern Brat wrote:My dh and I got a donation like that one Christmas....my mother-in-law bought us a goat. The card given to us stated that she purchased this goat for a family in Africa...the goat would give the family milk, etc......You can also buy chickens, pigs, etc... We thought it was a wonderful idea, and someone was benefiting from it somewhere. I forget the organization, but I thought that cool. The other thing is do one of the shoe box donations for kids, with thier name on it. Good luck!

That sounds like Heifer International. I did donations to them last year after visiting their headquarters in Little Rock, AR. I think they were received pretty well, and one cool thing about them is that the gift gets bigger to the community as the animals reproduce. I will probably do another gift to them this year.

love2stamp · Thu Nov 24, 2011 10:21 am

We did that for our boss one year, she loved it. We made up a laundry basket with a Turkey and all the trimmings, plus some other little goodies like some chocolate, then called our local Sheriff and he took it to a family in need in our town.

JanetM · Fri Nov 25, 2011 7:32 am

I love the idea our one dd always gives us a gift from the Samaritan's Purse group or something similar .

I asked the older grandchildren to do this for me one year and then write me a note and tell me about it . 2 of them got meals for 20 people at our local City Mission.

I think your idea is great - we support a couple of well projects for clean water which is another good one . A couple of our friends always give to a local charity that I founded 30 years ago to pay non - medical expenses to families with a child that has a serious medical problem .

Great idea!

CarolLynn · Fri Nov 25, 2011 10:38 pm

I think it's a great idea for adults. Last year, I donated online to the food bank associated with my church and community, and they had a nice certificate which you could print out and send to your family member as notice of your gift in their name.

Clareo · Sat Nov 26, 2011 1:35 am

Thank you for the responses - I've been fascinated with all the ideas.

I agree too that this is an "adult" gift - I have far too much fun buying gifts for children to give that up!

I've done the "shoebox" gift a couple of years through my mother's church and then one year we did it at work in lieu of "Secret Santa" gifts. We made up shoe boxes with gifts for a child (putting a post-it on the box to say boy/girl/age) and gave them to one of the Salvation Army ladies who work through our site. She came back to us after Christmas and told us how she kept them in her car and was so grateful when she went on home visits that she could just select a box (boxes) and take them into homes where often that was the only gift.

Keep the ideas coming!

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