This is exactly as it sounds: a pot for change. If you don’t mind stopping in the middle of a sidewalk or side of the road, pick up loose change that has fallen to the ground. Add your findings to the same pot and after a few months, see how much you have collected. If you’re strapped for cash, spend your findings on a nice meal for your family. If you are fairly stable financially, donate the money (anonymously) to a good cause.
Talk to United State troops. Give An Hour (giveanhour.org) is a nonprofit organization that provides free counseling to soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, including their families. This is a great way to show your support to the military while making space for needed mental health services.
 |
| https://pencilsofpromise.org/ |
Raise money for Pencils of Promise to help build a school in an impoverished country. For more information, visit their website: pencilsofpromise.org.
The Surfrider Foundation is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of the world’s oceans and beaches through conservation, activism, research, and education.
Local chapters of this 19-year-old group work hard testing our ocean’s water, cleaning beaches, campaigning, and visiting our schools for the benefit of all people, and hence marine life. The Surfrider Foundation distributes an excellent leaflet, “20 Ways to Cleaner Oceans and Beaches.” Call 1(800) 743 SURF, or check surfrider.org for a copy.
Volunteer to help build a house through Habitat for Humanity (habitat.org), a nonprofit organization that builds and repairs houses so that families have a safe and affordable place to live. Maybe you’ll even get to meet former President Jimmy Carter and you can hammer up a front porch and discuss world peace together.
For me, the coolest of the online free resource sites is Freecycle (freecycle.org). The Freecycle Network initiation started in Tucson in 2003, when Deron Beal sent out the first email to 30 or so friends and local nonprofits letting them know about the items he had to give away. Freecycle now has 4,738 groups worldwide and an amazing 6,690,000 members. Just think about how many wonderful free treasures have changed hands and the sheer tonnage saved from landfill. Bravo, Mr Beal!
Freecycle’s mission is to save good stuff from the landfill, promote environmental sustainability, and imbue life with the spirit of generosity, creating stronger local communities in the process.
The steps to join a Freecycle group are straightforward. If there isn’t a group in your area yet, you can start one. Once you have joined your local group, you can begin to post messages for what you want and what you have to offer. Freecycle is administered by volunteers and has the advantage of not needing a physical location-Freecycle’s easy-to-use listing website makes it nearly effortless to use. Some posts are for significant items such as computers, bicycles, televisions, stereos, and even cars. Offering your surplus and finding what you need for free are both gratifying experiences, and ultimately, they alleviate a lot of stress on our precious planet.
Solar ovens are inexpensive and easy to use, and you’ll cook for free every time you use one. Since it doesn’t require electricity, fossil fuels, or propane, a solar oven is perfect for your emergency supply kit. They also pasteurize water for drinking. Check out solarovens.org to see the great work this nonprofit is doing with solar ovens in developing countries. Go solar and really worship the sun.
Tucker Hiatt, one of the Bay Area’s most beloved teachers, has been running Wonderfest- a nonprofit science education program-with his own and donated funds since 1997 (Wonderfest.org). The mission is based on the insight, inspired by Voltaire, that “societies will continue to make mistakes as long as long as they continue to misunderstand how the world works. When people comprehend nature and each other, through science, they make smarter decisions about virtually everything: personal and social relationships (psychology), our environment (biology and chemistry), and technology (physics).” Wonderfest promotes the scientific outlook so that mistakes-even atrocities-are gradually relegated to history. Since retiring from teaching, Tucker has devoted himself full time to bringing science to the public in non-school settings. Whenever I’m at an event with him I meet former students of his who have become physicists, engineers, professors-and still talk about how influential he was to them. Now his mission is to expose those of us who didn’t get to have him as a teacher (my words, not his!) to that same sense of inspiration.
Some cool things Tucker and his organization have accomplished:
*Wonderfest has presented hundreds of free (or nearly free) science events for the general public-young and old.
*Wonderfest ran a high school team science competition that gave students $70,000 in prizes and scholarships.
*Wonderfest has rewarded local, public-spirited scientists with $45,000 with it’s Sagan Prize
Whether they’re juggling many balls at once, riding a unicycle or walking on very tall stilts, youth get a chance to shine on stage with the Prescott Circus Theater in Oakland, California. This youth development non-profit provides skill mastery, physical activity, and positive relationships with peers and adults. Their website, prescottcircus.org, goes on to say “the basic principles to succeed in circus (and in life) are : hard work, teamwork, practice, believe in yourself, and never give up.” Donate to the Prescott Circus and you’ll be sure to bring many more smiles to the world.
Redistributing surplus has been the driving force behind many nonprofit organizations serving local communities. One of my favorite initiatives is the Scrounger’s Center for Reusable Art Parts, otherwise known as SCRAP. SCRAP has been operating in an industrial district in San Francisco since 1976. Donations of paper, paint, and all kinds of arty bits and pieces are the mainstay of SCRAP’s inventory. I’ve seen reams of embossed ribbon, plaster casts, tubes of glitter, and circuit boards. They offer art supplies at very low cost and provide free materials for art projects. Go over there and get inspired to create! Learn more information about SCRAP, a source for the resourceful, at scrap-sf.org
Plan an outing with a group of friends that will positively impact society. Instead of just going to the movies again, gang up for the good of all. Together, plant a community garden, help clean up a schoolyard, or volunteer for a nonprofit organization. In the San Francisco Bay Area, there are regular beach clean-up efforts and it is enormously rewarding to see the unmarred beauty beneath the trash. Find your local chapter of “Heal The Bay,” and get a little sun, sand and healing for you, your friends, and your closest coast.
