By way of disclosure, let me say that I am an advocate for the following campaign — I don’t want this post to come off like I’m a “sock-puppet” – because I truly believe very deeply in the cause — which is, in fact, a cause to benefit ALL philanthropic campaigns.

Just a little context:

Consider that the amount of money spent on candy alone during the holiday season is greater than the annual budgets of the American Cancer Society, The American Heart Association and Habitat for Humanity combined.

It’s not about reinventing the holiday. It’s about changing the way we look at gift giving and receiving. It’s taking money we usually spend on obligatory gifts with little meaning, and creating gifts of charity that give in multiple ways, to the receiver, the giver, and people who truly need.

There is no question we are in the midst of difficult financial times. And if it has you feeling unsure or uncomfortable this holiday season, imagine how purely difficult it’s becoming for people who already, or are about to, depend on the generosity of others for the things that only a donation can provide.

Please visit the website http://www.redefine-christmas.org and find us on facebook where we’re spreading the word! http://www.facebook.com/RedefineChristmas

Two really great links for this are Justgive.org and changingthepresent.org – ways to give philanthropically online safely. I concur that it is of utmost importance to research a charity – also check out guidestar.org for evaluations. Charity Navigator (already mentioned above) and Guide Star use different algorithms for evaluating charities, so use your good judgment

~ M

~ M

I ended up donating my hair in November 2008 to Pantene Beautiful Lengths. They ended up requiring less hair to make the donation and specifically support women with cancer: http://www.pantene.com/en-US/b.....ngths.jspx

Loads of people don’t understand that donating these days just involves being hooked up to an iv machine for a few hours and is not the painful process it was a few years ago. It only takes one blood sample to get on the registry and it makes such a difference to peoe like me with bone marrow disorders. I see people every single day who are waiting fit donors and completely dependent on transfusions (I was getting 4 bags every week by the end) so please, please consider getting on the registry!!

http://www.bbb.org/charity-rev.....th-fl-1839

I’ve been looking into donating my hair, and found out a few things I thought worth sharing:
1. there are a lot of charities looking for people to donate hair. Many are benefitting people with cancer, but also other disorders causing hair loss, such as kids’ alopecia.
2. different charities have different criteria for the length and quality of hair they accept. Some accept as little as 8″ while for others the minimum is 12″, so it may be worth looking around depending on how much hair you are willing to part with.
3. My hairdresser told me of one charity for which a minimum of 8″ makes one adult wig, while a minimum of 20″ makes 2 kids’ wigs, so it might be useful to look into those kinds of details as well, depending on what you’d like your hair to be used for.