Creative Synthesis

As we find ourselves deep into the Holiday season, we might be thinking of what last minute gifts we need to get. As a nonprofit, we’re always thinking that charitable giving is the best kind of gift (legos come in as a close second). While we might want to think that we are the most deserving of everyone’s charitable giving there are plenty of games in town. This is a list of some of the nonprofits and charities that we think are doing innovative things, have innovative ways to contribute or are just plain creative companies. Oh and don’t forget that we need your money too.

Our Nonprofit Gift Guide

The Present Group is like a mutual fund that produces art instead of profits. The premise is that subscribers (investors) contribute yearly to give grants to contemporary artists. In return the subscribers get some original artwork (the return on investment), paid quarterly. The art funded actually tends to be pretty innovative. An early work, Anthropotic by Ethan Ham and Benjamin Rosenbaum, is a work of pictures and text that showcases the false positives returned by a face seeking computer bot turned loose on flickr. The results are the faces that only the robot sees, things humans can instantly dismiss as wrong. The idea that a donation nets you a piece of art while at the same time supporting artists in an intelligent way makes us feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

How to get involved: Invest in for you own art or give some to a friend or family member. A far superior alternative to the fruit of the month club, the art from the present group is actually innovative and interesting (although not always edible).

Miro, if you haven’t heard, is a free and opensource solution for internet tv. Subscribe to lots of feeds and you have tons of great video content to be watched. This makes miro nice, but what makes it nicer is the mission. Miro is put out by the Participatory Culture Foundation. A non-profit organization, their mission is to build a more open and diverse world of online video. A non-very-accurate but somewhat tangible comparison would be to liken them to PBS, except they don’t make the content - they just facilitate the process.

How to get involved: An easy first step would be to just try miro out and let people know if you like it. A second step might be to suggest miro to someone else, you could even make a feed list of things they might like (that’s a personalized holiday gift, an extra techy mix-tape). Last, but not least, you can donate or shop for miro swag - fighting for the cause.

Child’s Play is a charity that points out that children being able to play isn’t always… well, child’s play. Creating by the authors of the popular comic penny-arcade, child’s play helps children in hospitals across the states get some toys to play with - hopefully making a stressful experience a little better. Things like video games end up as commodities for the hospital’s permanent use, while smaller gifts (think teddy bears) are given as presents.

How to get involved: Either find a hospital and donate a toy (through wishlists on Amazon.com) or donate money directly. Either way you can rest assured that you really will make a difference in a child’s life.

(Product) Red isn’t really a charity, its a business model. The idea is that anytime you buy a red product (some of them are physically red, others are more… ah, *spiritually* red) the company donates some of the profit to distribute anti-retrovirals to Africans with AIDS. Think about it as being complimentary to your holiday shopping. When you go to buy something, there might be a red option. One of the more salient ones, for example, is the red iPod. You might have just thought the red one was a color option. Not so, every red iPod is a (product) red iPod.

How to get involved: This one is pretty easy. Like the color red? Buying something from Gap, Converse, Apple, Hallmark, Emporio Armani or Motorola? Get the red version. The money donated may seem negligible, but the impact can be pretty high (so don’t forget why you bought the red one when someone asks you).

Kiva demonstrates that sometimes simple charity isn’t the best solution. Investing in a business, and actually expecting that business to succeed can be a powerful motivation. Kiva lets you connect with and loan money to unique small businesses in the developing world. By choosing a business on Kiva you help the world’s working poor make great strides towards economic independence. Throughout the course of the loan you get status updates from the business you’ve invested in. As loans are repaid, you get your loan money back.

How to get involved: Find a business to invest in. Any amount (as low as $25) could be enough to make a different for an entrepreneur in the developing world. You get the satisfaction of giving a new venture a leg up without feeling that you’re just giving a handout.

The Freedom Toaster Like vending machines, preloaded to dispense confectionery, Freedom Toasters are preloaded to dispense free digital products, including software, photography, music and literature. The Freedom Toaster project began as a means of overcoming the difficulty in obtaining Linux and Open Source software due to the restrictive telecommunications environment in South Africa, where the easy downloading of large pieces of software is just not possible for everyone.

How to get involved: Ok, this one isn’t as easy - but it could be a lot of fun. Just build a toaster. The instructions for doing so are readily available. The chances aren’t that great that the toaster you build will be that useful to you personally, so don’t just leave it in your home. See if you can get it placed in a community center, local nonprofit or a similar organization. Even better, build it and send it somewhere they really need it.

The Taproot Foundation, unlike others that make cash grants, makes grants of high-quality, professional consulting services, called Service Grants. Through their Service Grants they provide high-potential nonprofit organizations with the tools and services necessary to maximize the impact of their critical work in the community. Where do these professional consulting services come in? Oh that’s your job.

How to get involved: Put your mouth where your money is. Instead of just donating cash, get out and do some work. Any vaguely kind of professional job could be immensely useful to a nonprofit. Taproot builds focused and managed teams to work with nonprofits - ensuring the experience is valuable for both parties.

One Laptop per Child has made a mission of empowering the children of developing countries to learn by providing one connected laptop to every school-age child. In order to accomplish this goal, OLPC needs people who believe in what we’re doing and want to help make education for the world’s children a priority, not a privilege. More selfishly, until the end of the year anyone can donate to get the innovative XO laptop. The program, give one get one runs through December 31st and a donation of $400 gives one laptop to a child and nets you 1) A laptop 2) A tax deduction credit for the cost of the laptop you donate and 3) One year of T-Mobile hotspot access.

How to get involved: Get a laptop for your child (it’s ok, we know its for you). If you really aren’t interested in the XO, you can simply give and if you know lots of people you can give many.

DonorsChoose was pioneered by teachers at a Bronx public high school in the spring of 2000. Charles Best, then a social studies teacher, saw first-hand the scarcity of materials in our public school classrooms and the profound impact of this scarcity on kids’ education. Looking for a way to address this problem, he sensed an untapped potential in people who were frustrated by their lack of influence over the use of their charitable donations. DonorsChoose addresses this by connecting classrooms in need with individuals who want to help. The premise is simple. A teacher posts a classroom project that needs money. A donor finds a project that they care about. Students learn.

How to get involved: Find a project that seems valuable to you. The criteria might depend on the locality, the kind of school or the kind of project. It doesn’t matter. You can fund all or party of a project and see how successful the experience was for the children.

GOOD Magazine accurately describes itself as the magazine for the person who gives a damn. Focused on change, GOOD provides a platform for ideas, people and business to make a positive impact. Even the subscription isn’t quite like other magazines. Some of your subscription fee goes to help a nonprofit. And by some, we mean 100%. And by ‘a nonprofit’ we mean a nonprofit that *you* choose. GOOD gives you a double whammy, not only do you get to make a donation but you get a subscription to a magazine that will keep you engaged and involved.

How to get involved: Simple, just pick a charity and subscribe.

Other Things to Do

There are quite few other causes you can get involved, here things we think you could do: Donate to Wikipedia, the free encylapedia that anyone can edit. Become a member of The Public Library of Science, a nonprofit organization of scientists and physicians committed to making the world’s scientific and medical literature a freely available public resource. Support the creative commons, using private rights to create public goods: creative works set free for certain uses. Get involved with the Attention Trust an organization dedicated to protecting your attentional data. Try playing some serious games that could have real political and social impact. Last, but not least, you can find one of the many charities out there worth your time and money.