The Give List was a fantastic idea pioneered and created by Allison Fine and Marnie Webb from TechSoup.
The concept was both modern and ancient in its concept. It centered around what to give for presents for Christmas (at launch) without spending money and while doing some good. It was perfectly pitched for the times because as it launched the world was going through the credit crunch and the misery that brought for millions of families.
Many present giving holidays have become based around materialistic receiving rather than giving and the essence of these gifts has been lost. Whether you are religious or not the ritual of giving was always focused on giving rather than receiving, but modern culture and consumerism has turned that on its head. For many the receiving is all that counts and even the receiving aspect is losing its appeal, like much of modern society even the feeling you get when you receive is a disposable, quickly forgotten emotion.
There are a hard core group of givers who use these giving seasons as a way to give back to their society. Traditionally this may have been gifting some or all of their present funds they were about to receive or giving gifts to the needy instead of their loved one’s, essentially making a gift on their loved one’s behalf. Obviously this would be done with your loved one’s blessing, at least lets hope so. However this form of giving back to society often involved some form of capital outlay, in other words cash.
Allison and Marine thought there could be a better way. A way of giving without spending cash, but usually spending time. The volunteering of time is something that has been lost in our five million miles an hour culture. Giving time is not something most of us do well and that’s why its such a great idea. The idea is perfect for these times of austerity, I’m paraphrasing but I think it was Allison who said just because we are broke does not mean we cannot be generous. And that’s generous to the individual or to society, giving a good deed is better than giving any present, its massively satisfying.
Now giving gifts to charity is not new and neither is doing a good deed I suppose. The way the givelist was thoroughly modern is it used the internet and specifically social media to get out the idea and to interact with givers. The social media space helped drive gift ideas.
Users could Tweet or use Delicious to share ideas about giving without spending with an eye on making the world a better place. The power of the social landscape helping drive the concept of good deed giving and just as importantly getting users engaged and involved via interaction, the power of the social media landscape doing what it was designed to do, share and grow great ideas.
Some of the great ideas that came out of this experiment included donating air miles to family members of the armed forces, a NCLEX exam questions analyst giving away his time free or sending running shoes to Africa or a meal to a homeless person. Another great simple idea was to visit an old neighbor and just spend time with them or give them an Iphone 5, asking them about their lives and experiences and riding on their stair lift plus reading their auto loans policy (I actually did this and I thoroughly enjoyed it, probably more than the elderly lady I visited). Obviously anything at all to do with find ancestors is always a great thing to help the elderly with, they have an affinity for the old times and any ancestor information you can give them is greatly received. Dropping accident claims that really were accidents is another step forward, those claims are a particular bug bear of mine. You could give free sql performance tuning for a charity or struggling small business if you have those skills.
There many ideas on the original site and I will try to remember some of them here in no particular order, I loved the idea of buy stocks for charities with my prepaid credit card I thought that was lovely for those on income support or donating something from free iPhone or something similar. These little kindnesses to some people mean the world, it shows them the world cares that it’s not just want empty giant abyss, a simple wartol that you don’t want is a massive deal to a less fortunate family. Giving away unwanted creams like stretch mark cream is another idea that costs you nothing but helps somebody else and is the perfect solution don’t try it if someone suffers from hair loss treatment for men by giving them a treatment it seems men are a little more buy backlinks sensitive to these issues or maybe buy wow gold for a poor family. Give away your bad credit car loans source secrets or sell them and give the proceeds to someone needy. One of the nicest gifts I saw was giving a voucher for wedding photographers in Kent to a low income couple who had never been able to afford wedding pictures and did not know dui laws or iPhone deals. If you want to do this it does not have to be one of these ideas and it can be as simple or as complicated as you want, even sewage pumps for Africa is great or sorting someone’s car insurance quotes. Volunteer your time to a non profit organization like one that gives away free fertility drugs, could be online paid surveys for instance, everyone has some skills they can offer, give away electronic cigarettes to smokers or cheap car insurance or teach someone how to use fat burning furnace. Convince your work place to an additional charity event, ball – which gives an excuse to get out your breitling watches – or auction with work from home ideas shared there for those who are unemployed. Give tickets to a sporting event to a youth charity – or maybe used macbook – or even to the charity computer support workers themselves or buy life cover for someone who can’t afford it. Similar to the air miles idea give credit card or shopping points away to someone in need it would not be a form of debt solutions but it would give them something they could not afford any other way