Tis the season for gratitude, and we’re grateful for the give back gifts that offer sustainable options to help others, support good causes and let us skip long lines.
Put one of these give back gifts on your holiday list. Accelerate the journey towards a more sustainable future this holiday season.
Fund Wildlife Conservation around the World
A friend whose daughter is in love with snowy owls discovered that the Sierra Club offers snowy owls and bison among their collection of virtual animal adoptions ($49 and up often includes a plush toy). Discover your own adoptable tarantula or honey bee. If you can’t choose, let the next family vacation drive the decision. Protect an armadillo, for example, if you’re heading for Big Bend National Park in Texas.
Explore opportunities to help protect other endangered animals with the World Wildlife Fund. In addition to research, they sell wonderful gifts that give back. For $25 and up, your family funds a Symbolic Adoption that helps conserve an elephant, polar bear, tiger, orca, panda, snow leopard or other species. At the $60 level and higher, WWF will send adorable plush replicas of the adopted animals.
The koala population has been declining in Australia due to the loss of habitat, bushfires, disease and domestic dog attacks. Fortunately, Koala Conservation Australia Limited of New South Wales rehabilitates these cute animals when they’re found sick or injured. Their Adopt-A-Wild-Koala e-program starts at A$50. Donate a bit more (A$80 for overseas families) to receive a story about your specifically chosen koala, a booklet about koalas and more. If you’re on your way to Australia, select an ‘Exhibit Koala’ so you can visit them in the hospital. Adoption money helps treat and rehabilitate koalas with the goal of releasing them back to the wild.
Give Back Gift to the Oceans
Adopt a sea turtle or manatee — or an Orca, for those who think big. It’s the ideal gift that gives back to marinelife lovers and the world’s oceans. The non-profit organizations that raise money by selling symbolic adoptions run many real life events and educational programs year round.
Adopt-A-Sea Turtle gifts animal lovers with a personalized Adoption kit and plush toy ($56) from the Sea Turtle Conservancy. Once adopted, follow the turtles they are tracking by satellite. Plus, teens may be interested in opportunities to volunteer in Costa Rica or Panama as a research assistant. The STC has done this important work for more than 50 years.
Why not Adopt-A-Manatee for just $25? Save the Manatee was co-founded by the late Jimmy Buffett, singer, songwriter, marine life activist and hotel owner, who championed their cause. STM also promotes sustainable and eco-tourism events around central Florida. At many of their programs, see the creatures up close. You may even meet your adoptee.
Washington state’s Adopt-an-Orca program is run by the Whale Museum in Friday Harbor, San Juan Islands. Select the Orca of your choosing from the three pods living offshore. Invest $50 and up per year to find out how they’re doing and learn much more about this unusual breed. Contributors get a free yearlong membership to the museum and 10% off at their gift shop.
Support People’s Lives with Gifts that Give Back
Support nonprofit groups whose work represents an incredible give back gift for all ages. Recipients say that even a greeting card with a powerful story is well worth receiving.
Oxfam America is a nonprofit organization committed to ending the injustice of poverty. At Oxfam, make a donation to fund the purchase of any number of items. Your $60 gift trains a local volunteer to be a community health care worker. Fund the construction of an emergency toilet for $250 or give $510 towards a cash-for-work program for six months. Recipients receive an e-card describing the contribution.
Heifer International is charitable organization that donates livestock, poultry, agricultural products and more to support people around the world. Their online holiday marketplace is also full of hand-crafted ornaments and toys (from $15) and sustainably farmed items. Hear moving stories about donated heifers ($500) that helped families build new houses, a goat ($120) that provided warm milk for children, and a flock of chickens ($20) that fed them. Partial contributions from $10 and up are pooled with others to fulfill these needed gift items and to support educational programs in lesser developed regions.
Kids to Kids Direct Giving
Help your child give a gift to another child through Save the Children, for an incredible bonding moment. Choose from an online catalogue of ‘gifts’ ranging from $15 (one soccer ball) and up. Hospital essentials, for example, include sterilization materials, cleaning supplies, blankets and fuel for generators. This charity lets you focus your donations on relief and emergency funding, at home or overseas.
Support many other worthwhile groups in person by signing up your family for a volunteer vacation next year. Read our “How to Volunteer” guide before planning that special trip.
Give Back Sites & Auctions for Good
To raise money for a variety of causes, upcoming projects, and non-profits, the online auctioneers at Bidding For Good can’t be beat. Schools, youth groups and other non-profits use their Commerce for Charity system to upload donated Major League Baseball tickets, Paris walking tours, collectible Barbie dolls or Amazon gift cards so everyone can take part in the worthwhile bidding process.
Want to give back with your child through a family donation? Among many sites out there, the educator-founded DonorsChoose.org allows families to pick what type of school project, field trip, sports team, activity or need they want to support. Search together through the collection of actual requests made by teachers around the United States.
Don’t use this holiday to give another unwanted gift that will soon be forgotten. Instead, help a good cause and let your child (or your nanny, or your neighbor, or your boss) take part in a kinder world.
