Party with a Purpose

My youngest sister is getting married soon and as we began planning her bridal shower I started to think of ways we could "go purposeful"with the shower.   Not wanting to steal the spotlight from my sis on this important occasion, I ran all my ideas through her first, but she is a Social Worker with a heart for helping others so she was on board immediately. 

Donations in lieu of favors are one way and are becoming more popular at Weddings and showers.  We decided that instead of trinkets, we would make a donation to Sole Hope.  A cheap $1 favor in my opinion just makes for clutter and with a big guest list can get quite pricey.  We thought of what a real impact a $50 donation could make to Sole Hope.  That would sponsor 5 pairs of shoes! 

Here is what we came up with for our fall bridal shower. On the back side the mission of Sole Hope is explained.

 

Here are some tips/ideas for doing this for an event:

• Pick a cause or charity that is significant to the persons being honored or the occasion. 
• I wanted each person to go home with the Sole Hope name and mission so we did do individual favors and candy, but you could just print out a piece of paper stating that in lieu of favors a donation was made to xyz charity and place it in a pretty frame on the gift table.
• Consider a fair trade favor- chocolates or coffee.

Now for the best part!  I have 20 extra fall cardstock printed Sole Hope favors.  I will give them to the first person to make a $25 or more donation to Sole Hope, http://www.solehope.com/donate/  .  Please put in the comments of your donation "party favors - Carissa" , then in the comments below let me know you have done so (I will verify with Sole Hope) with your e-mail address and I will contact you and mail them to you.  Bags and candy NOT included.

Would also love your ideas or suggestions for ways to purposefully party!  More posts & pics to follow about the other things we did to make this shower purposeful.

Fair Trade Finds

So most of the items I review I seek out online, take a chance and order them, but lately I've stumbled upon a few purposeful finds. The first are Krugers baskets.  The baskets are made from elephant grass by farmers in Ghana.  I found them for sale at a local farm stand.  Useful and beautiful, they are said to be long lasting.  I was happy to purchase a couple of baskets and encourage a retailer in offering these types of items. 

Second was a store called Ten Thousand Villages.  We were about an hour from our home out to dinner and had a few minutes to shop before having to be somewhere else and I saw this store. So disappointed that I couldn't spend more time shopping, but saw many things I really liked.  They have a store locator on their website to see if you have one near you, and hooray there is a store closer to me than the one I first visited.

Fair Trade items are out there, they may not be easy to find, but keep an eye out.. and please share with me your finds!

Y Not Help?

The idea for this post comes from my sister, a Social Worker with a big heart for kids.  If you want healthy living tips, check out her blog here.  She teaches an exercise class at her local Y and mentioned all the great things they are doing for the kids in that area.  For example, providing lunch over the summer to kids who would normally get free lunch at school but may miss that meal when school is out.  She points out, "they served grapes to the kids and some had never tasted them before and they grow right here in our county!"

If you have any experience with a Y you know what a great asset they are, not just to underprivileged kids, but to all kids and adults in the community. 

So, how about show a little love for the Y by ordering a cute Halloween tee!  They are SUPER cheap at $3.55 for white and $4.56 for colored choices.  This is a limited edition shirt and according to the Y shop's website, all orders are taken until 9/14 (that's Friday - so do it NOW) and are guaranteed to ship on 10/15.  Here is the link:  http://www.ymcastore.org/ViewCategory.aspx?det=1&cid=136

Would love to hear how the Y has benefited you or your community in the comments below.  Please share!

Fair Trade Fashion

A friend connected me with a fair trade fashion company called Mata Traders through twitter.  I have ordered from them twice now and have gotten some great deals on the clearance items.

Mata employs women in India and pays them a fair, living wage for their work.  Ironically, you can't guarantee that with most high end, high priced fashion you find at the mall. 

As with ordering all things online, read carefully the description of the fabric and look at the fit to try to decide if it will look good on your body style.  Their sizes seem to run true. For example, if you normally wear a size 10 order the size that corresponds to that.  

