For the past four years, I have curated an ever-growing list of amazing Gifts that Give Back. My guide has become so popular that I have devoted an entire page on my blog that is updated frequently and features these wonderful organizations and the causes they support. Whether it be fighting hunger, gender inequality or providing educational or income opportunities, there are a ton of ways you can use your buying power as a consumer to do good and make a difference in someone’s life.
Every holiday season, I gather up a list of my most favorite gifts that give back to inspire you to purchase something more meaningful this holiday season and put your money towards a fabulous present that supports a good cause. The products and organizations listed below are just a few that these amazing organizations have to offer. Please visit their website to browse the entire collection. You can also view my extended list of Gifts that Give Back on my blog which also has links to past guides as well.
As you look through the post, you will notice that I included a brief description of each product in the caption. To read it in full or view the image at a larger size, click on the image and it will enlarge. You may also find more detailed information on the organization’s website. I hope you enjoy this year’s guide! If so, please share!
Happy Shopping!
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ABLE
Founded in 2010 by Barrett Ward as a means to bring job opportunities to disadvantaged women and communities reliant on charity, ABLE began as a single collection of scarves made by women in Ethiopia. ABLE has since become a fast-growing lifestyle brand while remaining focused on the company’s mission to employ and empower women who have often overcome extraordinary circumstances. The brand’s beautiful leather bags, handmade jewelry, denim, apparel and shoes are manufactured in the communities ABLE wishes to impact, both locally at the company’s headquarters in Nashville, T.N., and globally in Ethiopia, Mexico and Peru.
All Across Africa
Anchal Project
Here are the top finds for this year’s holidays:
b.a.r.e soaps
b.a.r.e. soaps is an all natural, socially conscious soap & candle company. b.a.r.e stands for “bringing antiseptic resources to everyone”. 20% of proceeds are reinvested in economic development in India and Uganda.
Here are the top 5 picks for the holidays.
Bloom & Give
Bloom & Give sells beautifully handcrafted scarves and bags made in India using techniques passed on from generation to generation. Each product is designed in the US by one of Bloom & Give’s designers, and made in India with love. Bloom & Give donates 50% of their profits to support girls education programs in India through their partner Educate Girls to improve the lives of girls in Rajasthan.
Here are the top five recommended new products for the holidays!
Bird + Stone
Started in 2013 as a fundraiser for a volunteer trip to Kenya, Bird + Stone was founded on the idea that jewelry could be a vehicle for change. Each product is matched with an inspirational phrase and donates 10% to a cause fighting for equality supporting women and girls around the world. Bird + Stone supports social issues including: supporting women’s health, girls’ education, women running for office and fighting climate change. Choose a cause for your loved one!
Boutique Mexico
www.boutiquemexico.com
Boutique Mexico is on a mission to give back to the community by partnering with native artisans in Guerrero, Hidalgo, Puebla, Chiapas, and Oaxaca to help them earn a living and preserve the ancient crafts of weaving and embroidery that have been the creative expression of their communities for generations. Boutique Mexico takes pride in providing one-of-a-kind pieces designed by talented Mexican artisans. Each piece is a modern twist on an ancient crafting technique to create eye-catching, colorful bags that complement any outfit.
Conscious Step
Conscious Step is working to end poverty, one step at a time. Each pair of socks is matched with a leading non-profit and provides quantifiable impact through one of their ten partners. For example, in partnership with Matt Damon’s Water.org, each pair of Water Socks provides 18 months of safe drinking water for someone in need. Conscious Step socks are non-toxic, made with organic cotton and are vegan and Fairtrade certified, so they’re as soft on your skin as they are on the environment.
dignify
dignify helps women shop for excellent quality, meaningful gifts and goods: items that promote dignity, empower humanity, and champion good. dignify’s online boutique sells premium quality, ethically made “kantha” quilts — blankets stitched by hand from layers of sari cloth using a centuries old tradition in Bangladesh. The women who sew dignify’s blankets are the most vulnerable in society: recovering from sexual exploitation or in a high risk environment. Now, they are employed with dignity in safe, loving, and sustainable work, producing beautiful blankets that customers love.
Ecuadane
Ecuadane is a social enterprise started by three sisters who love to travel and share cultures and traditions around the world. Ecuadane sells traditional wool and Alpaca blankets from Ecuador made by native Otavaleños living amidst the Andes Mountains and volcanoes. These soft, warm and beautiful blankets celebrate the customs and traditions of Ecuadorian villagers while each purchase helps support the craftsmen and their families. 10% of the proceeds from the blankets in Ecuador go back to the community.
