Doing good deeds at Christmas.
Two traditions in my birth family: a birthday cake for baby Jesus, and a $25 CARE package lieu of some presents from Santa. Singing happy birthday to baby Jesus wasn't ever my cuppa, butI liked the CARE package idear a lot, and when I returned from China with a new, non-Chrisitian husband, we decided together that the CARE package was a lovely concept. In the process of giving, CARE got one of my names wrong. But it worked out as a good marker: whenever that set of names showed up, I knew CARE had made a bit more money selling my name.
The thing was, in the next five years, we averaged 15 or twenty requests a year from CARE itself. And in the twenty years it took to wear out that one name, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of requests from CARE and other charities. Since at that point I was pretty angry, and vowed never to give openly that way again, I figure that my one $25 donation actually cost CARE and a lot of other charities a good bit of money.
Now, I consider that NOT giving is the best gift I can give them. And keep my giving one to one. No overhead costs at all. It's a little more work, but hey. . . .
2 comments:
Well, perhaps I can change your mind. It occurred to me that for people
Who have too much of everything,
Pure pleasure and inconspicuous consumption can be realized
With a monthly or yearly contribution in their honor to Democracy for America.
There would be nothing to open and nothing for the trash and not even their name on a list for future renewals.
HQ is having holiday cards designed to invite new members, but some people aren't joiners so perhaps we could get a message to download that would just tell them of the gift made in their honor.
Also, Monisha suggested that the businesses of New Orleans who have opened but have few customers could possibly sell stuff over the internet, if they have a web site. So, we're working up a list of likely participants, including some who might offer just gift certificates for future visitors and I've modified the Kathrina button to put on web sites and direct traffic to the index of businesses which Hannah blog can host. We need to generate some cash flow. If it becomes a DFA project then each affiliate in all the states could participate in generating traffic.
It needn't stop with the holidays just ahead, but can transition right into Mardi Gras.
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