One caution, the items I ordered indicate they should be hand washed.  I'm not a big fan of high-maintenance clothes but the clothes I ordered were for special occasions so I didn't mind making an exception. 

In addition to their clothing, they have beautiful jewelry and a few household items. 

 

Shipping was a very reasonable $5.99.  The items were shipped quickly and arrived a few days from my order both times.

Thank you Mata Traders for bringing fair trade and fashion together beautifully.

 

Charitable Giving - with perks!

Ok, I admit it, sometimes a little "bribe",  or let's just call it a cool bonus is just the motivation I need to make that step and give to a cause I feel passionate about. 

Well just this week two opportunities with different online fundraisers have come up, both for really special projects.  The first, uses Kickstarter and is for an art collaboration. Light Gives Heat in collaboration with Sole Hope, (an organization very close to my heart) and IAMJ3 are working to bring an artist to Uganda to paint some life brightening murals on run down buildings.  The way it works?  You choose a donation level and there are cool, one of a kind - can't buy in a store, perks at each donation level.  If the project isn't fully funded at the end of the fundraising time, you don't get charged and if you do your donation is tax deductible.  Check it all out here, SOON because there is only 1 day left to fully fund this project! 

The second opportunity is through an online fundraiser called Indiegogo.  It is not an all or nothing fundraiser like the above, and is raising money to help complete a documentary on a fair trade company that makes soccer balls - yes fair trade SOCCER BALLS, called Senda Athletics.  There is about a week left on this fundraiser and some great perks at every level of contribution .  Check them out too! http://www.indiegogo.com/sendafilm

And just think how it will feel when these projects come to fruition to know that you had a part in making them happen!

Project 7

This one is SOOO easy folks!  No online ordering necessary, no big investment required; I'm talking  gum and mints that can be found in the checkout aisle at Walmart & Target.  Project 7 sells products that support 7 different purposes.  The products (in addition to mints & gum) are bottled water, coffee & apparel.  It's as simple as looking on the product you buy to see where your money will be directed. 

I recommend a quick visit to their website which is filled with great information on the products and projects.  Check out what the products look like so you know what you are looking for in the store and you can even type in your zip code and see which stores near you carry the items.

So no excuses!  This purposeful shopping is for everyone.

p.s. The gum tastes great too! 

Non-Profit Coffee

I've talked about Fair Trade Coffee in a previous post. It is pretty easy to find in stores and online in any form.  I decided to take it a step further and give a non-profit coffee company called Three Avacados a shot.  I am a keurig user and awful at brewing my own coffee so I was a little hesitant because they do not sell k-cups.  That problem was easily solved though with a reusable k-cup that allows you to brew coffee in a keurig (that's next week's review though). 

So what's so great about Three Avacados that I broke away from the easy peasy k-cups?  Well, 100% of their net proceeds go to providing clean water in Uganda, Africa.  Clean water is something I take for granted but it has the power to save lives.  It is so simple but so impactful.  How awesome that a delicious cup of coffee can change a life. And yes, it is delicious, like I would order it even if it didn't provide clean water to people in Uganda-good, as in this one cup per day person  wants another cup cause I just hit the bottom of the mug.  The best way to describe the taste is rich and smooth. 

I ordered a bag of the ground coffee and a Three Avacados travel tumbler.  Shipping with this was free but if you order the coffee alone, shipping is $2.95.  The coffee comes in a 12 oz. bag.  It arrived in just a few days, regular mail from Missouri and they included a couple stickers.  Not only is their coffee DELISH, the travel mug worked great on a recent trip.  I filled it up each day with hotel coffee, rinsed it out and reused the next day and saved a few cups from the landfill.  Their website contains lots of great information about their coffee, their projects and their mission including the story behind their name. 

Thanks Three Avacados for a great cuppa joe and helping me be a Conscientious Consumer.