Posts tagged Change
How to Give: The 365give Top 5 Ways to “Give” for Free
Nov 5th
The Globe & Mail newspaper has been running a series on giving over the last few weeks. It’s an excellent series worth reading. One of the interesting catch phrases they have used is ”The New Philanthropy.” After giving back everyday for 365 days I can tell you that be a philanthropist is no longer just the rich giving large sums of money to the charity of their choice. It is every day people giving in small ways when they can with their time, crowdfunding a personal favourite cause or “texting” donation for disaster relief. We have learned that even $10 can make a multi million dollar difference if we all give together.
Wikipedia defines philanthropy perfectly in today’s society:
“Philanthropy etymologically means “the love of humanity“—love in the sense of caring for, nourishing, developing, or enhancing; humanity in the sense of “what it is to be human,” or “human potential.” In modern practical terms, it is “private initiatives for public good, focusing on quality of life“
I’m not an expert on giving / philanthropy by any means. I don’t have millions of dollars to give through a foundation nor do I have hours to volunteer or travel to remote parts of the world to save lives. But what I do have is a little time everyday to “love humanity,” Whether it is a person, an animal or the planet we can all be philanthropist. Big Brothers Big Sisters Canada posed a question this week on Facebook that you should answer.
“If you had 1 hour to help change the world what would you do?”
I want to help you discover the “new philanthropist” in yourself. I discovered so many ways to give that I never even consider or new existed during my 365 days of giving. Many of them do not even cost a dime. All you have to do is like, tweet or click and you can show your “love for humanity”. Social media has given us all the opportunity to be a philanthropist. Find your favourite medium whether is be Twitter, Facebook or just using the internet. We can all give a minute of our time to change the world.
The 365give Top 5 Ways to Give for Free
Click it for Good: This site is the creation of Jan van Voorst (Founder Planetsave.com news/ co-founder of Planetsave.) The site is grass-roots and user friendly. It allows you to help causes that support the planet without emptying your pocket but instead by spreading the word. All you have to do is click a button and share a post with your friends and you have made a donation. Sponsors make the donation for you! (Day 317)
JustCoz: This platform that enables charities, non-profits and NGOs to greatly increase their social media reach by way of tweet and status donations. Building on what is known as the “donation by action” paradigm, the bring forward the utilization of social power into the realm of passion. JustCoz enables people to make a difference by exposing their audience to messages which reflect their owns set of values and truths, and everything is done automatically, without the need to repeatedly engage in sorting through messages for those worth repeating. (Day 283)
The JustCoz Effect
Care2: This will allow you to become a 365 day giver. Care2 has a “daily action” that with just a click you can change the world. They refer to it as the “fast, easy and free way to make a difference everyday. (Day 289)
Freerice: A great way to teach your kids about philanthropy and they will learn along the way. It’s a bit like online trivial pursuit game that feeds the hungry around the world. For each answer you get right Freerice donates 10 grains of rice to the World Food Programme to help end hunger. (Day 31)
The Hunger Site: Whether you have a passion for helping feed the hungry, breast cancer, Rainforests, animals, child health, literacy, veterans, or autism you can give right from this site. You don’t need to be on Facebook or Twitter you can just click to give. Choose you passion and click every day. (Day 321)
Now we have no excuse not to give. Free and fast. Forget an hour our of your day in just 30 seconds you can give.
Do you have a favourite site you like to give by clicking? Which one of these is your favourite? Your feedback and comments are valuable to 365give. The more we can inspire others to give and share opinions and views on giving the more we can change the world one give at a time.
For daily philanthropic news and views follow me on Facebook or Twitter. Let’s change the world together.
Day 354: Family Give Day: The Sister Give
Oct 2nd
I think we have all heard the saying ‘Charity begins at home‘ and this week this could not be more true! My sister has started this movement, 365give.ca where she writes everyday, gives everyday to people she knows, people she does not know, the planet, international organizations and tons of other causes and projects. She has been giving for more years than anyone would know and I am thrilled that she has formalized her passion and energy into a public educational program.
But sometimes the giver needs a give. And sometimes your sister needs a give to get her over a large hurdle.
So the give today is to my sister, Jacqueline Way, and this give will continue for the ext few days as she gets settled into Mommyhood once again. See Day 353 on her newest family member and miracle.
