Gifts that make a difference

Brigid Marshall | October 2008 issue

Photo: istockphoto.com/robhadfield

It’s a sight familiar to every parent: children running around screaming, “Happy Birthday” plates, goody bags and a mound of presents next to a cake. Birthday parties come around all too often for moms like Debbie Zinman and Alison Smith. The two fell in line with the ritual of elaborate parties and even-more-elaborate gifts, but they wanted it to stop. “We saw that a lot of the children were more interested in each other than the gifts,” says Zinman. “It seemed that present-infested birthday parties like this were flawed.”

Agreeing that compulsory gift-buying was wasteful, the Canadian pair started echoage.com as an alternative. The website makes it easy for children to receive cash gifts from guests, so they and their parents can donate half to charity and keep the other half for one special gift like, say, music lessons, instead of countless unnecessary toys.

Meanwhile, tisbest.org and justgive.org have been set up in the U.S. to create another unconventional way to give gifts. At both websites, shoppers can buy a non-specific charity card allowing recipients of any age to choose which group to support. In its first year, TisBest claims to have had thousands of site visitors a day. JustGive donated more than $25 million in 2007.

Gifts involving donations aren’t a new trend. People have given philanthropic presents through organizations like Heifer International for years. What makes these newer groups different is that they allow the recipient to choose the charity that receives the donation. “It’s kind of weird to get a gift from someone saying, ‘Hey, I donated a tree in your name,’” says Erik Marks, founder of TisBest, based in Seattle, Washington.

Either way, these three sites make it easy to give gifts that really make a difference.

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Comments (4)

Wonderful. Now if only this could spread to Christmas and weddings.

posted by Usiku on 9/30/2008 7:19 pm

This is a great idea and growing. In fact, one such organisation (www.karmacurrency.com.au) has launched in Australia recently as well.

It is important in a world of rampant consumerism, that we teach our youth the importance of giving back and to help make a difference. By purchasing these gift vouchers for friends, family, customers and staff we are also serving to inform, educate and inspire.

posted by souleconomy on 10/ 3/2008 5:25 am

I loved the ideas but when I looked more closely I'd say - send money directly to your charity of choice. All of these operations are skimming very healthy percentages for their services. I didn't investigate salaries - but can - but for example:

justgive subtracts 8% on $100 donation (3% for credit card co. $5.00 fee) tisbest subtracts 7% on same (lightly lower fee) echoage is the worst! They take 15% of total.

Try a check and stamp or donate on=line directly to your site.

Judie Simpson, Chicago

posted by simpy on 11/ 1/2008 8:32 am

Thank you for featuring JustGive! The processing fee for a $100 donation is just 3% which covers the fees Visa and Mastercard charge for merchant account services. 3% is cheaper than what most small nonprofits will pay through a standard merchant account service when accepting credit cards online directly.

You can make a donation to a charity in someone's name as a gift or memorial without paying a $5 gift center fee.

If you make a donation through a gift registry JustGive charges $5 to help cover the cost of maintaining and developing the technology that allows the registry owner to track their donations and send announcements via email to friends and family.

posted by Sarah_Myers on 11/13/2008 11:51 am