This year, consider how you can make your holiday gift-giving do double the good. By taking the opportunity to slow down, practice gratitude, and give back if we are able to, we can all help spread good cheer.
Helping Gather In-Kind Donations for a Charity
One way to give is to find out what items a local charity is looking for and see if you are in a position to help. Animal shelters typically have wish lists for items like towels, toys or harnesses. Homeless shelters or child care centers might be looking for books. If you don’t have anything that might match what’s on the list, consider encouraging friends, coworkers or neighbours to join in. It can be amazing how much groups can collectively give.
Using Matching Programs to Double or Triple a Donation
Check out if a charity has a #Matching Gift campaign underway. For example, The Canadian Red Cross is currently promoting that you can triple your gift thanks to two corporate partners – and if your employer also matches employee donations you could activate that as well for your year-end donation. Just contact your HR department to find out if your company offers this incentive.
Buy a lottery ticket as a gift from a local charity
While buying a lottery ticket isn’t eligible for a tax receipt, it can make a great holiday gift. A Heart & Stroke Lottery ticket https://www.heartandstrokelottery.ca or a ticket from your local hospital such as https://princessmargaretlotto.com/ are examples of these options.
Volunteer Virtually
If you have a home computer you can find many ways to volunteer from home. When volunteering virtually you can pick either a short-term task or a longer-term project. Examples can include advocating for causes, translating materials or helping organize campaigns. Check out https://volunteer.ca/ to learn about the many charities needing your help and the diversity of roles available. Volunteering is a great way to give back to your community while making use of your skills and feeling wonderful for helping over the holiday season.
Pay it Forward
You may have seen someone doing this at a local coffee shop – footing the bill for someone else’s coffee can really brighten their day. I know folks who offered to pay utility bills for seniors, bought turkeys to donate at local grocery stores, left gift cards at local gas stations or grocery gift cards at local food banks. Any way you choose to pay it forward could make someone’s holiday season.
Shop at Stores that Donate
- Tumeric Tea is an example of companies focusing on purpose as well as profits. Their buy one, feed one program ensures a portion of all sales is donated to charities like Food Banks Canada https://turmericteas.com/.
- Friday Sock Co. created a set of 3 socks and 100% of profits are given to the Canadian Down Syndrome Society.
- Patagonia is well known in Canada for its outdoor clothing and fans know they donate 1% of purchase prices towards environmental causes.
- Nobis for years has run the No Cold Shoulder campaign, gathering gently used coats at retailers in return for a beanie gift incentive
- M&M Food Market sells products with a portion of the proceeds supporting their partnership with BGC Canada (Boys & Girls Clubs).
- Hallmark and Unicef continue to partner each year on Holiday Cards.
- ShopOlaeda.com is a Toronto-based jewelry brand that donates for every purchase to The Period Purse, a Canadian charity working to achieve equity and reduce stigma.
- There are gift options for every price point – https://www.popsockets.ca/ – donate 50% of proceeds from these phone grips to partnered charities and Purdy’s Dear Santa Bar donates $2 from each bar to a Children’s Hospital Foundation. Purdy’s also enables Chocolate Fundraising Kits.
Companies with Foundations
- Companies like Canadian Tire have set up corporate foundations to support causes. The Canadian Tire JumpStart Foundation is dedicated to helping kids in financial need participate in organized sports and recreation with the aim of helping to develop important life skills, self-esteem and confidence.
- The Air Canada Foundation supports children’s health and safety by for example helping hospitals with the medical transportation and treatment of children in need.
- The Hudson’s Bay Foundation provides grants to Canadian athletes and mental health causes. 100% of proceeds from their Point Blankets are now donated to Indigenous Peoples through a partnership between the Foundation and the Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund.
- The Home Depot Foundation focuses on helping homeless young adults and runs a volunteer program called Team Depot. Net proceeds from their Toques help support the Foundation and Raising the Roof.
- Converse’s sneakers each year promote their All-Star Pride collections designed by LGBTQ2QIA+ employees and allies and you can also customize your own high-tops. Converse has donated almost $2.5 million in grants since launching its Foundation.
- The PetSmart Charities fundraise by selling the Chance & Friends Plush Toys and 10% from the sale donated.
- And BOBS charity from Sketcher’s aims to save and improve the lives of shelter cats and dogs with the purchase of their designated products.
Imagine Canada lists companies that commit to giving at least 1% of their pre-tax profits in support of their local communities https://www.imaginecanada.ca/en/caring-companies
You can also sometimes buy gifts directly from a local charity. Consider a membership from a local museum or art gallery – or perhaps a piece from their stores? https://shop.ago.ca/store/
Support Families at Sick Kids Hospital with gifts from https://thesickkids5fifty5shop.ca/
Canada Helps has donation gift cards https://www.canadahelps.org/
Rethink (breast cancer) makes its store available at https://www.giveacare.ca/
WWF has a range of gifts that might be suitable for an eco-conscious recipient via https://shop.wwf.ca/
And of course, there are well-known charities with holiday giving programs like worldvisions.ca/giftcatalogue
Happy Holidays. Stay safe and well.
*Note our blogs contain links to provide helpful examples, but we do not earn any advertising if readers click through and we will not respond to emails about creating affiliate links. However, if you are a registered Canadian charity, please email us with a link to your store or a #Give&Donate program!