Day 354: Give 354: The Giver gets a Give: guest post by Nicola Inwood
If you have not heard, my sister Jacqueline will be adopted a new baby this week. This has been a long process of waiting, some disappointments as there were some adoptions that did not go through, some heart wrenching moments and some great patience on her part. The day has come when she gets her greatest give, a new baby, and as her sister, I get to give her the greatest give, making sure that she has support for another passion, 365give.
We live in different countries, and at this point will not overload her house with yet another person to get in the way, I will from afar give my time and dedication to her 365give.ca site as she settles into motherhood2 (squared). The duty of 365give.ca will be taken off if need be and I will submit the posts, or tweet or post on facebook while she settles.
This is my give to my sister for as long as she needs.
The Giver is not the best Receiver
In case you are not aware, Givers are not the best receivers. There are many givers out there, many of you who read this blog are great givers and one of the downfalls of a Giver is that they do not receive very well. It is my hope that Jacqueline will become as good of a Receiver as she is a Giver in this circumstance. Having a new baby pop into your life without the 9 months of preparation is a big change, and I only want the best for her, her first born Nicolas and husband David in this case. So work with me people and lets give Jacqueline full support as she flips into this new family mode.
Remember your family when thinking about your give of the day
It is easy to forget about our own family when we are thinking about the give of the day. But charity does start at home and I am happy that on 365give.ca we can ironically come full circle. So I am dedicating this day today, as a Family Give Day, where each of us looks to our immediate family, husband, sister, brother, child or roommate and give to them today.
We have Fathers Day, we have Mothers Day, we have Secretary’s Day and Bosses Day, but for some reason we don’t have a Sisters Day or Brothers Day. Mexico celebrates Kids Day, El dia de los Ninos, but sisters and brothers seem to be forgotten in these celebrations. So in your give today, phone your sister, help them with a chore, take their kids, or tell them that you appreciate them. Write them a note like Jacqueline did on Father’s Day.
Sisters Day Today
So if the 365give voice seems a bit different, know that it is Jacqueline’s sister providing a give of the day to help her settle in. It may be one give it may be a series of gives, but the Giver is getting a give for as long as she needs it….
Time commitment – Does not matter
Price – Priceless, the opportunity to give to your sister is really priceless
Related Gives
My other sister gives to 365give on Jacqueline’s birthday
291: 5 Eco-Friendly Tips to Teach Your Kids to Give Back to the Planet
Jul 18th
My 3 year old son and I do many of my daily “gives” together. We had been planning one for quite some time and I had been putting it off due to time and my fear of picking up a hammer. Just so you know I am not “joe handy person” nor have basic building skills. But today I picked up a hammer and taught my son about reusing, recycling and how one person’s garbage can be anothers treasure.
Day 291: Give 291
The neighbourhood we live in in Vancouver has a lot of building going on of new homes. There are many old cottage style homes that are far from being able to save and new homes are going up on every block. We noticed that there is a lot of scrap wood that goes into these new homes that is thrown away and hauled off to a landfill. We walk past these building sites often and talk about what colour we would like to paint a house, what features like big windows we liked. One day I suggested we ask the gentleman at the building site if we could take some of the wood they were throwing away and we would build our own house in the backyard. A house just the right size for a 3 year old. That project started about 8 months ago by collecting the wood but it has been sitting in our garage collecting dust since. We had some extra time today and I decided it was time to build our eco-friendly house. It wasn’t going to be the perfect little blue and white cottage I had envisioned but it didn’t matter to my son. He was just happy to get his tools out, put on his hard hat and get to work.
We talked about all the special things our house would have that we should all consider when building or renovating our homes. These are my 5 tips for teaching your kids how to give back to the planet.
1) Use reclaimed wood for building supplies.
2) Have large windows for natural air-conditioning.
3) Build in a sunny spot to utilize the sun as a natural heater.
4) Have a roof that could drain rain water into a “barrel” to use to water our plants (notice the angle of our roof)
5) Decorate with eco-friendly paints that won’t hurt the planet (next part of our project)
Nicolas added some “lounge chairs” as he calls them, on the inside of the house also used from our reclaimed wood and soon the painting will begin. He has been given the freedom to decorated it as he chooses as long as it won’t hurt the planet.
It would have been easy for me to go buy some special already made plastic house at Walmart but instead we spent the time doing a special project together that taught him a few things along the way. We gave back to the planet by using materials that were right outside our back door and we got to spend precious time together doing a memorable project.
Do you have a special project you have done with your kids to help teach them how to take care of the planet? We would love to hear about it. Leave us a comment or send us a note a changetheworld@365give.ca.
Time Commitement: 1 hour
Cost: 0
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