Who’s on your gift list? This year, spread the holiday spirit of giving beyond your family, friends and coworkers to people, animals and places in need. With these green gift ideas, your money can go towards preserving the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, bringing food to Darfur refugees, helping struggling artisans of Bangladesh, supporting pandas and much more.

Sponsor a Wild Place in honor of a loved one through the Sierra Club. Here’s how it works: choose from 10 national parks, and your gift recipient will receive a stuffed animal, backpack and information about the habitat at risk. In return, every cent of the proceeds goes towards protecting the environment.

Made out of recycled materials and colored with soy-based inks, Mission: China is much more than just a trading card game that educates children about endangered species. Conservation International receives a percentage of the profit and puts this money towards protecting biodiversity.

Kill three birds with one powerful present. With the Race for the Cure Tumbler, you can check a friend off your gift list and help her kick that bottled water habit. Plus, a quarter of the proceeds goes toward the fight against breast cancer.

When you buy this solar-powered BoGo flashlight for a friend or family member, your gift is more than just green. BoGo is a familiar term in the retail world, but, instead of getting something free, you will be giving one of these eco-friendly flashlights to somebody in need. Or, you can choose to donate it to a charitable organization of your choice.

The aftermath of Cyclone Sidr continues to affect millions of people along the southwestern coast of Bangladesh, even two years after this devastating natural disaster. Purchasing this Handmade Coconut Leaf Journal is one way that you can help struggling artisans from this impoverished area get back on their feet.

Keep two pairs of feet cozy in eco-friendly style when you give a loved one a pair of TOMS vegan shoes because, for every pair purchased, one goes to a child in need.

When you give this Save Darfur Organic Cotton T-Shirt and Hat set to one of the passionate humanitarians in your life, Mercy Corps pledges to give 25 cups of food to the refugees of this war-torn region.

Similar to Sponsor a Wild Place, Adopt a Species puts your money towards helping one of dozens of species in need. Depending on the donation, your gift recipient will get a stuffed animal, gift bag, gift box and information about the species and a color photo.

Your purchase of the Absolutely Alpaca Scarf, free of toxic chemicals and dyes, helps bring education and health care to Circle of the Sun artisans and their families in rural Bolivia.

When you buy one of Jimmy Belasco’s scented soy candles, $5 of the cost is donated to a charity of your choice.

Not only is this Asian Harmony Chime hand-crafted with care from sustainable resources like bamboo and river rocks, but your purchase of one also supports artisans from the Community Crafts Association in the Philippines.

For every Glass Rainforest Leaf Necklace you buy for gift recipients who love to accessorize, the La Cruz Habitat Protection Project will plant a tree in Mexico’s monarch butterfly forest.

Shopping on a budget? The Arbor Day Foundation offers an inexpensive and meaningful gift that benefits the environment. For just $3, you can present a loved one with a spruce, redwood or pine tree, which comes in a recyclable tube that doubles as a birdfeeder once they plant it.

Treat a friend to a Lush Charity Pot of hand and body cream made from fair-trade cocoa butter, and all of the profit, minus taxes, goes toward the charity of their choice, which is featured on the lid to remind them of the good their gift has done.

When you purchase this hand-welded Let Freedom Ring Basket, your gift helps to support Noah’s Ark artisans in the impoverished community of Moradabad, India through fair wages and a safe work environment.

Still pushing the idea of reusable shopping bags on your friends? By getting them a stylish EnviroVogue Recycled Plastic Tote, a donation is made to support the fight against breast cancer, the Maasai Association or the Kajiado Central District of Kenya. That should persuade them.

Support artisans from Mai Vietnamese Handicrafts with your purchase of this Cinnamon Bark Tea Box, the perfect gift for friends who enjoy nothing more than a steaming cup of chamomile.

Give the gift of organic skincare with chemical-free soap, shower gel, face wash, lotion and more from Pangea Organics. The best part? They all come in recycled packaging that is inlaid with spruce seeds. All they have to do is soak it, plant it and wait two weeks for a spruce tree to emerge.

