Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with gift and donation

Need adopt-a-penguin recommendations. Yes, that's what I said.

NikitaNikita — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 17:21:15 -0800

Recommendations wanted for "adopt a penguin" gift donations. This penguin research organization came up, but can't find any info if it's legit or not. Links to other recommended/donation-worthy animal "adoption"/charitable gift sites welcome too. To clarify, I'm trying to make a donation on someone else's behalf as a christmas gift. I've done this at my local zoo, but I also need some penguins. :) Thanks!

Charitable giving for a 4-year-old?a

um_maverick — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 06:49:32 -0800

Help me present my 4-year-old niece with a way to donate to charity, as part of her Christmas present. For Christmas this year, I have a small gift for my niece who already has more toys than she'll ever need, but wanted to add a charitable side to it as well. I was thinking of giving her a relatively small sum of money (maybe 20-25 bucks) and telling her that she can use it to help someone else. My problem is how to frame this. Originally, I was thinking of asking her "do you want to help sick people, hungry people, kids, or animals?" and then donating in her name to American Cancer Society, a local food bank, a local children's home, or the ASPCA (or something along those lines). Is there a better way to do something like this on a level that a 4-year-old would understand? I'd like to make this a recurring theme for her birthday and other holidays where I would normally buy her gifts.

I came across this in the search, but it didn't seem to have the same focus as what I'm looking for.

Thanks!

Charities with online gift receipts?

GleepGlop — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 19:04:46 -0800

We are doing a $25 limit gift exchange where the recipient of the gift will be randomly chosen on the day. I want to give as a gift a $25 donation to a charity providing I can print off from my computer a 'gift receipt' made out to 'lucky recipient'. My first thought was donating to Wikipedia but I can't seem to find a way to get a gift receipt for it. A really good one would be if I could donate to a website where I pay the money and then the recipient logs in with a code and chooses what charity the money goes to. Any ideas?

What charity project shall I support?

badmoonrising — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 05:33:42 -0800

I'd like to donate a sum of money to a charity project, preferably an educational one, but I need some advice on which one to choose. This is a little long and rambly, so bear with me!

It's my 21st birthday very soon. My father has been hounding me for present ideas, and since I can't think of anything for myself I've come up with the idea of contributing to a charity project. I'm interested in education and am thinking of becoming a teacher, so I rather like the idea of building or equipping a classroom.

My preferred area would be South America, particularly Ecuador, since I spent some time volunteering there. This is negotiable, though.

The prices I've seen online for building classrooms range from £1700 to around £15,000. I don't know how much my dad is willing to spend (and it seems a little indelicate to directly ask him), but he is an exceedingly generous man and he originally suggested buying me an expensive new laptop, or paying for a holiday, so I think something in the high hundreds to low thousands would be OK with him. I'd rather err on the cautious side, though. My plan is to give him a few options (from, say, £500 to £3000) and let him decide which is closest to the amount he wishes to spend.

I know that the easiest option would be to simply donate a sum of money to be used at the charity's disposal, but I'd rather like the money to be used for one specific project. Also, most of the 'Oxfam Unwrapped" style giftshops seem very uninformative - they send you a greetings card and a certificate, in case you are making the donation on behalf of someone else. I know that personal gratification is hardly the point, but if I'm giving up a new laptop or a holiday then I would like more than a generic certificate. (Yes, I'm aware that probably makes me sound awful, but I don't care.) Something along the lines of some photos of the completed project, and maybe a very short report, would be lovely. Is this realistic, or is this kind of feedback only likely with much larger donations?

I've seen some rather suspicious websites, so I'd like to be completely certain that the charity I choose is legit and will actually use my money for the intended purpose.

I'd prefer a non-religious charity if possible, but I don't mind too much.

So. Does anyone on MeFi have any experience of this sort of thing and can offer any advice? Or does anyone have any suggestions of charities or projects? Many thanks in advance.

(In case anyone asks, Dad's absolutely fine with this - in fact he seems delighted with the idea. Also, in case anyone missed the references to pounds, I'm in the UK, but I don't mind donating to any nationality charity as long as it's above board.)

Is an appreciation gift appropriate here?

Ruby Doomsday — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 10:09:11 -0800

Two parts: 1. Is it appropriate to give a gift to someone to thank them for donated services? 2. If so, what kind of gift? My organization, a nonprofit, is having a grand opening event for our new location next week. We had planned on hiring a musician (something we've had at past events) to play background music while guests mingle, eat, etc.

However, due to our small budget it didn't look like it was in the cards this time - but a co-worker talked to a musician friend of hers and has gotten her to agree to play for us at no charge. It's a lunchtime event, about an hour commitment. There will be 75 to 100 guests in attendance.

So, since we are not able to pay her (and she understands that), I was thinking we could get her some kind of appreciation gift. We give public recognition to businesses that donate money and/or raffle prizes for our events, but since this is an individual who is giving her time (and doesn't really stand to gain anything from public recognition, though she is acknowledged in our program) it feels like something else is in order.

Any thoughts on whether it's appropriate (or even expected) that we get her something, and what kind of gift to give?

Double your money

mwhybark — Mon, 05 Sep 2005 16:41:14 -0800

Are there any matching-gift channels to make a Red Cross donation for persons who do not have employer-match? This is obviously a propos to Katrina, but I am also interested to learn if there may be permanent programs of this sort.