There was an episode on Seinfeld, where George Costanza is extremely angry about receiving a "donation for charity" instead of a christmas gift, so he takes revenge by making up his own charity and handing out fake donations as gifts to people.

I was reminded of that episode while designing "thank you" greeting cards for my organization. The cards are handed out to people who donate money for a project as a gift to a loved one.

Donating for a cause in the name of someone instead of giving them a gift is a very noble idea. I knew it could work well (in concept) but it was only in the last few weeks that I witnessed how enriching the whole experience can be.


My organization participated in some Alternative Gift Fairs and I went to one as a representative. The event was held in Takoma Park, MD and about two dozen organizations set up their tables with interesting posters and articles and waited anxiously for visitors to come and learn about the most pressing problems in the world and what these organizations (and through them these visitors) can do to make a difference!

So here's how it worked. As soon as the visitors entered, they were given a gift form with a list of the participating organizations and their "gift options".

They walked by each table and browsed through the displays and talked to the representatives about the organizations work (in as much detail as the visitor liked) and picked up a handful of brochures and cards to "learn more" later.


There was Ashoka's HeroRat.org, an organization that trains rats to sniff out landmines to save people's lives; there was Las Pacayas giving academic scholarships to girls as an incentive to attend school; there was Internews Network giving out wind-up radios to refugees in Pakistan and Chad... among many others.

Surprisingly, we were the only environmental organization at the fair, and an international one at that. In an attempt to broaden the impact of gift giving to include sustainable development projects and the environment, my organization offered three environmental business training projects to support youth and women entrepreneurs to start and run successful businesses in Africa as Alternative Gifts.

Our first gift option was to help the youth in Kibera slums produce mini solar panels that can charge cell phones or any electronic device; The second was to help women make low-cost briquets (small round discs made out of agricultural waste such as leaves, paper, sawdust...) that can be used instead of charcoal as a cheaper, healthier and more eco-friendly fuel alternative; and the third was to provide renewable energy training to individuals wanting to learn how to convert waste into fuel.

While the work done by each organization was impressive, I was taken aback by the large number of visitors who attended the gift fair. Imagine, spending a good half of your regular weekend in some charity gift fair! How does one pick a fair to attend? Where do they hear about it? What motivates them to get off the couch on a Sunday morning and drag their entire family to learn about different social issues? I talk about wanting to do a lot of things, but I never get around to them unless I'm forced to, and somehow assumed that it was okay to be that way because there are a lot of people in this world who are as lazy and unpersevering as me. But, now I feel terrible after seeing how little I actually do in comparison with a lot of other active and socially conscious people around me.

I am yet to find out how much money we made during the event and don't think I will until the end of next month. I hear the gift fair made over a hundred thousand dollars in gift donations last year.

Anyway, now that it is all over and done with, I ask myself if I would honor someone with a charity donation on their behalf... and I know I will not! At least not as a gift. I spent a lot of money donating to organizations at the fair, but realized the picking a cause to donate to is a personal decision that involves not just money, but a lot of emotions and a certain set of beliefs. It's best done on your own and for your own satisfaction than as a gift, unless you are very sure that your loved ones will be pleased with your donating money to a specific cause as a gift to them.

I also find that making a donation a "gift" in a way "objectifies" the social issue, even though it does benefit it at some level. It also encourages big-headedness or self-aggrandizing. I am also not convinced that it serves as a long term solution. That said, I like the idea of providing "training" as a gift, like my organization does. Business training is one that will last a lifetime and will continue to multiply as entrepreneurs share their success with their families and communities. It could make a good "gift" but more than that it is something I would donate to anyway, not just as a gift.

Moreover, I love giving and receiving gifts. Even thinking about tearing a gift-wrap open to see what's inside gives me goose-bumps! =) But, what I took from this gift fair experience is really that I would like to put a conscious effort into buying gifts that are purposeful. Buying a gift takes up a lot of time and energy. It only makes sense to mitigate the damage that choosing the wrong gift does (both in terms of product wastage as well as the heartache it causes) by picking useful, eco-friendly gifts. I know that for every giftable product in this world, there is an eco-friendly alternative. So it's not hard to make that choice.

Come to think of it, the overall environmental impact of gift-giving holidays (like Christmas and diwali) is huge. We are not just wasting money, but leaving a massive ecological footprint. Right from the millions of chopped down trees, to home decorations, to megawatts of power usage from single-use flashing lights, to wrapping papers, bouquets, ... the list is endless.

But, it's motivating to see people adopting new Christmas traditions and willing to make slight adjustments from gift-giving to the moment of celebration, to make their holidays special for their families, friends while honoring the earth and its people =) Happy Holidays!