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3 Replies to “Give Back Gifts that Give Back and Help Others”
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Good morning,
I wanted to give you some feedback…. We went to your site to determine what documentation was needed for my grandson to travel with me to Canada, and printed out two forms. We had one of the forms notarized as suggested, and set out on our trip the next day. When we arrived at the border, I was told we did not have proper identification! The page we had been working from on your site did not say anything about a birth certificate or photo ID, which they said I should have had. PLEASE amend that page to say something like… “In addition to a birth certificate and photo ID, these other documents are recommended…”
Thank you so much for your responsiveness. You may mention this on other pages on your site, but it really should also be on the documentation page.
Janet Gill
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Does Australia require a PERMISSION TO TRAVEL letter?
Oahu is famous for its surfing beach at Waikiki, and that’s where many tourists take their first lesson. There’s calmer water as well as huge waves (if you know how to catch them) and there are many, more popular schools right there on the sand.
You don’t have to stay at a fancy hotel ot take lessons even though some schools are affilated with them; any surf guide will take you to other parts of the island and practice safe surfing with you.
My apologies, Michelangelo's David is not in the Uffizi, but in the Gallery of the Accademia. We did not travel to the Uffizi; the Gallery is the museum which houses David, and all of Michelangelo's bound slave statues.
Happy Travels!
Like you’re going to see any tourists riding the Banzai
What about tourist friendly surf spots?
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Just for clarification, it doesn't matter if a certain casino is the largest/smallest, the thing is that gamblers all over the world could play casino games they've wanted. As long as all types of games such as pokers, slot machines, etc. are available, then it's the type of casino we've always wanted in the first place. Well, we can't deny the fact that there's a lot of larger casinos in Netherlands…. 🙂
Usually it's better to confront your fears. If you choose to do so, as a parent you can start prepping your child with a couple of weeks before the flight. Try taking him to an adventure park where there are similar crafts to airplanes. And step by step you will get him used to flying. Otherwise, if you start drugging him since a child, as you said no good doctor can recommend it. I'm not sure if you would like to take him to rehab because he'll be getting to used to taking too many drugs all the time.
hi all 🙂
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These are really good places to go on a family eco friendly vacation. Very beautiful with amazing nature. Eco vacations are getting more and more popuar nowaday and it is good that people appreciate the nature.
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Thanks ….Family Travel Forum's guide to the best family attractions, parks, museums, and events in New York, I bookmark this site.
your link for disney land does not lead you to disneyland, it goes to Catalina Island info
Thanks for the heads-up, we fixed the link and hope you were able to find what you needed about Disneyland.
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Going to the theme parks without the kids is FUN FUN FUN 🙂
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I have been meaning to write something like this on my website and you have given me an idea. Cheers.
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Olive Restaurant is the first terrace restaurant in the old town Istanbul. Olive Restaurant is a part of YaÅŸmak Hotels which has the experience of hospitality since 1955. At Olive Restaurant, you can feel the past and present together. You will pursue the trace of history just by looking at the Panoramic view of Istanbul Peninsula. The amazing view of St. Sophia, Topkapi Palace, Bosphorus lays out in front of you with an amazing harmony together. On the other side, welcomes you the Golden Horn which is a heritage from Genoeses while you are enjoying various delicious tastes of Turkish and International cuisine.
The 3-star Hotel Olimpiyat Istanbul offers comfortable accommodation in a fantastic location, just steps from the most famous symbols of the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires, including Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, and the bustling Grand Bazaar!
Olimpiyat Hotel is a modern three star hotel built in 1955 and fully renovated in 2006. It is located in the old town of Istanbul and in a walking distance to major attractions as well as the port and famous train station Orient Express!
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Don't forget Bob Megraw's Blueberry Patch in Kent! They always have the sweetest selection! Check out this other list I found for u-pick spots around Seattle:
http://www.redtri.com/seattle/5-natural-blueberry-u-picks-near-seattle
any idea about what time leaves turn? thanks, lmccutch@aol.com
We are hosting our first exchange student this year with EF Foundation for Foreign Study! Our family can't wait until he arrives!
I only wish I could host 3 students instead of two! Love EF
My family did this a few years ago and had a great experience. Highly recommended!
Scottsdale, Arizona is known as ‘The West’s Most Western Town’. With average of 300 sunshine days Scottsdale is fast becoming a popular tourist destination. There is plenty to do in this beautiful resort town.
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Hosting an exchange student is a life changing experience for both students and host families! There is so much we have to learn from each other. Getting to know more about a new culture is exciting at ANY age.
As the Director of International Programs in a private school, I have worked with recruiting & placing foreign exchange students in host families. The bonds between host and student become cemented over time and even after the official host experience ends, families continue to be involved. If you are considering becoming a host, I recommend talking with an experienced host family to get the good, the bad and the ugly. Somehow, the good always dominates the experience.
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The weekend gateways and short trips from the Dallas are quite interesting. I found the Hope watermelon festival more interesting. All the road trip options are gr8!
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"The Mohegan Sun, which claims to be the second largest casino in the world and the largest convention and meetings destination in the Northeast, opened in 1996 and was expanded in 2001."
Wow! is it for real? I bet theres larger casinos in Netherlands than that. — http://nl.unibet.com/casino
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That was great!
Awesome job! Sounds like a fun trip!
I like how you described sights you saw. and how much fun you had. I enjoyed reading
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