Give Back Goods
Give Back Goods mission is to create a positive impact on the world with every purchase. Give Back Goods wants to make it easy for people to purchase goods that are eco-friendly, sustainable, ethically sourced and support the people who make them with fair wages and healthy work environments. Each Give Back Good purchase will give 10% back to important grass-roots causes. The products carried at Give Back Goods includes home goods, jewelry, electronics, accessories, toys for children and pets, and more.
Here are some of the top picks for the holidays.(Click on image to enlarge and show product details and price):
Gifts for Good
Gifts for Good serves companies and professionals with high quality goods that people will love to give and love to receive. Their gifts are made by nonprofit or social enterprise partners who make and sell their own products to support their mission. Each product supports one of 40 nonprofit and social enterprise partners tackling the world’s most pressing social, economic, and environmental challenges. Gifts for Good generates impact in over 19 states and 65 countries around the globe.
For this holiday season, here are the top ideas for the holidays:
Love is Project
The #loveisproject connects people around the world through a universal message of LOVE. Empower artisan communities through an ethical supply chain. Each bracelet purchase empowers women around the world. Check out their beautiful bracelets that helps provide an income for women around the world. Price varies per bracelet ($18-$30).
Love Your Melon
Love Your Melon is an apparel brand dedicated to giving a hat to every child battling cancer as well as supporting nonprofit organizations who lead the fight against pediatric cancer. Fifty percent (50%) of profit from the sale of all Love Your Melon products is given to Love Your Melon’s nonprofit partners in the fight against pediatric cancer. To date, Love Your Melon has given over 150,000 beanies to children battling cancer and contributed over $4.7 million to fund cancer research initiatives. Love Your Melon has hats in all different colors and styles. Here are a few below.
Lucky Iron Fish Enterprise
Lucky Iron Fish Enterprise is a certified B-Corporation that sells the Lucky Iron Fish, a small iron cooking tool that infuses your meals with a healthy amount of natural iron to help prevent iron deficiency and anemia. It’s simple to use, and provides a natural source of iron that’s perfect for everyone, especially those with an increased need for iron: athletes, vegetarians, vegans and women. When you buy a Lucky Iron Fish, we give one to a family in need in the developing world (nearly two billion people do not get enough iron causing iron deficiency and anemia). Get iron. Give Iron.
Nomi Network
Nomi Network’s vision is a world without slavery where every woman can know her full potential. Their mission is to create economic opportunities for survivors and women at risk of human trafficking by equipping them with the leadership, entrepreneurship, and production skills to become financially independent. Their programs are currently based in India and Cambodia, with hopes of expansion in the South East. Profits from the sales of these items are reinvested into job creation and market access programs for our women.
Purpose Jewelry
PURPOSE Jewelry is handcrafted by young women escaping human trafficking in India, Uganda and Mexico. The art of jewelry making paired with holistic care ensures every artisan gains dignity and hope for the future. 100% of the proceeds go to our nonprofit, International Sanctuary. Through iSanctuary’s wide range of services young women can begin to heal and grow in mind, body, and soul. It is iSanctuary’s mission to not just sustain victims of modern-day slavery, but to provide the tools and life skills they need to embrace their true identity and worth, and transform into survivors with true freedom.
Top Picks for this holiday season include (Click on image to enlarge and show product details and price):
Sheep Not Goats
Sheep Dreamzzz Baby Blankets are a product of Sheep Not Goats, a US-based charitable organization with 501(c)(3) status. It was founded in 2013 to help the poor in Nicaragua, through employment opportunities, assistance with medical expenses, teaching English and other services, on a farm built by Steve and Sandy Jacoby. The blanket project emerged in 2018 after the Jacobys had their first grandchildren and Sandy decided to teach local women to knit. There are now over 25 women involved; all have young children at home and very limited income opportunities, especially during the current economic and political crisis in Nicaragua. 90% of the profit from each blanket made is given back to the women. Blankets cost $69 each.
Sutisana
Taste of Immokalee
Taste of Immokalee (TOI) is a benefit corporation created and operated by high school students in Immokalee, Florida with the mission to provide students with real world business and leadership skills and ultimately break the cycle of poverty in their community. Under the guidance of mentors and business professionals, students create and sell products using local fresh produce from Immokalee, Florida – one of the poorest communities in America – and use the profits to address social and economic issues in their community. Most recently, the students raised $10,000 for a local distribution center to buy a new delivery truck for those who lost everything to Hurricane Irma. TOI currently sells six products that can be purchased locally in 18 Publix stores and select Neighborhood Organics stores, or purchased online through the Taste of Immokalee website.
