Any Seinfeld fan worth his marble rye remembers the episode in which George tried to avoid buying Christmas presents for his co-workers by making donations in their name to “The Human Fund”—which would have been a nice idea if it wasn’t a complete fake. But take that idea, apply it to real charities, and you’ve got something: The GlobalGiving card, an atypical gift card that you can load up with money and give to your favorite do-gooder. In turn, the recipient can donate the balance to the project of their choice via globalgiving.com. The organization supports a variety of causes—providing housing to women in Uganda, funding solar electricity systems for low-income families, making medicine readily available to HIV patients—and allows cardholders to choose projects according to topic, region, or financial need. The gift is good for up to one year, at which point any unused balance will be donated to a general fund that’s allocated to projects with almost-full funding (but that need a little help to meet their goal). And to top it all off, the card itself is made from corn and totally biodegradable.

So let’s review:

Something physical to put under the tree? Check.
Finding a gift for the person who has everything? Check.
Eliminating unnecessary waste? Check.
Funding a worthy cause? Big check.

Kelley : Reinventing X, Sustainable living, Stuff We Love
December 14th, 2007