Finding out that handmade rugs are often made by mere children was so shocking to me- I couldn’t imagine what those youngsters have to go through every day. The organization GoodWeave (goodweave.org) was started in 1994 to stop child labor in the rug industry. To help their efforts, check for a GoodWeave label on the rugs you purchase and donate to their One in a Million campaign. GoodWeave’s work has reduced the numbers of children toiling in rug factories, and with your help, they can help end child labor in the world today.
Did you know that many teen girls long to attend their high school prom but end up missing out on the tradition simply because a fancy dress is not in the family budget? Help these girls out by visiting glassslipperproject.org.
Donate your old prom dress and shoes to the delightful folks at the Glass Slipper Project, a nonprofit organization that gives free prom dresses, shoes and accessories to high school juniors and seniors. Generosity can be very glamorous!
For me, the coolest of the online free resource sites is Freecycle (freecycle.org). The Freecycle Network initiation started in Tucson in 2003, when Deron Beal sent out the first email to 30 or so friends and local nonprofits letting them know about the items he had to give away. Freecycle now has 4,738 groups worldwide and an amazing 6,690,000 members. Just think about how many wonderful free treasures have changed hands and the sheer tonnage saved from landfill.
Bravo, Mr Beal!
Freecycle’s mission is to save good stuff from the landfill, promote environmental sustainability, and imbue life with the spirit of generosity, creating stronger local communities in the process.
The steps to join a Freecycle group are straightforward. If there isn’t a group in your area yet, you can start one. Once you have joined your local group, you can begin to post messages for what you want and what you have to offer. Freecycle is administered by volunteers and has the advantage of not needing a physical location-Freecycle’s easy-to-use listing website makes it nearly effortless to use. Some posts are for significant items such as computers, bicycles, televisions, stereos, and even cars. Offering your surplus and finding what you need for free are both gratifying experiences, and ultimately, they alleviate a lot of stress on our precious planet.
Solar ovens are inexpensive and easy to use, and you’ll cook for free every time you use one. Since it doesn’t require electricity, fossil fuels, or propane, a solar oven is perfect for your emergency supply kit. They also pasteurize water for drinking. Check out solarovens.org to see the great work this nonprofit is doing with solar ovens in developing countries. Go solar and really worship the sun.
Tucker Hiatt, one of the Bay Area’s most beloved teachers, has been running Wonderfest- a nonprofit science education program-with his own and donated funds since 1997 (Wonderfest.org). The mission is based on the insight, inspired by Voltaire, that “societies will continue to make mistakes as long as long as they continue to misunderstand how the world works. When people comprehend nature and each other, through science, they make smarter decisions about virtually everything: personal and social relationships (psychology), our environment (biology and chemistry), and technology (physics).” Wonderfest promotes the scientific outlook so that mistakes-even atrocities-are gradually relegated to history. Since retiring from teaching, Tucker has devoted himself full time to bringing science to the public in non-school settings. Whenever I’m at an event with him I meet former students of his who have become physicists, engineers, professors-and still talk about how influential he was to them.
Now his mission is to expose those of us who didn’t get to have him as a teacher (my words, not his!) to that same sense of inspiration.
Some cool things Tucker and his organization have accomplished:
 |
| https://www.musiciansoncall.org/stories/4-moc-moments-that-show-the-proven-effects-of-music/ |
If you’re a musician living in New York City, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Nashville, or Miami, you can volunteer through the nonprofit Musicians on Call (musiciansoncall.org) to deliver live, in-room performances to patients undergoing treatment or unable to leave their beds. Add a dose of joy to a healthcare facility by bringing the healing power of music to people who need it.
 |
| https://www.folkartsrajasthan.org/about |
New York-based Folk Arts Rajasthan (folkartrajasthan.org) and India-based Lok Kala Sagar (LKSS)-meaning “local folk arts society”-are nonprofit organizations joined since 2005 by a shared vision of a thriving and just future for The Merasi people and their unique musical culture. The Merasi of northwestern India carry a powerful legacy of 38 generations but they also carry the burden of the still-enduring caste system. To reclaim an identity as storytellers, the Merasi of Jaisalmer have shed the derogatory caste label Manganiyar, meaning beggars. The name Merasi, instead means musicians, and is a symbol of self-determination.
The FAR-LKSS collaborative approach recognizes that education, preserving this intangible cultural heritage, and achieving social justice for a continually marginalized people are mutually dependent goals.
In the face of obstinate hierarchical norms, FAR and LKSS are together nurturing a generation of ambitious and capable youth with their programs. Significantly, two FAR scholarship girls, Sitara and Mobeena Khan, participated in a 2014 US-based international science conference, after their project won awards at both local and state level in Rajasthan. In February 2015, a troupe of Merasi youth traveled to Mumbai to play in the prestigious Kala Ghoda Arts Festival and exchange cultural activities with students at a variety of schools.
When you turn your clocks back one hour for daylight savings, make sure to spend that extra hour doing something productive. This is like a second chance at tackling the day. What did you need to get done yesterday that you didn’t? Here is one great way to spend that hour: cruise over to myphilanthropedia.org to find your perfect match of an organization to donate to or volunteer with. I learned about this website from a TED Talk and discovered this vital service. Philanthropedia rates verified, financially responsible charities according to how much great work they’re doing. Today, 3,121 experts have participated in Philanthropedia’s research, providing reviews on 767 top nonprofits across 36 causes. I have bookmarked this on my desktop and check in often.
