Though the title of the book sounds crabby, Joel Waldfogel has a point that’s really about bringing joy to people we care about enough to buy presents for. The Wharton professor and author of “Scroogenomics: Why You Shouldn’t Buy Presents for the Holidays” says in Time magazine that when we buy things for ourselves, we only pay what it’s worth to us.
But when we buy things for other people, we’re more likely to overpay and throw the economics of value out of whack. It’s bad for us, because we overspend and tend to rack up debt. And it’s bad for the recipient, because they get something they might not value instead of something they would have really valued and enjoyed for the money we were willing to spend on them.
Most of us intend to bring joy with the gifts we give, but it’s easy to miss the mark, even with good intentions. So how to we actually accomplish our goal of making the gift recipient happy?
One way, Waldfogel points out, is to buy gift certificates so the person can buy something they really want. But another way, he also recognizes, is to give to someone’s favorite charity instead of buying them things. If you don’t know their favorite charity, you can use a site that allows for charity gift certificates, where your recipient gets to choose the ultimate beneficiary of the donation.
Giving to charity is often seen as a luxury, and it makes us feel good. Two great attributes for any gift.
Additional sites that allow for your recipient to choose between many different charities:
- Global Giving Gift Cards Individual grassroots projects that are screened and presented
- Network for Good “Good Card” Give to any charity of your choosing, powered by Guidestar
- Just Give “GiveNow Card” Also any charity in the Guidestar database.
- Charity Choice Gift Cards 100 pre-selected, high performing charities in 12 categories
Tags: charity, gift certificates, holiday giving, philanthropy, Scroogenomics