Thistle Farms
Thistle Farms is dedicated to helping women survivors of addiction, trafficking, and prostitution find healing, hope, and freedom. Thistle Farms lives into this mission through three integrated paths: In residential communities where women experience healing, restoration, and love without judgement; Through social enterprises where women gain skins, financial independence, and the opportunity to connect with customers and partners globally; and across a coordinated movement of survivors, customers, advocates, and communities collaborating, on innovative ways to deliver justice and challenge the systems that commodify women. Thistle Farms’ signature body and home collections are handmade in Nashville, TN with high quality ingredients, including: the finest essential oils available on the market and healing ingredients like Moringa oil, organic rose geranium, shea butter, and aloe vera.
TO THE MARKET
TO THE MARKET | Survivor-made Goods (TTM) combines the powers of commerce and storytelling to empower the world’s most courageous survivor populations, in the belief that resilience is more powerful than suffering. TTM showcases handmade goods made exclusively by proud and passionate artisans who have overcome the perils of abuse, conflict, and disease. By assisting local partners around the world in bringing these goods “to the market,” we take an active role in equipping the survivor’s they employ with economic independence, while raising awareness of the challenges that they face. Here are two new items for the holidays.
WOLA
For the person who has everything but wants to give something special to those in need
Oxfam
Oxfam is a global movement of people working together to end the injustice of poverty. With 70 years of experience in more than 90 countries, Oxfam takes on the big issues that keep people poor: inequality, discrimination, and unequal access to resources including food, water, and land. We help people save lives in disasters, build stronger futures for themselves, and hold the powerful accountable.
Oxfam Gifts (available online at oxfamgifts.com) offer items that symbolically represent the organization’s lifesaving work. Each purchase is a contribution toward Oxfam’s many programs that help people living in poverty throughout the world. Last year, 22.3 million people benefited directly from Oxfam programs, from emergency response aid following Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, to the 730,000 villagers who now have access to savings and loans opportunities thanks to Oxfam’s efforts.
WhyHunger
Founded in 1975 by the late Harry Chapin and radio DJ Bill Ayres, WhyHunger believes a world without hunger is possible. We provide critical resources to support grassroots movements and fuel community solutions rooted in social, environmental, racial and economic justice. WhyHunger is working to end hunger and advance the human right to nutritious food in the U.S. and around the world. While shopping for the humanitarian, musician, or even tough-to-buy-for family member, look no further thanitems from WhyHunger‘s 33rd annual Hungerthon fundraiser. Proceeds raised go directly to solving hunger for the over 40 million Americans struggling with food insecurity by providing access to nutritious food to all.
World Bicycle Relief
World Bicycle Relief is an innovative organization that brings rugged, specially designed, high quality bicycles to girl students in rural Africa. This holiday season you can give a gift that will change the course of a young girl’s life and give someone special a limited edition t-shirt they’ll want to wear every day. Through the global nonprofit World Bicycle Relief, you can provide a life-changing bicycle for a young student in rural Africa, where youth often walk hours just to get to and from school. Education is essential to ending the cycle of poverty. Bikes help students get to school faster, safe and ready to learn. Cost to donate 1 bike and receive Joy t-shirt: $165 ($147 is tax-deductible):
What a wonderful resource. Thank you for sharing.
So glad you like it! The products are fantastic! This is just the tip of the iceberg. I hope you find some great gifts! 🙂
I did my best to share your great information by posting it to FB.
Oh thank you so much! 🙂 I appreciate it greatly.
What a great gift from you! We, too, try to give in a give back way as it’s getting to the point where we need little.
So glad you like the list Lulu. When I need things or gifts I always try to go through these organizations and purchase what I can from them. My kids get a lot of Christmas gifts that give back. 🙂
This is such good work that you do!
Alison
Oh thank you Alison! This post is always my favorite one to do because I know that it makes a difference!
Lots of good new ones, Nicole! I will peruse these for gift ideas!
Thank you Lexi and wonderful that you like the list!
I always look forward to your holiday guide Nicole. Thanks so much for introducing me to new organizations doing good in the world.
Your comment makes me smile LuAnn! I’m so glad! I love these kinds of organizations and the lovely products they provide.
Interesting products Nicole. Admire and appreciate the effort you put into this guide. Thank you.
Thank you Madhu! I hope you are doing well!
All well, thank you Nicole.
THANK YOU SOOO MUCH FOR MAKING THIS LIST AND SHARING!!!!!! I actually cried reading the story of one company, then immediately ordered a bunch of things from it!! Talk about feeling good about spending money!
I am so glad you like it! I also have a permanent page of Gifts that Give Back and also interviews of some of the founders of these organizations. The page is located here in case you are interested in checking it out for even more ideas! https://thirdeyemom.com/gifts-that-give-back/
That makes me so happy that you loved this list. These companies are doing so much good around the world!