See my earlier post on Charity Gift Certificates for a few ideas (my sisters and I are doing a Kiva gift certificate for our mom). You may also want to check out my post on Father’s Day Gifts for inspiration on honoring the people who guided you to be such a fantastic human being.
And how about these other philanthropically-minded gifts for mom:
Zhena’s Gypsy Tea
Zhena’s Gypsy tea. Zhena is a woman I heard about through a mutual friend. She started her business to help pay for medical care for her newborn son. Here’s what her web site says about her Fair Trade, organic supply chain practices:
“Through our Fair Trade activism, we give the women in our tea fields guaranteed maternity leave, health care and childcare- all of the things I needed when I had my own baby. I realize now how much of a difference I can make as a business owner with an understanding of human need and that I can change a small part of the world and improve people’s lives. I am so grateful to have this opportunity.”
I’ve never had the tea but it sounds amazing: Mango Ginger White Iced Tea, Brazilian Berry, Gypsy King Chai, just to name a few. Honor mothers everywhere by supporting Fair Trade businesses that provide them with decent working conditions.
“Shop the Cause”
A whole site dedicated to fair trade products that are produced by others in other countries. If you believe in Fair Trade but your mom doesn’t drink tea, you can find a whole range of great Mom gifts here, including jewelry and decorative stuff, made by and benefiting other mothers.
GoodGifts
Treehugger also directed me to Good Gifts, at www.goodgiftsshop.org. It features some wacky gift options like “Get a Brain cell” to help fund Alzheimer’s research. “Adopt a Vegetable” for a year is difficult to even understand, but I think it allows an organization called Kew’s Millenium Seed Bank to find and preserve a rare vegetable type.
But there are also some more compelling gifts, like clearing minefields, sponsoring midwives, buying books for blind children and Teaching a Mother to Read. The item descriptions list the name of the charity that will actually deliver these services, Good Gifts is simply the middleman.
Like many other charitable gift sites, you can announce your gift to the recipient with a paper card, an e-card or, uniquely, they’ll send you a “cracker” that your recipient can pull open to reveal the gift information. From the use of the word ”cracker,” you maybe guessed: the site is clearly from England, and lists price in pounds sterling. I assume your credit card would allow you to charge your gift and just convert the charge to the correct number of dollars, but if you want to know how much you’re spending, you can google “British pounds to US dollars” and get the exact conversion rate, or (since it’s almost two pounds for every dollar) just double the price listed to get a close approximation of how many dollars you would be spending.
TerraPass
Buy mom a Terrapass to offset the carbon emissions of chauffeuring everyone around all year. Go to www.terrapass.com and enter your car details. It will tell you how big your carbon footprint is and how much you would need to purchase in carbon offsets to counteract the effects of your driving and be “carbon neutral.”
According to the web site, “When you buy a carbon offset from TerraPass, your money supports clean energy and other projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”
As an example, my 2003 Chevy Trailblazer, driven 12,000 miles per year, creates almost 14,000 lbs of CO2. It would cost $69.30 to support enough projects that will prevent 14,000 of CO2 from being released into the atmosphere, and by preventing those emissions I am able to ”offset” the emissions from my car.
When you buy an offest, you also get a TerraPass window decal, so the world will know how cool your mom is and you have something to actually put inside her Mother’s Day card. You can also buy carbon offsets for Grandma’s air travel to see the little darlings.
Dining out?
If you happen to be in Washington D.C., DC Central Kitchen is a nonprofit ”social enterprise” that would make Mom proud. According to it’s web site, “Since its inception, DC Central Kitchen has used the kitchen as a central location to recover unused food, prepare and deliver meals to partner social service agencies, train and employ homeless men and women for the food service industry, and intellectually engage volunteers.”
In April, I know they had a partner restaurant that would donate 10% of its profits to DC Central Kitchen. I haven’t seen a new restaurant partner for May, but I’ll keep checking and update this post when I do.
I was also thinking I would love to give you a list of resources for finding a restaurant that donates prepared but unused food (day old bread, baked potatoes left at the end of the day, etc.) to food banks, through what are called “food rescue programs.” But I can’t find anywhere that lists these restaurants. Maybe because they change frequently, depending on their excess on any given day? If anyone knows how to find these partners, or why I can’t find them, please let me know.
Charity:Water
Check out this post which describes the $5 charity:water bracelets being sold through a partnership with Saks. I like this idea better than buying actual bottles of water that benefit charity, because we know bottled water has some unpleasant environmental side effects.
Treehugger.com
TreeHugger.com ideas. This site has great ideas for how to find all kinds of gifts that are meaningful, not commercial. Perfect for your mom. Something I had never considered: according to Treehugger, high-quality, durable items are more environmentally friendly because they last longer and don’t need to be replaced.
Update for 2009:
I’m updating this post for 2009 with new ideas and organizations that have come up.
TOMS Shoes
TOMS was started by a guy who saw a bunch of barefoot kids and decided to do something about it. His company makes shoes that are eco-friendly (and in some cases vegan) and for every pair that you buy, they donate a pair to kids who need them. And kids in developing countries need shoes to walk for water, avoid infection from foot sores, and to be admitted to school. A pair of shoes can have a profound impact on the course of their lives. A young life threatened by disease and illiteracy can turn to to one marked by greater health and productivity. So you can buy your Mom a pair of their shoes and TOMS takes a pair to a kid who needs it. Simple, eh?
