Top 10 Gifts that Give Back

Gifts that Give Back!! These are the ULTIMATE Christmas presents!

I’ve rounded up some of my all time favorite gifts that give back this holiday season! These amazing companies are all making a big different around the world and I loooooove supporting them. Plus they’ve got super cute gifts that I know everyone is going to love!

1. ONE HOPE Wine – Who wouldn’t want to drink some bubbly while knowing that their purchase is making a difference. Pop a cork on this one and know that 50% of profit are going to an awesome charity! charity: water is a non-profit bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations. In six years, charity: water has funded more than 6,000 water projects in 20 developing countries, providing clean, safe drinking water for more than 2.5 million people.

2. Heifer International – Goats! Quite possibly my favorite creative gift of all times. On small farms, goats are often the key to a family’s survival. Give a goat to a family in need. Along with training and education in its care, each goat gift donation provides milk, cheese and butter for nourishment as well as boosting income through sales of extra milk and wool and encourages better crop yields by creating fertilizer and clearing land. OR… give a cow! Or a camel. Or a bunch of chickens. Heifer has it all and it’s one of my all time favorite organizations on this entire planet.

3. Mango Wood Bamboo Salad Servers This beautifully hand-carved set of mango wood and bamboo salad servers is perfect for serving up basically anything you make. Made from sustainably harvested mango wood and intricately inlayed with slices of bamboo branches by fair trade artisans in Bali.

4. The Giving Keys Necklace  The Giving Keys exists to employ those transitioning out of homelessness to make jewelry out of repurposed keys that get sold and shared around the world. Each key is unique and carries a message like HOPE, STRENGTH, DREAM or COURAGE. When the wearer of the key encounters someone else who needs the message on the key, they give it away and pay it forward.

5. unicef Knit Hats How cute are these knit caps?!? At a safe house in western Nepal, young women knit festive winter caps, a marketable skill that they learned during vocational training. Many of the women were rescued from traffickers or are at risk of being trafficked. Knitting provides the chance to earn a fair income, offering hope as well as a livelihood for a new life.

6. World Wildlife Fund Animal Umbrella  Adorable and trendy umbrellas are pretty amazing – and this is my current fav! Donate to WWF in support of their global conservation efforts and then select this oversized golf umbrella as a thank-you gift.

7. Orange Blossom Bath Salt  Buy a jar, give a bar!   For every jar of bath salt sold, Hand in Hand donates a bar of soap to a child in the developing world to help reduce deadly water-related illnesses, and saves 50 square feet of rainforest. This is just plain AWESOME!

8. Pink and Yellow Striped Basket  The women of Ngambenyi and Bungule – two of the rural villages around Mount Kasigau in the Southern part of Kenya – have made weaving beautiful baskets their livelihoods along with farming. Apart from the income-generating aspect, basket-weaving groups have also become a place where women can socialize, discuss ideas and entrepreneurship.

9. fashionABLE scarves Remember that time I went to Ethiopia a few months ago! Well, here’s your chance to bring a little bit of that experience to your life. Your purchase of a fashionABLE scarf or leather clutch creates sustainable business in Africa.  fashionABLE is committed to long-term solutions to fighting poverty, and their main focus is creating opportunities for vulnerable women.  That means that your purchase of a scarf or clutch creates jobs, so that the women are not dependent upon charity, but instead are a vital part of a developing economy.

10. Mango Grapefruit Candles Raven + Lily currently help employ marginalized women in Ethiopia, India, Cambodia and the United States at fair trade wages to give them access to a safe job, sustainable income, healthcare, education, and a real chance to break the cycle of poverty for themselves and their families. Every product from Raven + Lily is handmade, fair trade and eco-friendly. The USA Collection currently features hand-poured soy candles, infused with incredible scents of the woodsy outdoors or tropical fruits, empowering formerly homeless women in Los Angeles.