We received an email today from a business organisation who were looking to make a contibution to charity instead of sending Christmas cards. I’m happy to say you can do both at the same time! UNICEF Christmas Cards are a great way of sending seasons greetings to clients, co-workers or even friends whilst still making a donation to a good cause. In fact Xmas can be a difficult time as we spends hundreds of pounds on gifts that may never be actually used (socks and christmas jumpers anyone?) but you can buy a gift and make a difference by purchasing through a charity programme.

We have launched a new site which brings together the main providers of Charity Gifts to help you find a cause that you want to support that offer a gift programme. This is a great way to make a donation to charity - and also show loved ones that you care for them as they will be notified that you have purchased a charity gift in their name. The gifts range from buying a toilet (which is put to use in the country where the charity is working!) to adopt an animal programmes where the recipient receives a gift pack - in the case of the WWF including a cuddly toy, my Nan loved it!!!

>> Click here to buy Charity Christmas Cards from UNICEF

>> Click here to read more about the UNICEF Charity Gift Shop

There’s an interesting story that appeared on the Donation4Charity radar today….. about scientists at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL).  They’ve been studying some unprotected areas of Sumatran forests that has recently been allocated to clearance for plantation forest and they’ve discovered that this area is ’safe-haven’ to a variety of threatened species, including tigers, elephants, tapirs, golden cats, clouded leopards and Malayan sun bears. 

And it was the sun bear aspect of the story that particularly caught our notice because the Malayan sun bear (Helarctos Malayanus) is undoubtedly one of the least well known of the eight bear species in the world.  Also known as the dog bear or honey bear, after its love of honey, it’s the smallest of the eight bear species - Asiatic black bear, spectacled bear, American black bear, giant panda, sloth bear, polar bear, and brown bear being the rest of the world-bear-list. (more…)

While cruising the blogsphere we came across an excellent blog article about how charities put their donations to good use at Fundraiser Insight. Fundraiser Insight is an excellent site that is aimed at helping those in need of raising funds. Although it has a mainly North American focus the article features some UK based charities as well as bigger world wide organisations such as Greenpeace, WWF and Friends of the Earth. The article gives a breakdown of 12 charities and comments on how suporters donations are used to fund their organisational goals. A brief description of our selected charities is provided below but please read the excellent article for the full story!

• World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
  One of the best known organizations for the protection of endangered species and their habitats around the world the WWF have been around for over 45 years. The WWF’s goal is to conserve 19 of the world’s most important natural places by 2010. The WWF’s financial information is available on their website so you can be see exactly how your money is being used wisely. To give you an idea on how they are funded - in 2006 56% of  revenue came directly from contributions such as their WWF adopt an animal programme. The stats also say that 83% of their money was spent directly on their program expenses which is great as 83 cents of every dollar has gone to their conservation programs. You can help the organisation by getting a WWF membership or signing up for their animal adoption programme.
• Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB)
  The RSPB was Founded in 1860, originally to save the great crested grebe, an almost-extinct bird in Britain and Ireland. The organisation has since gone from strength to strength and now protects millions of species of birds in the UK and is one of the most influential organizations in conservation and preservation of the environment. 80% of rare, threatened bird species are housed in the 200 nature reserves owned by the RSPB which rely on volunteer efforts and their RSPB donations. In terms of finances they made £88,294 in 2006, of which £63,757 was spent directly on their campaigns, mostly on their nature reserves. RSPB donations are actually a great gift for bird lovers as they receive a gift pack and FREE entry to RSPB run reserves.

>> Read the full article at Fundraiser Insight