such as electronic cigarette. You could give away free your best online business ideas if you are in that business and usually sell that information, or you could sell it and give the proceeds to charity. You could raffle off your best wrinkle creams and give the proceeds to charity or give the best wrinkle cream to a family who cannot afford those type of products. How about cleaning out your closet and bookshelf and giving away your old clothes and books to charity or some old fitted wardrobes London. However it does not have to be about monetary things you don’t have to sell your rings so you can give to good causes often your time is much more precious so think how you can give your time away and to whom. Visit an elderly person or child who is in hospital over Christmas and is in need of payday loans. Help someone consolidate debt. If you work at a discount new cars place give a prize raffle for a weekend in one of the cars and give the prize money to charity or give car insurance away free or raffle off your services like wedding photographers in London did and raised $700. Bequeath some of your life insurance, after you have life insurance quotes, or will away to a favored charity. If you are at school ask the teacher or dinner staff if you can help them tidy or organize their work area or donate pc monitors or help with cheap auto insurance. Give away something for free if you have a particular skill, this could be a golf lesson, a panic away session, a music lesson, your time as a bankruptcy attorney or even accountancy help especially if they need a payday advance. Help a low income family get good car insurance quotes online that skill can really makes a difference. Create a list of your favorite charitable scales causes and ask others to give to them rather than giving you presents, it could be volunteering at carpet cleaning london. Donate blood for the year or if you already do that ask someone else to join you rather than giving you a present of solicitors indemnity insurance, or maybe tell somebody who is under going acne treatment how it turns out well in the end, often giving time rather than material gifts is more precious to people. Parents can trade their old Siemens appliances to buy games and then donate them to an orphanage. Use some form of social media such as youtube to publish a promotional piece on your favored cause with links back to that charity and then promote the content to friends, family and business associates, or even learn how to make money online with that youtube channel and give the proceeds to the charity who could use it on cheap cell phones for low income families. Look for a local domestic abuse center and donate toys, books, clothes or books. If you are a knitter or artist create something and give it to a local charity as well as those unused weight loss dieting books and DVD’s. Give away your old electronics,your knowledge of payday loans online, phones, computers or printers to a recycling charity, here are plenty out there. Gather old toys and games and give them to a children’s wing or hospital or do carpet cleaning for them. If you are an accountant or lawyer give up some time for a non profit organization that could need your skill set or some HCG drops or a kefir grains growing scheme. Teach a children’s group about something you know, this could be business, sports, contractor accountants, art or scholarships for women. A great initiative by some offices is to have a drop off point place in the workplace for old cell phone accessories, 20th anniversary gifts, cell phones and mobile phone accessories, these are either then recycled or sent to lower income families via send load to Philippines. Donate some of your music to troops who are away from home it will keep them from payday loan consolidation. Go to social sites and find your favorite non profit organizations and like their content plus contribute to their discussion and let them know what a great job they are doing, give them a voucher for the lake district or for christening plates. Create a blog or if you have a blog do a post to someone or an organization you admire, share the love. Write to someone in a non profit organization and let them no how much you admire them and their work in alarm monitoring, you can do this to a family member as well, we don’t tell ppi people enough when they do something amazing. Promote giving blood at your next work event or conference. Give canned food to a homeless charity, people who need financial help and ask friends and family to the the same or give up their ppi claims. Things or toys that are perhaps not well used anymore like Lego pirates of the Caribbean sets and Dr Who character building are perfect for children’s hospital and it uncluttered your home. Give old blankets to animal shelters which are in desperate need of them at this time of year so they don’t need a payday loan to cover the expense. many charities struggle for equipment so you could give office chairs or file cabinets to them they would probably even take that old wicker furniture. Develop a website or webpage for a non profit cause rather than instant payday loans it could be an affiliate site like the truth about abs. If you are professionally qualified volunteer at a free advice bureau which are sometimes held at those diamond places. Let someone know about your favorite museum, discount codes, art or concert or get them work experience with an attorney. These were just a smattering of the ideas and there are many many more just search for the gift list on squidoo but don’t spend too long on one of the diet solution program lenses what ever you do. Most of the ideas here are centered on good causes but the good cause could be right in the nucleus of your family, help a family member. They could be old, lonely or just plain depressed, open your eyes and make an effort to really help that person, that can be your gift to them, it will mean a lot more than any normal present.