With Christmas quickly approaching, people are starting to stress about what gifts to get their friends/family/significant others/dogs. Everyone wants that present that has just enough meaning, but doesn’t cost too much, because we’re college students and even though we love our friends, we’re ballin’ on a budget. To help everyone out, I decided to make a list of my five favorite companies, whose gifts aren’t just perfect for anyone that may be on your list, but that also give back to someone that you would never think about. All of the companies and small businesses on this list have some sort of cause attached to them that they support, making them the perfect go-to gift.
1. Love Your Melon
There could not be a more perfect gift to give in the middle of winter than a soft, warm beanie from Love Your Melon. In addition to its iconic beanies, the store has baseball caps for those of us who live in areas where it is over 60 degrees in the middle of December (cough, central Texas, cough). Love Your Melon is a company that supports the “one for one” policy that lots of charitable companies have adopted. One hat purchased provides a hat to a child battling cancer. With the help of college students from 327 campuses (and growing), Love Your Melon is able to present hats directly to children’s hospital rooms and homes. Fifty percent of every purchase from LYM is donated to the Pinky Swear Foundation and CureSearch. If you decide to make a purchase, check in your cart to see if your college campus has a crew that you can choose to support, so that they can have the opportunity to visit and improve the lives of children battling cancer. Read more about their cause and shop here: http://www.loveyourmelon.com.
2. Faucet Face
Faucet Face, through the sale of colorful glass water bottles, works to provide clean water to remote areas of India, whose residents don’t have access to clean water easily. The purchase of one water bottle provides 100 liters of clean water. If you buy one, two, three or four bottles, they combine a portion of your sales with other customers to make one sand water filter that will be delivered to an area. If you buy five bottles, a complete filter will be donated. Don’t want to just give someone a water bottle? Pair this useful item with your friend’s favorite flavored drink powder or fill the bottle with their favorite small candy! Visit the website: http://faucetface.com.
3. FEED
FEED products are made in under-developed areas like Haiti, Guatemala and Kenya by local artisans under fair-labor condition. In addition to providing jobs to local people, FEED also uses the sale of all of its items to provide meals to people in the countries in which they were produced. Each t-shirt, tote, bracelet and pouch on the FEED website provides a certain number of meals to children in schools in an attempt to make a difference in the overwhelming hunger rates. Shop and support a fantastic cause here: http://www.feedprojects.com
4. Sevenly
Probably the coolest thing about this small business is that it doesn’t support one single cause. Every week, Sevenly highlights a different cause. For the cause of the week, a unique design is created for a range of t-shirts and apparel, and $7 or 7 percent of each sale is donated to the cause. Once a cause’s seven days is over, Sevenly doesn’t stop its support. Previous causes of the week are still on the website and 7 percent of the sale goes to the charity or cause. Check out the awesome cause of the week and lots of awesome artwork here: http://www.sevenly.org.
5. Hand In Hand
Do you have a friend that is always buying new lotions, soaps, scrubs and candles? Well, look no further for the perfect gift for her or him. Hand In Hand gives a bar of soap and a month of clean water to a child in need, for every product purchased from its website. The founders of Hand In Hand recognize the difference that clean water can make for children who don’t have access to it because it allows them to wash their hands and bodies in an environment that is less susceptible to diseases and such. Not only do the products on the Hand In Hand website provide clean water to children in need, they are also very eco-friendly. So head over to the Hand In Hand website, http://www.handinhandsoap.com, to help save the planet from harmful products and help support a child that needs clean water.
There isn't any better gift to give someone close to your heart than one that gives back to someone who needs any one of the basic things that these awesome companies provide. A gift from any of these companies is sure to warm the heart of your loved one once they realize what their gift from you gave to someone else.
