By: Lisa Ng
Have you started your holiday shopping?
We’ve been scouring the web for our favorite gifts that have a give back to charity component for our 2018 Holiday Gift Guide. We also wanted to make sure it would be a cool gift that we would actually want to receive.
Here’s what made our 2018 wish list of gifts that give back to charity:
Urban Leaf Garden Kits
Have a foodie or gardener on your shopping list? We love this windowsill herb-growing kit which includes three garden inserts + three seed varieties. All you need are three empty bottles and a window to get started.
Urban Leaf partners with Mid Hudson Works a non-profit organization that provides employment opportunities for people with disabilities. This organization manufactures and assembles all of the kits! They also give 1% of their revenue to Teens For Food Justice, which provides urban farming education to food insecure children and access to fresh healthy food for their communities.
The Little Market Throw Blankets
The Little Market is a non-profit founded by women (including co-founder, Lauren Conrad) to empower women. The Fair Trade Indigo Mudcloth Throw is one of many cozy blankets that we love on their site. Each purchase of this particular blanket supports Mudcloth Artisans of Burkina Faso. Check out The Little Market for more home decor gifting ideas.
Parks Project
Parks Project features a collection of park goods that directly fund backlogged projects in over 30 National Parks and conservancies across the US. Their super hip clothing, prints, home goods and gear are perfect for the outdoorsy person on your list.
Laia Baby
Know a cute baby? Laia Baby makes adorable pint-size clothing, headbands, bibs, socks, and swaddles for the cutie in your life. All of their products are responsibly manufactured in Korea by mothers, including resettled North Korean refugees. The company is partnered with Knitting Harmony – an organization in Seoul that assists marginalized refugee women by providing work opportunities for the products made by Laia Baby.
Soapbox Soaps
Treat someone you love to a luxurious collection of bath and beauty products from Soapbox. They give a bar of soap to someone in need for every product sold and also support hygiene lessons in developing nations. Soapbox also works with local soapmakers whenever possible for the bars that are donated either in the US or abroad. The products come in gorgeous amber bottles that would make for a pretty host or hostess gift.
Tory Burch Foundation Seed Box
This amazing gift box from designer Tory Burch features products from women entrepreneurs. 100% of all net proceeds from the sale of The Seed Box benefits the Tory Burch Foundation which aims to help female entrepreneurs get their business off the ground with funding, mentorship, and resources.
Get It Girl Underwood Wine
We became HUGE fans of Underwood Wine while we were living in Portland, Oregon. Their wine in a can is perfect for camping, picnics, and BBQs for the convenience factor alone – not to mention that the wine tastes great! Each can equals a half bottle.
We love The Get It Girl x Wildfang wine collab which is an Oregon White Wine Blend. 100% of the profits from this special edition wine goes straight to Planned Parenthood for women’s rights. Order a four-pack as a gift or a flat to serve at your holiday party.
Detroit Friends Potato Chips
Who doesn’t love snacks? Gift your office mate or your secret santa a gift crate of chips from Detroit Friends Potato Chips. Some of the potatoes are grown on vacant land in Detroit’s Hope District. From there, the potatoes are cooked in small batches to become potato chips. A portion of the proceeds goes towards maintaining the local soup Kitchen or is used to create other financially sustainable grassroots projects in the Hope District.
Cookies For Kids’ Cancer
Want to send something sweet? 100% of the proceeds from cookies sold by this non-profit goes to fund childhood cancer research. Send someone you love a box of these delicious cookies and you will be funding research in the leading pediatric cancer centers across the country. They also offer a cookie-of-the-month club!
Foodshare Gift Baskets
This one is a special gift pick for our readers in Ontario, Canada. Foodshare has created these beautiful snack gift baskets. Each one features homemade goodies with all proceeds going directly into FoodShare’s programs to support healthy food access and food literacy initiatives in communities across Toronto. These gift baskets are available for delivery across Ontario, Canada only and they sell out early!
Thistle Farms
Products purchased from Thistle Farms directly supports the women survivors who make them. Gift someone you love relaxing essential oils, a soothing candle, bath and body products or a cute scarf or home decor item.
Thistle Farms is a non-profit social enterprise, based in Nashville, TN, dedicated to helping women survivors recover and heal from prostitution, trafficking, and addiction. They provide these women a safe place to live, a meaningful job, and support.
Causebox
This quarterly subscription box features a curation of socially conscious lifestyle products for women. The Causebox includes ethically-sourced items that give back. The box ships for free and is filled with an approximate value of $200 for a $49 quarterly fee with the option to pause or cancel at anytime. You can see past boxes on their site here.
Bombas Socks
Getting and gifting socks can be super fun when they come in the form of this Bombas Socks gift box. For every pair of socks purchased, another pair is donated to a person in need at a homeless shelter. Over 12.2 million pairs of socks have been donated to date.
TOMS
One of our favorite one-for-one programs is still TOMS. Some great items to gift include their super breathable and comfortable classic canvas shoes – that I LIVE in! The kid shoes are also super cute and they have a cool collection of sunglasses, cozy slippers, and boots as well.
Kiva Gift Card
Kiva is a microfinance program that is near and dear to our hearts. We have so far funded 60 micro loans, in 30 countries around the world and all it takes is $25 to lend out. To get started, gift a Kiva Gift Card to friends and family and help them build their microfinance portfolio. The dividend of helping someone change their life is priceless.
What are your favorite gifts that give back?