The Bamboo Watch Project in Chiang Rai receives a donation for every Recycled Rice Bag Roll-Up Toiletry Bag sold, and these inexpensive green gifts make great stocking stuffers.

Help the Pekerti Foundation provide rural artisans of Indonesia with scholarships, medical assistance, loans and emergency aid by purchasing these Handmade Lava Rock Tea Lights to garnish a bare tabletop in a loved one’s living room.

Images: HBuzacott, xekostore, BoGoLight, TOMS Shoes, World Wildlife Fund, the rainforest site, curbmantlegifts, LUSH USA, the rainforest site, Pangea Organics and Ten Thousand Villages.

The post Gifts That Give Back: 20 We Love appeared first on EcoSalon.

Gone are the days when you handed your money over to a charity organization…and the relationship ended there. If your heart felt short-changed by this business model, you’ll be happy to learn that we’re in more enlightened times, where the dazzling interconnectedness of the online world allows you to see where your money goes and learn how it’s helping the causes you believe in.

But where do you go first? Today we’re delighted to welcome Kathryn Hawkins, the editor at Razoo – a philanthropic site that can justifiably claim to be the only place you’ll need to go to donate to the cause of your choice. Tall tale? Not when you consider the millions of opportunities to give and Razoo’s  top-quality journalism outlining the most pressing charitable stories in the world today. These combine to connect you as never before with the recipients of your donations – to learn the human stories behind the headlines and know your place in shaping them.

Mike: Thanks for dropping by, Kathryn! In your opinion, what the number one way in which Razoo’s approach to charitable giving is distinct and groundbreaking? What features and services are you most proud of?

Kathryn: First and foremost, Razoo is the only online charitable giving platform service in which every single penny of your money goes directly to the charity. Usually, as much as five to 10 percent of your donation is eaten up in transaction costs, but Razoo passes it all straight on. Razoo also has a search engine that lets you browse through more than 1.6 million US-based nonprofits, checking out their ratings and reviews from Charity Navigator and Guidestar, as well as videos, the nonprofits’ newsletters, and any newspaper articles that mention them. If you’re a fan of a particular organization, you can even update the nonprofit’s organization page on Razoo.

What stories have you covered at Razoo that you think aren’t getting the press they deserve, making you want to shout them from the rooftops?

Human trafficking is a big one, for sure. I’ve done a few stories related to that: a Giving Guide to anti-slavery organizations, a story about a group of teen girls who created a nonprofit group to rescue children from slavery in Ghana, and a profile of five former slaves who’ve transformed their traumatic experiences into something positive, serving as activists to help end human trafficking. An estimated 27 million people are enslaved, some even in the United States. True numbers could be much higher, as many cases of human trafficking are never reported to officials. I think it’s an essential issue for everyone to learn about. Also, if you can spare a few dollars, make a donation to an anti-trafficking group like the Somaly Mam Foundation or the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking to fund efforts to shut down human trafficking rings and provide counseling and support for former slaves.

We’re curious about the unusual name ‘Razoo’ – what the meaning behind it and why was it chosen to sum up the company?

A “razoo” is a New Zealand term for a coin of little worth. The word was chosen because it represents our vision of philanthropy – that everyone can make a meaningful contribution, no matter how small or large their individual donations are.

What can regular visitors to the website expect in terms of articles, news, updates and upcoming attractions?

We’ve recently started doing a “Daily News” section, with articles spotlighting current events related to social issues and philanthropy, including information on how the everyday person can help contribute to the cause. We’re also planning some big upcoming features, including interviews with celebrities (secret for now, but all will be revealed soon). But our biggest event of the moment is our March Goodness contest in which Razoo is giving away grants of up to $10,000 to the charities with the most donor supporters on Razoo. If you want to create a fundraising page for your favorite organization, you can also win an iPod. But it runs until the end of March, so there’s not much time left to get involved!

Image: batega

The post A Tiny, Priceless Coin: Interview with Kathryn Hawkins of Razoo appeared first on EcoSalon.