Charitable Donation Ideas

There are many wonderful charities that will allow you to gift money in the name of someone. 

Many of these charitable organizations allow you to print off certificates that you can use to present the gift.  Aside from the certificate, there are other ways of presenting your gift. For example, from Heifer International you can give money that will be used to supply an impoverished family with a small farm animal.  To present this gift you could wrap a small stuffed animal that would be a tangible reminder of the money you've given.  Or you could present someone with a Bible to represent the donation you've given in their name so that Bibles can be distributed for free.  Or you could present a water bottle to represent the money you've given so that clean water can be made available.

We've had so much fun selecting these types of gifts!  Initially I thought that they could come across as impersonal, but by selecting a cause you know is dear to the one you're giving a gift to, you can really personalize them. 

Jesus says in Mat 25:40 "whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." Since Jesus tells us that what we do for the least we do for him, giving this way is actually a way to give a Christmas gift to the one who's birth we're actually celebrating, namely, Jesus!

If God lays it on your heart, check out these options:

http://www.heifer.org/

http://www.treesforlife.org/

http://www.wr.org/

http://www.fh.org/

www.kiva.org

(there are so many others too)

Merry Christmas!!